UCSC COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY
FALL, 2009; Tonay
the population of your choice in Santa Cruz, CA
All papers due: 11/24, 10:00 a.m.
Each of you will be doing a maximum 10-page paper. Because Santa Cruz is where we are, please base your agency here. Feel free to utilize TA and instructor office hours and email for feedback and ideas!
Your mission is to design a community mental health agency to serve a population, and to communicate that design in a maximum 10-page paper (double-spaced, 1" margins, any style you want). Pretend that your design is really going to be implemented, and a new agency, born. Each of you will need to choose and focus upon each of the following eight aspects of a community agency.
These first eight portions of your paper should each be accomplished in anywhere from a sentence or two to a couple of paragraphs each. Strive to complete 1-8 in 3 or 4 pages. Spend about 1/4 of the total time you'll be working on this paper on 1-8. In other words, they are important, but not nearly as important as 9-11!
1) Population Served: Specifically, to whom will your
services be aimed? Consider geographical locale, age group, ethnicity
and culture, gender, income level, education... all of those variables
that are used in demographic studies. (The United Way CAP report--see
link on home page--is very helpful for this, the needs
assessment section, and other agencies section). For information
on how to determine exactly who your population is, go to McHenry's
helpful guide on finding such statistics.
2) Needs Assessment: Why do you want to serve this specific
population? How do you know this population needs services such
as yours? You can also search the Santa
Cruz Sentinel archives for relevant articles which quote
incidence information. They have had articles on most Santa Cruz
social issues and agencies. Please seek the reference librarians'
help ONLY if you need specific information that you CANNOT find
any other way! There are only 4 librarians and they plead with
me every year to let you know that!)
3) Other Agencies Meeting These Needs and Serving This Population:
What other agencies are serving your population? In what way(s)
can your agency contribute without being superfluous? How can
you improve upon what they do? Check the web, check the yellow
pages under 'social service agencies.' Please do not
contact agencies by phone or email! They are inundated and
understaffed. If you must go visit, go with others choosing your
topic.
4) Service providers: Who will be offering these services
(i.e., who will staff your agency and where will your staff and
supervisers come from?)? What, if any, selection criteria and/or
procedures will you utilize? What kind of credentials should these
people have, and why? How will you know they are qualified to do the job?
5) In-House Staff Training: How will you train your staff?
What kind of trainings will you offer and on what topics? Briefly
outline an 8- or 12-week training program. Remember to include
ethical issues in your training program, and say how you will
ensure your agency is ethical. (You should, of course, ensure that everything you do is ethical.)
6) Outreach: How will you encourage your population to avail
themselves of your services? Where will you find them? How will
you let them know you exist? Be specific, and discuss the challenges
you will face.
7) Fund Raising: Where will you get the money to support
your agency through the first two years? If from grants, name
two agencies you will approach and briefly state why you chose
those. (Check McHenry Library in the grant section, or search for grants online.)
8) Budget: About how much money will you need? (Clerical
staff, rent, professional staff, office expenses, etc...) Make
up a rough budget. There's a link to salaries for all jobs on
the home page. Don't spend ages doing this; be less than perfect!
We are assuming you will be running your agency on grants and
private support, so there is no need to research funding sources
(which you would need to do if you were really planning an agency).
Your budget should equal $250,000.00 per year--a small agency budget.
***PART TWO. These three are the MOST important parts of your paper! They are given the most weight in grading because they allow you the most opportunity to demonstrate what you've learned here.*** You may want to combine points 9 and 10 (when describing what you will do, integrate which paradigm guides that action). You may also want to keep them separate. Make sure each of these points is given substantial space and thought!
9) Theoretical paradigm(s): Which theoretical model(s)
and concept(s) from the course will guide your
agency: Social-learning (behavioral mod, stress & coping, expectancy, labeling) and/or psychodynamic (anxiety-repression-defense, ego development, Oedipal conflict, defense mechanisms, shadow integration)? Why did you choose this/these--i.e.,
what evidence makes you think this model would be the best to
use with this population? In order to answer this question, you might research outcome studies on different interventions used
with your population (which you may or may not be able to find).
=:)
10) Services offered: What are the goals of your agency?
Exactly what will you do for these people to meet these
goals? Be specific, using intervention models we've discussed or you've read about for this class. Because you are a community mental health agency, you will be offering primary, secondary, and/or tertiary prevention. If there is a service you think your population will need that you cannot provide, make sure to discuss where you will refer them. Describe your specific prevention plan(s) in depth, taking
into account both the person and environmental variables which
contribute to the definition of your population. Base your interventions
on material in readings and lectures. Make sure
to answer the question: what evidence makes you think your services
will help? If you get stuck, go through the readings, and go through the outlines of each lecture, thinking about how each concept or intervention method could be applied at your agency. The more course material you use, the better, as you are attempting to show us what you have learned in this class.
11) Outcome research: How will you determine whether or
not your interventions work? What kind of research will you use?
Describe it. Be specific. (There's a research methods review in the reader, if you need it.)
Suggestions: We will consider the quality of your writing in evaluating your work, so by all means, proofread, see a writing tutor--or, even better, meet up with another person in the class and read each other's work! Aim for tightly focused, well-considered prose, grounded in the course material. You are free to structure your paper any way you wish: as a pretend grant proposal, a mock research article, a report to a Board of Directors, or a regular essay. APA style is, therefore, not required for this paper. You will be reading outside material for this paper, and you will need to cite the sources you use in a reference section. Make sure to familiarize yourself with the plagiarism handout on the home page.
Print your paper out early. Pretend it is due a day before it is actually due. Late papers are docked 10 points per day late. Papers received after 10:15 on 11/24 are docked 5 points. No kidding!