Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER

• Student Activities: Journal Entries, i.e., information to prepare for your Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER.

There are 8 REQUIRED class participation activities. The each of the following activities is designed to assist student leaders in the active preparation toward the Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER.

• Student Leaders will choose ONE (1) social work concentration topic area from the following list, as a Population and Community of Interest:

• Aging
• Children & Families
• Physical Health
• Mental/Behavioral Health
• Substance Use OR
• Community & Administrative Practice

Emerging sub-topics may include:

• Intimate Partner Violence/Domestic Violence
• Child Abuse and/or Neglect
• Older Adult/Elder Abuse and/or Neglect
• Physical Disease
• Poverty/Wage Gap/Wealth Gap
• Housing Insecurity/Homelessness
• Food Insecurity/Food Deserts/Hunger
• Mental Disorders/Toward Mental and Behavioral Wellness
• Human Trafficking/Human Enslavement
• Substance Use Disorders/Addictions and Dual Diagnosis (Substance Use Disorders and other Mental Disorders)
• Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) and Adverse Community Environments (ACEs), also known as, “A Pair of ACEs”

=================================================================

• On your own, All Student Leaders will create, document, and maintain a Journal /Notebook about what they learn from Activities 1 through 8.
• (OPTIONAL) You may also document some of your discoveries from the Activities on the Weekly Discussion Board

**See the details below for each activity. Addresses Competencies 7 and 9.

Community Assessment (defined): This is the process of identifying the strengths, assets, needs and challenges of a specific community. Assets refers to the skills, talents, and abilities of individuals, as well as the resources that local institutions contribute to the community. Local institutions may include political, religious, educational, recreational and/or youth organizations; community, civic and service groups; local businesses; nonprofit organizations and volunteer groups. (www.ohioline.osu.edu, 2020).

A community assessment involves (Butterfoss, 2007):

1. An evaluation of the current situation in a community
2. A judgment of what the preferred or desired situation in that community would be, and
3. A comparison of the actual and desired situation for the purpose of prioritizing concerns

A community assessment is usually performed early in the development of a collaborative coalition to better understand the community and decide how the collaborative coalition might best address its concerns (Butterfoss, 2007).

Needs Assessment	Community Assessment
The focus of the needs assessment is limited to discrepancies between what is and what should be in a given community. This type of assessment forces a community to focus on its deficiencies and ignore what it is doing well (Kretzmann & McKnight, 1993)	The community assessment seeks to empower community members by allowing them to take ownership of the issues and concerns affecting the health of their community, instead of providing them with a prescription of what their community needs.

• Student Activity 1:  Community Needs Assessment – Student leaders will consider and make written journal entries about the demographic (population description), geographic, epidemiological (causes of health problems and death) and other data about your chosen population and community, by examining U. S. Census reports, Healthy People 2020 data, and other data sources. Using this collective data, describe your population and community of choice, its’ needs and identified problems. Compare your community’s data to state or national data. Make written journal entries of your findings.

Questions to consider:

1. What is going to be assessed?
2. What is already known?
3. What data needed to be collected?
4. How and by whom will the data be collected? (You, as the student leader, will be the data collector)
5. How and by whom will the data be analyzed? (You, as the student leader, will be the data analyzer)

• Student Activity 2: Windshield Survey – Student leaders will select and “visit” the chosen population and community of interest in a vehicle (or virtually) and reflect on community’s assets and areas of need based on “visual” observations. Student leaders will make written journal entries about these observations.
• Student Activity 3: Mapping of Community Assets, Needs and Service Gaps – Using the textbook and other course materials, student leaders will develop a “chart” of the community assets, needs and gaps in services, based on the observations and empirical research, thus far in the semester. Student leaders will make written journal entries about this “chart”, highlighting what’s being done to respond to the needs and what resources are locally available to meet these needs.
• Student Activity 4: Identifying Major Findings – Student leaders will expand on their developed knowledge from previous activities and will do additional explorations including research from peer-reviewed journals and books, and possibly by virtually attending community meetings or conducting virtual interviews. Student leaders will begin to make some conclusions and will make written journal entries regarding these findings and conclusions.
• Student Activity 5: Assess an Organization – Based on the chosen population and community of interest, student leaders will create questions for exploring an actual/a real community based, human service, or faith based organization. Student leaders will review the organization’s website and other organizational information, and will make written journal entries about this organizational assessment; e.g., what is its’ mission, vision, and guiding principles, etc.?
• Student Activity 6: Key Informant/Community Partner Interview – Based on the chosen population and community of interest, student leaders will find and conduct a twenty (20) minute phone or virtual interview with a social worker who works for a community based, human service, or a faith based organization regarding the work that they do, and its’ relevance and implications for social work practice. For confidentiality, DO NOT use the interviewee’s (the social worker’s) actual name and organization in your paper. First, ask the interviewee for permission to interview them and to take notes. Inform the interviewee that you are a UTA graduate social work student who is doing a course project regarding Macro Social Work Practice with organizations. The student leaders CANNOT interview this Social Work Professor/Instructor for this activity. The student leaders will make written journal entries about this interview.
• Student Activity 7: Public Service Announcement – Student leaders will find and review a public service announcement (from television/radio/or social media), related to their population and community of interest. The student leader will make written journal entries about this Public Service Announcement.
• Student Activity 8: Advocacy– Using all of knowledge obtained from the previous activities and additional research, student leaders will develop or suggest tools or methods for advocating on behalf/being a champion of an identified population and community of interest. Student leaders will make written journal entries about these tools or methods.

==================================================================

• Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER and Affirmation Verification Statement. Your FINAL PAPER will be a WORD document and will be DUE on to Canvas via Unicheck on Saturday, 05/01/21 before 11:59 PM (CST), and will be worth 25 grading points.

Addresses Competency 7: Assess Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities, and Competency 9: Evaluate Practice with Individuals, Families, Groups, Organizations, and Communities

The Goal of the Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER is to thoroughly explore and share research findings about a specific topic, as it relates to a specific population, community, and geographic location, e.g., What is happening in south Dallas regarding racial, social, gender, economic and environmental injustices, as evidenced by, food deserts, housing insecurity, health care inequities, education inequities, gender gap, wealth gap, values gap, etc., in the face of structural and systemic racism, sexism, classism, elitism, etc.?.

Students’ research must rely ONLY evidence-based literature review, from journals and books; along with the student’s activities journal and interview. A thorough research assessment using course materials and empirically based information is required. 

As a macro or micro practitioner, a community research assessment can help to better respond to the population’s needs and to contribute to our major ethical responsibilities of social justice and social change. In addition to the course materials, readings, weekly modules, and discussion boards, the Required Activities 1 -8 mentioned above are designed to guide all student leaders through various components of topic exploration.

Elements of the Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER:

1. The purpose and scope of the assessment
2. Define the goals and objectives of the assessment
3. Data collection methods (i.e., journaling; interviewing; literature review, etc.)
4. The selected or designed valid and reliable instruments and procedures for data collections (e.g., journaling; interviewing; literature review, etc.)
5. Pilot testing and timeline of instruments and procedures (i.e., August – December 2020)
6. Data collection and analysis (i.e., August – December 2020)
7. Findings and conclusions
8. Relevance and implications for Social Work Practice

Getting Started: Choose One (1) social work concentration area from the following list:

• Aging
• Children & Families
• Physical Health and Wellness
• Mental/Behavioral Health and Wellness
• Substance Use OR
• Community & Administrative Practice

For the Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER, student leaders must have already chosen One (1) social work concentration area from the following list: 

• Aging
• Children & Families
• Physical Health and Wellness
• Mental/Behavioral Health and Wellness
• Substance Use OR
• Community & Administrative Practice

The Community Research Assessment FINAL PAPER will be analyzed and organized into a written, double spaced WORD document, with APA style formatting, with no more than and no less than 10 content pages (Not including the cover page, the abstract or the reference pages), and 8 research references, and will be posted on Canvas Learning Management System (LMS) via Unicheck (plagiarism screener).

**DO NOT do a slide show presentation, i.e., NO Microsoft PowerPoint, Prezi, Google Slides, etc.