Assignments copyrighted by the course faculty.

Writing Assignments: For the course, students will submit a three-part assignment. Teams of three (3) are to develop a voter engagement project, including an assessment, plan, intervention, and poster presentation. Students may pick their own team members. There must be at least three (3) team members no more than 4. No student can complete the assignment alone. 

 

Writing Assignment 1: Community Voting Assessment & Stakeholder Interviews (CO 6, 7, 8, 9) | 4-6 pages |40 points

The first part of the voter engagement assignment will include a community voting assessment. Teams will write a clear statement of the problem based on the social problem identified by your team. 

1. Arena: Identify an agency or community in which voter engagement is a concern.  The agency or community may or may not be connected to a current field placement.  The teams will need to explore a specific location to define the issues associated with voting.

Describe the agency/ community in which the voting issues occur.  Define the possible goals of the agency/ community related to voting.

 

 

2. Problem Analysis:  Teams will identify 1-3 issues associated with voting practices relevant to your chosen agency/ community (e.g., voter suppression, access to the ballot, absentee ballot, access to polling places, and registration).   You are asked to develop a clear assessment of voter engagement in relation to the issues identified by your team. Speculate about the etiology of these issues.  (This assessment will need to be very specific and supported by the literature.)

 

3. Population: Briefly introduce the population of focus. Teams will discuss the people (population) within their agency/community who are affected by voting or interested in voting issues.  These issues may affect a diverse group of people, but there is most likely a group that the problem disproportionately affects.   Who are they? What are their characteristics?  In addition, using national voting data describe the likely voting trends for this group.  (Tip: look into U.S. Census data and PEW Research Center).

 

 

4. Stakeholder Interview: Each group will also interview 2 (two) stakeholders interested in and or affected by voter engagement issues.  Team members can decide how to divide up interview duties (i.e., scheduling the interviews, developing the questions, and conducting the interviews). Students then critically reflect on what was learned from the stakeholders about voter engagement. In your critical reflection, answer the questions:  How does your interview inform your project? What were you surprised to learn? Teams should develop a list of (2-4) questions prior to the interviews. Please include the questions at the end of the assignment. 

 

5. APA style for academic references is required. Be sure to designate one (1) team member should submit the assignment. Review Netting et al., 2017, Chapters 1 & 4 for additional information and background.

 

 

Writing Assignment # 2

Macro Planned Change Project: CO 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9) | 10-12 pages | 70 points

 

For the second part of the voter engagement, assignment teams will build upon their voter engagement assessment. Teams must deploy an intervention to address agreed-upon voting issues (s) identified in Assignment 1.  (Tip: include photos of team members delivering the intervention).

 

Teams must also identify the specific changed approach that best describes your intervention (policy, program, project, personnel, or practice via community organizing, community education, needs assessments).   

 

The final document should be 10-12 pages double-spaced. (One point will be counted off your grade for each additional page beyond 12; Title page and reference pages are NOT included in the page limit). Use the American Psychological Style Manual (APA) (headings for each section one-inch margins, Times New Romans style and 12-point font are required). Use at least 5 scholarly references to build your case for the intervention. Your paper should follow this outline:

 

• Summarize your problem analysis from Assignment 1 – Cite relevant literature on both the target population and the stated problem (theory, research, evaluation, and practice findings); supporting data, relevant historical incidents, and potential barriers to problem resolution; include target population perspectives. (This sections should be about  250 words )

 

• Describe in more detail the agency/community in which the intervention will occur.  If you have selected an agency, provide their mission statement, and briefly describe the services provided.  Also,   provide documentation of agency approval (e.g., an email from field supervisor).  If you have selected a community, describe their organizational structure. Next, list agency staff or community leaders according to ways they could participate in addressing the voting issue.  Then describe what role the social work change agent (each team member) will play in the planned change intervention. (Tip: Be sure to note team member roles in your Gantt chart.)

 

• Discuss each system’s (agency/ community) readiness for change – Include openness to change, anticipated or actual response, available resources, and outside opposition.

 

• State your change approach (policy, program, project, personnel, or practice) and why your team selected this approach, including political climate, interpersonal factors, resource considerations, and the likelihood of success. Be sure to discuss your planned change intervention, specifically. See pages 304-308 in the Netting et al., (2017) text for guidance.

 

• Provide a rationale for the strategies and tactics you would use in the intervention. Also, outline a specific recruitment plan to attract participants. Examples of strategies could include a “dine and register” event, “election 101” forums and registration, and voting parties. Also, see pages 309-326 in the Netting et al. (2017) text for guidance.

 

• State goals and objectives that could be used to evaluate your intervention then develop at least one goal with two outcome objectives.  Select one outcome objective and develop three process objectives and one set of activities.

 

• Based on your analysis of the systems and change approach, state a hypothesis of etiology (working hypothesis), and an intervention hypothesis. See pages 270-272 in the Netting et al., (2017) text for guidance.

 

• Gantt Chart: provide a table that outlines activity completion, the person responsible, and the timeframe for completion of the activity. Each team member should have specific responsibilities to be completed by specific dates. See example on Netting et al., 2017, page 345.

 

• Intervention Evaluation Plan: Describe the expected benefits received by the client population involved in the intervention. Teams should create an informal evaluation tool (with no more than 5 questions) that will be used to evaluate the current intervention.  Discuss why you choose the questions to be a part of your evaluation and why they appropriate for your target population/ issue. (Tip: Use what you know about individualized rating scales to create your evaluation tool.)

 

Writing Assignment 3: Poster Presentation & Peer Evaluation (CO 6, 7, 8, 9) | 100 points

 

The third part of the voter engagement assignment is the Poster Presentation, and peer evaluation outlined below. Your team poster will be presented at the May 2020 Social Work Poster Symposium. All team members must attend the symposium.  In addition, each team member should submit within MyClasses peer evaluation forms.

 

 

• Poster Presentation:  Your poster should consist of one PowerPoint slide (details provided in separate handout). On this poster, teams should include:  including participants' results.  (Tip: Dress professionally for your presentation.)
  • Description of the voter engagement issue
  • Description of agency/ community (relevant people of influence)
  • Description of deployed Intervention (your planned change project)
  • Intervention Evaluation Results (Based on responses to the intervention evaluation, what progress was made towards achieving the goals and objectives of your intervention?)
  • Lessons Learned by team members
• The PowerPoint slide will be submitted in MyClasses after the symposium.

 

• Peer Evaluation Form: Complete the peer evaluation form for every team member.

Be sure to provide specific comments and examples to support the rating. Every team member will be able to see the comments on the evaluation- see form below