Civic Engagement Project Assignment | Homework Help Websites
PS355–Winter 2019
Civic Engagement Project
Assignment
The core of this assignment is for you to practice “engaging yourself and engaging your civic community.” Your goal should be multi-layered – to bring change in one social issue that is of concern to you in your community, to develop your knowledge and skills related to civics, and to challenge yourself to reach outside of the classroom to learn and then bring your knowledge back to the classroom to share with your classmates.
You will need to (1) choose and research one substantial social issue at Western Oregon University or in your surrounding community, (2) define a problem found within the issue, and (3) devise and implement a local solution to that problem. If the type of project you choose does not allow for implementation during this quarter, you must submit a detailed proposal of how your project would be implemented with additional time.
You will present your project to the class (a) briefly in Week 4 to gain feedback (January 28th), and (b) the complete project at the end of the quarter (classes during Week 9 and 10 of the quarter, plus on final exam day if needed). In addition, you will need to turn in progress reports and hold brief meetings with me to discuss your efforts. You may work alone or in a group (if you work in a group, you will receive a group score). You will have a great deal of latitude in the project you choose. However, you will work closely with me in planning your actions, and determining what is sufficient progress based on the project and problem you choose.
As you begin work on the project keep the following questions in mind:
- What may prevent progress or help you succeed, and how can you plan for these challenges?
- Who will you need to work with (who are the stakeholders and what are their interests)?
- What will be most effective to change behavior?
Grading
Grades will be determined by the amount and quality of work you complete, not necessarily completing the project, as there is a time limitation of just one quarter. However, the average amount of time that should be spent on the project should be at least 40 hours (4 hours a week) as the assignment is 50% of the class grade. The 40 hours includes the time needed to write the Design, Project Reports, and Project Summary. In addition, you will be assessed on how well your project changes behavior. Therefore, you need to establish criteria for assessing the effectiveness of your project in consultation with me. You should focus on a realistic and pragmatic project design, and reasonable steps to implement your ideas. In addition, you must demonstrate increasing knowledge about the issue and effective measures. Discuss this with me if you have any questions – and we will discuss it in depth when I give approval for your project.
Assignments submitted should be of high quality (typed, double-spaced, 1 inch margins, spell checked and proof read, citations included, etc.)
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Assignment Components
The Civic Engagement assignment is worth up to 50% (500 points) of your total class score. The 500 points are divided according to the following steps. In addition, you will present your project to the class (and the community if it fits) worth up to 100 points.
- Project “Problem” (10 points) – a short (one paragraph, no more than 50 words) definition of the issue area you have picked and the problem you have identified that needs to be addressed.
- Initial Design / Data Collection and Analysis–(50 points) – a 4-5 page document that
(a) defines the socialissue you have chosen,
(b) provides background research on the issue to identify the “problem” (2-3 pages). The background research should include citations in the text and at least 4-5 annotated sources you have researched that discuss the history, stakeholders, policy responses taken, needs, etc., provide statistics and relevant facts as a background to defining the problem.
(c) identifies 3-4 goals you want to achieve, and
(d) discusses an initial policy response you plan implement.
In addition, you need to provide, and
(e) defines data that you plan to gather, an explanation of why you want to gather this data, method(s) for gathering your data, and a preliminary discussion of the techniques you will use to analyze and interpret your data.
- Timeline and Assessment Measures – (15 points) – You need to provide a
(a) project timeline that documents the steps you plan to take and when they will/must be completed (how you plan to spend the 40 required hours),
(b) a list of “effectiveness assessment measures” that define how will you gauge the “success” of your project, and
(c) a list ofstakeholder (experts and/or contacts in the community) you will meet with to obtain background information and/or to give recommendations to, as well as a very brief explanation of why you picked these individuals.
The easiest process to follow would be a standard policymaking design (define the problem, set an agenda, design your plan, implement and then monitor compliance/performance).
Student Name
Course Name
Instructor’s Name
Date of Submission
College student who can’t afford buying enough food is the social issues I will address in this project. This has become the issue of concern for many educational institutions since the numbers are increasing every year.
According to (Sifferlin, 2014) more than 59 percent of the university students in the western Oregon University are not able to afford food. This explain the situation has being getting worse as the time goes on. Inability of the student to afford food in university is associated with adverse impacts. Some of the negative effects of inability of the university students to afford food include the following: poor academic performance and depression (Sifferlin, 2014).Poor academic performance affects the students negatively because they spend most of the time looking for the good jobs to cater for food. These students have limited time to concentrate in their studies. This post threat to their academic goals since most of them is forced to repeat course due to failure to meet the expectations of the university.
As result of academic failure the student undergoes depression since they do have enough funds to pay for the courses they are forced to repeat. This peels more pressure to the students to think hard on how they will get food as they peruse they academic journey. It’s stressing for the students to keep on thinking where they will get their food on the following day.
In addition to that there are challenges of the students buying unhealthy foods since they are not able to purchase balanced diet food. Unhealthy food has serious problems to the university students because most of them end up suffering from food associated healthy problems which include: overweight, diabetes among others. The university students are not able to buy fruits, vegetables and the meant required in the daily diet. Unhealthy students spend good time attending the hospitals instead of studying making their academic performance to become worse.
University student are not able to afford foods due to the following reasons: the number of the students from the low income families are not able to afford food since the parent are not able to support them financially. The students have to look for the ways of surviving in the university on their own. Some of the strategies the students employ through skipping of the meals, having only one meal in day. Others look for the part time to put food on the table.
The first generation of the students of the immigrant are the currently at the university level. Most immigrants’ families are still struggling to stabiles in United States. The instability of the parents is transferred to the students since they have to work to feed their families and study at the same time. Also the there are many students from developing nations who are studying in western Oregon university. This has brought on board many students who are not finally stable increasing the number of the students who are able to afford food.
The cost of living is increasing every day in United States student have not left in this trend they have to cope with the increased prices for the communities like any other American. The prices of the food within the western Oregon University are not affordable to many of the students (Dewey, 2018). The students have to stay hungry due to the high cost of the food within the university promises.
Most of the university students do not have the experience to budget their expenses. Many of the students lack the basic skills which required spending their monies in the right way. They put other things as their priority in their budget resulting to misuse of the funds. University Students concentrating in purchasing electronics such expensive phones rather than buying basic like foods. The limited resources end up being spent within is short time making it difficult for the students to afford foods toward the end of the semester. Other university students engage in activities such as excessive drinking of the beer without proper budgeting. These poor spending habits lead them to become broken and unable to afford the foods.
The cost of education is high for many students; this makes payments of feesand buying of the books first priority to many. All the money is spent on the tuition fees remaining with very little for the students to spend on food. The financial burden for the students it’s too high to bear which makes food second priority (KIMBERLY YAVORSKIJUL 6, 2017). Also the cost of the accommodation increases the pressure on the university students to go without food.
Most of the university students are not eligible for the food stamps. This has highly contributed to the many of them going without food for hours during the study at western Oregon University. Food stamps are only available to the children who are below the age of eighteen and also the old people who are not able to afford food (Wilde, 2012). Most of the university students are between 18 and 49 years which mean they are out the brackets of the food stamps. The only proportions of the university students who benefits out of the food stamps are the students with disability. Others do not qualify for this aids hence majority going hungry at university level.
Despite the availability of the incentives from the university to provide the students with the financial aids there is still problems of food affordability. This is because the numbers of the students is increasing every year. High number of the students reduces the allocation per student increasing the inability for them to purchase enough food. The number of the students is increasing since international students in are taking the scholarships and personal interest to study at the western Oregon university.
Food pantry refers to the agents and organizations which provide foods to people who are not able to afford food for themselves. Food pantry provides food to the people for free since they are facing food insecurity. The food provided by the food pantry is parked in the canes ready for consumption. Food pantry is sources of the healthy and nutritious foods in United States. Additionally food pantry offer nutrition education to public. The food pantry agent can be in fixed location or mobile. Food pantries work hand in hand with the foodbank to ensure there is steady supply of the food to the needy people.
Food pantry will play critical role in addressing the problems of the students who are not able to afford the food stuff in in western Oregon University. Food pantries is supposed work in partnership with the western Oregon university to ensure the entire student have access to the food (Cady, 2014). Food pantries are supposed to be established in the university compound where the students will be taking the meals for free. This strategy will solve the problems of hunger in the western Oregon University.
In addition to that the food pantry should create the awareness of their existence with the western Oregon University. The high levels of awareness among the student will increase the number of students eating in the food pantry. The food pantry should encourage more students to use their services so that the challengeable of the food affordability within the western Oregon University is solved.
References
Cady, C. L. (2014). Food insecurity as a student issue. . Journal of College & Character, 265-272.
Dewey, C. (2018). The hidden crisis on college campuses: Many students don’t have enough to eat. Washington : The Washington Post .
KIMBERLY YAVORSKIJUL 6, 2. (2017). THE COLLEGE STUDENTS WHO ARE STARVING IN SILENCE. California: pacific standard .
Sifferlin, A. (2014). New Worry for College Students: Food Insecurity. Desa Park City,: TIME Healthland.
Wilde, P. ( 2012). “The New Normal: The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)”. Am. J. Agr. Econ, 325–331.
