Homeless Foster Youth in SPA-6 Los Angeles

Community Issues Paper – Part 1 (50 pts.) DUE: April 11, 2017
This paper will help to facilitate your understanding of macro issues that are relevant within communities. You will be broken into groups to identify a social welfare
issue that affects children, youth and/or families within the community. Choose an issue that your group agrees and has a particular interest in (e.g. youth violence,
homelessness, elder abuse, domestic violence, immigration, gangs, educational services, etc). After your issue has been identified, each member of the task group will
produce an individual paper.

In your individual paper, you will explore the impact of the problem, an assessment of the community, identification of any responding agencies and their effectiveness
in addressing the issues. The issue you choose should not be unique to one community, therefore a literature review will be required utilizing current (within last 10
years) texts and peer reviewed journal articles, as you respond to the questions below. A minimum of 8 “peer reviewed” citations (not including internet websites) will
be required. Be sure to address relevant factors of race, class, ethnicity, SES, gender, sexual and gender identity, age, disability, and other factors related to
social justice as you analyze the issue.

Websites can only be used for statistical data. Statistics utilized to describe the problem, and/or community, need to be within the last 5 years.

A. Problem Statement – Begin your paper with a clear, one sentenceproblem statement that describes the issue of concern. Please be as specific as possible. This
should include identification of the problem, population and arena. Refer to the following link for help with this: http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-
contents/analyze/analyze-community-problems-and-solutions/define-analyze-problem/main

B. Brief Elaboration – After the problem statement, write approximately 1 paragraph that elaborates, in more detail, the description of the problem and your
reason(s) for why this is a problem within your community.

C. Description of the Community/Arena– http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/describe-the-community/main This
should include (an explanation of each of the following categories can be found in the above link):
1. Physical aspects.
a. Location
b. Geographical boundaries
c. Infrastructure.
d. Physical characteristics
i. Condition of housing and other buildings.
ii. Commercial areas.
iii. The types and location of industrial facilities.
iv. Open space and greenery.
v. Air and water.
2. Patterns of settlement, commerce, and industry.
3. History over time: Origin and evolution over time specific to your community
4. Community leaders, formal and informal.
a. Identify by name
5. Community culture, formal and informal.
6. Existing groups (Neighborhood Associations, Watch Groups, etc.).
7. Existing institutions.
8. Economics.
9. Government/Politics.
10. Social structure.
11. Attitudes and values.
12. Any relevant statistics related to the problem (may be via- Public records and archives).
13. Describe “Key Informant” interviews (Individual/group) as well as any direct or participant observations that you conducted to gather relevant information. Be
specific with contact names, agency, role in community, etc. and/or locations.
14. Community demographics (community refers to the geographical arena).
a. Gender
b. Racial and ethnic background
c. Age. Numbers and percentages of the population in various age groups
d. Marital status
e. Family size
f. Education
g. Income
h. Employment – Both the numbers of people employed full and part-time, and the numbers of people in various types of work
i. Location – Knowing which groups live in which neighborhoods or areas can help to recruit participants in a potential effort or to decide where to target
activities

D. Description of the Problem from a General Perspective: using peer reviewed journal articles give:
1. Description: Give a description of the identified problem and how it is reflected in the literature and data. This will expand on your brief elaboration above.
Use specific data or statistics as available.
2. Potential Causal factors and contributing factors: (grounded in the literature).

E. Impact of Problem on Community: In your discussion re: the impact of the problem, address the following:
1. Describe how populations, as well as the specific community are affected. Use literature and local data, if
available, to discuss the impact on the community. This may include individuals, families, communities,
resources, community reputation, tourism, economy, etc. The following link will assist in gathering your answers for this section:
http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/assessment/assessing-community-needs-and-resources/analyzing-community-problems/main
2. Frequency of the problem
3. Duration: How long has this been a problem.
4. Scope and Range: How many people are affected.
5. Severity: Is the problem disrupting to personal or community life.
6. Equity: Does this problem deprive people of legal or moral rights.
7. Perception: Who and how many perceive this as a problem.

F. Identify a Responding Agency: Identify an agency within your community that is in some way addressing this problem. Briefly Describe:
1. What services, resources and/or interventions are being utilized by the agency
2. Assessment of response effectiveness (be sure to include what evidence you based your assessment on?). Identify documentation (i.e. Year End Report).

Please integrate Critical Race Theory and the concept of Intersectionality to aid in the theoretical and conceptual underpinning of the salient issues of this paper

Length of Paper should be 8 – 14 pages maximum (not including the cover page or references). APA format should be followed for citations and narrative sections.
Paper must be typed, with standard size, 12 pt., font, 1 inch margins and stapled. PLEASE UTILIZE HEADINGS FOR EACH SECTION YOU ARE ADDRESSING.