Demonstrate developing analytical skills regarding community engagement and creating interventions to address unmet community needs. Students will write a focused 5 to 6-page, double-spaced paper discussing a population of interest and social issue (e.g. long-term care for frail elders; child care and single working parents; domestic violence and immigrant women) within an arena (a community in which the student lives, has field, works, or volunteers). The paper will:

    • identify the social problem using supporting literature from scholarly sources;
    • analyze how dynamics of power, privilege and oppression influence and maintain this
      social problem; and
    • develop a strategy to address this problem within the specific context of the chosen
      community or population; and
    • explain why this problem needs to be addressed using the social work values of social,
      economic, and/or environmental justice.

Briefly present an organization and summarize some problem/issue/challenge that the organization seeks to address using evidence to support their description.

Analyze how dynamics of power, privilege and oppression create, support or inhibit the resolution of the challenge. This will entail identifying factors internal and external to the organization (staff, service users, limited resources, municipal policies, etc.) that contribute to the issue.

Identify the role of the social worker as a change agent in addressing this challenge and identify the organization’s readiness to change, which includes specifying existing (internal and external) barriers and supports.

Identify three possible alternative change interventions and explain which of these they consider to be the optimal choice. They must justify this choice using social work values of social, economic, and environmental justice.

Provide an evaluation strategy to assess the effectiveness of the intervention.