Topic: 

The Effectiveness of The Haven’s Services For Battered Women

Website for agency:   www.valdostahaven.org

• Clearly state your planned site and the planned participants.
• Using the DHS DPP Form [DOCX] template, complete Section 1.1 of the DPP: Capstone Topic. Use the required details described in section 1.1.
  • In paragraph format, state the topic of the capstone project and include the other details requested for section 1.1.
    • Clearly state the objective of the capstone project (The objective of this project is …..).
    • Clearly state the significance of the topic to Human Services.
• Using the DHS DPP Form [DOCX] template, complete Section 1.2 of the DPP: The Research Problem.
  • Write a brief statement that fully describes the problem being addressed in the capstone project. The problem to be addressed should be explicitly stated, not implied.  Existing literature and key findings should be summarized and used to support your rationale.  Use at least five citations to support the assertions made in this section.
    • FIRST PARAGRAPH: Write a brief statement that fully describes the problem being addressed. This paragraph introduces the problem that is informing the research and warrants the need for this study. Begin this paragraph with the statement, “The problem is….”
    • SECOND PARAGRAPH: Identify the need for the study (which is related directly to the problem presented in the first paragraph). It must clearly identify a gap in current practice, service, process, policy, or programs. It must clearly identify the need for the research and the desired outcome.
• Use at least 10 sources to support the assertions and ideas presented in Section 1 of your DPP.  Some of the references should be from journal sources and some should be more directly related to the planned site and local community in relation to the topic.
  • Include the references at the end of section 1.2.

SCORING GUIDE

Your work will be evaluated using this criteria.

VIEW SCORING GUIDE

Competencies Measured

By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 1: Outline a project to address an organizational problem or secure an opportunity for improvement within a human service setting.
  • Identify a research topic that is appropriate for the specialization.
  • Name a target population.
  • Identify appropriately focused key concepts or phenomena.
  • Identify clearly specified relationships between and among the concepts.
• Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and respectful of the diversity, dignity, and integrity of others consistent with expectation for members of the Human Services profession.
  • Support main points, assertions, arguments, conclusions, or recommendations with relevant and credible evidence.
  • Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources.
  • Apply the standard writing conventions for the discipline, including structure, voice, person, and tone.

Write a 5–7-page essay comparing the approaches of two U.S. states to either same-sex marriage or immigration policy.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

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• Competency 1: Describe theoretical ideas of power in relation to policy.
  • Discuss how sociological theories of power might explain differences in how state governments address a social issue.
• Competency 3: Analyze the effects of social policy using aggregated data.
  • Explain how the demographics of state populations might influence the policy decisions of state governments.
• Competency 4: Analyze how laws are applied or created based on race, ethnicity, religion, gender, sexual orientation, age, and social class.
  • Compare law, policy, or politics in states with varying approaches to a diversity issue.
• Competency 5: Apply diversity strategies in professional, educational, and personal contexts.
  • Analyze discrepancies between state and federal law and the strategies used to resolve such discrepancies.
• Competency 6: Apply in text the standard writing conventions for the discipline, including structure, voice, person, tone, and citation formatting.
  • Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate format and with few errors of grammar, usage, and mechanics.

How can sociological research help us understand how laws and policies are made and how they change over time? How might we use the sociological perspective to develop more effective solutions to political and social issues or create policies that are effective and based on sound research? These are questions to consider as you explore the connection between political and economic power and legislative decision making.

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Sociologists studying cultural diversity are also very much interested in how our beliefs about diversity are reflected in the law-making and policy-making process, including laws and policies that pertain to immigration and same-sex marriage. Something to think about is whether the policies and positions maintained by those in power actually reflect the research and data on the topic or issue they address. In other words, does the rhetoric match the evidence gathered through careful research?

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

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• Which sociological theory of power best explains the political decision-making process in today’s society?
• How does cultural diversity influence policy making? For example, how do state policies pertaining to social issues like immigration and same-sex marriage differ depending on the cultural diversity and demographic and socioeconomic composition of that state?
• Why is the sociological approach to cultural diversity useful for understanding how policy decisions are made and how political debates over social issues are articulated by key stakeholders?

Building on your research and analysis of a diversity issue in relation to policy developments, this assessment asks you to more closely examine the connection between power, policy, and law making by comparing and contrasting how two states of your choosing have handled one of the following policy issues: same-sex marriage or immigration.

To understand the link between power and political and legal decision making, you will place this process in each state in the appropriate context. That means that you need to assess the historical, demographic, cultural, and socioeconomic factors that have influenced each state’s different approach to immigration policy or same-sex marriage. You will also reflect on the consequences of state-to-state discrepancies in policies and laws regarding controversial social and political issues like these.

This assessment combines the key components of studying cultural diversity from a sociological perspective: placing current social issues in historical context, understanding how demographic and cultural trends influence public opinion, and applying sociological theories to determine the role of power in shaping policy-making decisions.

Deliverable

Write an essay addressing each of the following parts:

• Compare how your two states have approached policy, politics, or law surrounding immigration or same-sex marriage:
  • Policy (principles or methods used to achieve a particular goal or make decisions about political or social issues).
  • Politics (the key political players in the policy-making and law-making processes).
  • Law (rules and standards enforced by a particular institution).
• Discuss how sociological theories of power might explain the differences between how each state has addressed your issue.
  • Examples of theories of power include power elite theory, the four networks theory of power, pluralism, Marxist theory, and state autonomy theory.
• Discuss how the demographics of each state’s population might influence how each state’s government has approached your topic.
  • Demographics include age, race/ethnicity, gender, education levels, religious beliefs, political beliefs, and the percentage of the population in urban versus rural areas.
• Analyze discrepancies between state and federal law and whether and how these discrepancies have been resolved or should be resolved.
  • Consider any historical precedents that provide insight about how to resolve these kinds of discrepancies.

lease respond to both of the following two (2) questions (minimum 250 words).

1) Why does Farish Noor compare historical records that might appear contradictory in the way that they boastfully acknowledge OR erase colonial violence in Southeast Asia?

2) Mann mentions that a “domestic racism” and an “international racism” are connected. What does this mean? How did the connection between these influence suffragists’ views of imperialism?

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Please look at the pictures and illustrations at bottom and respond to both of the following two (2) questions (minimum 250 words).

3) Said says that, “The relationship between the Occident (the West) and the Orient (the East) is a relationship of power, of domination, of varying degrees of a complex hegemony…” (highlighted on p. 49).”

How do you believe that the Picture #1 (at bottom) of a Singapore port might illustrate this, alongside Said’s thesis of Orientalism?
Now, look at Picture #2, which is taken by a Chinese photographer. How do you think this picture might have challenged Orientalist views of its time?

Note: I found Pictures #1 & 2 during archival research and limited information is available on them. Picture #1 includes no British or white people. The manual laborers (without shirts) are Chinese. The public officers (working for the British colonial government; in white dress) are likely Malay (who are native to the peninsula where Singapore is located). Picture #2 is a Chinese laborer in Singapore. (Links to an external site.)

4) Maryam Khalid states that: “[G]endered and orientalist identities, meanings, and images construct and organise the way we give meaning to and interpret our world, its people and events, and ‘the positions and possibiities for action within them’.” and then declares that “gendered narratives in the War on Terror have also relied on the (re)production of orientalist stereotypes.” Please provide (with brief explanation) two examples used by Maryam Khalid to support these statements.

Discussion: External Factors Impacting an Organization

Last week, you explored how systems theory and the ecological perspective emphasize the interaction between a human services organization and its environment. Any change in one part of the system effects change in another part of the system. Because organizations are not immune to their environment, local, national, and global events affect them.

Social workers in administrative roles must be able to identify and analyze the external factors that affect the function of the human services organizations for which they work. Though you may apply leadership and management skills as you assume an administrative position, you may also be able to repurpose many of the assessment skills you use in clinical practice for macro social work. Just as you gather information about a client and develop strategies for treatment at a micro level, so too, at a macro level, you gather and analyze information about a situation or program and identify appropriate strategies that will support positive organizational functioning.

For this Discussion, you address the Phoenix House case study in the Social Work Case Studies: Concentration Year text.

Provide a 300-word Discussion Post covering the following areas, content, and headings:

–  An analysis of the supervisor’s role in the Phoenix House case study

– Identify leadership skills that might help the supervisor resolve the issue.

– Identify which aspect of this situation would be most challenging for you if you were the supervisor.

– Finally, explain how you would use leadership skills to proceed if you were the supervisor.

Support your post with at least 3 specific references to the resources. Be sure to provide full APA citations for your references.

Social Work Supervision, Leadership, and Administration: The Phoenix House

I am the senior social worker at a program called Phoenix House. Phoenix House is an after-school program supporting at-risk middle school youth. It is funded in part by local school districts. Students are generally referred to Phoenix House by school administrators or parents.

I supervise a staff of four full-time social workers and two social work interns from a local university. Staff responsibilities generally include helping students with homework, individual and group counseling, field trips, and recreational games and activities.

Students are usually referred to Phoenix House when school administrators feel that the student is on the cusp of expulsion or long-term suspension from their school, usually due to disciplinary issues. Parents of students may also enroll their children in the Phoenix House program if they feel it will be beneficial. Parents are made aware of Phoenix House and its services through PTA meetings and via school administrators when a disciplinary incident takes place. Although it is free of charge and funded primarily through school district funds, parents are discouraged from using Phoenix House as an after-school or extracurricular activity for their children.

The average clients of Phoenix House are boys and girls between the ages of 11 and 14. The clients possess a range of presenting issues, mostly relating to inappropriate behavior. Some of the clients have been involved with the juvenile justice system in some form or fashion. Almost all of the clients have been suspended from their school at one point or another. Common problems with clients at Phoenix House include fighting, bullying, stealing, and vandalizing.

The staff I supervise have quite a bit of experience working with juveniles with behavioral issues. Some of them have worked in juvenile detention facilities and others have worked at court-mandated youth programs.

We have recently accepted a new client named Daniel. Daniel is a 13-year-old, Caucasian male. Daniel was enrolled by his mother when he was suspended from his school after a marijuana cigarette was found in his book bag by school security staff. It was the first time Daniel had been suspended from his school and the first time a disciplinary report had been filed on him.

Sarah, one of the social workers, asked to speak to me concerning Daniel. Sarah had spoken to Jim, one of our social work interns, about Daniel and the appropriateness of his presence at Phoenix House. Jim is concerned that Daniel is not a “good fit” at Phoenix House because he does not seem to match up with the character and attitudes of the other clients. Sarah shares Jim’s concern and is also concerned that the other clients may be a harmful influence to Daniel.

Sarah is Daniel’s counselor, as well, and has gotten permission from Daniel to share some of his statements from their counseling sessions. The statements indicate Daniel has no idea how the marijuana cigarette got into his book bag and that Daniel suspects it was put there by another student as a joke or as a means to get rid of it during bag searches. Sarah, who has years of experience working with at-risk youth, indicates that she believes Daniel. Daniel has also gone on to state that his mother has a tendency to overreact, and this may be the reason why she enrolled him in the Phoenix House program instead of listening to his explanations.

In response to Jim and Sarah’s concerns, I contacted Daniel’s mother, Lisa. Lisa listened to my concerns but did not feel that it would be right to remove him from the Phoenix House program. She said that even if he had done nothing wrong, Daniel could learn a valuable lesson about consequences by being in the Phoenix House program. I attempted to explain to Lisa that this is not really the purpose of the program and also indicated that Phoenix House is not meant to be a typical after-school or extracurricular program. Lisa retorted that it is her right to enroll her son in the program, and in her opinion, the end result of Daniel being in the program will be positive in nature.

I have shared this conversation with the staff at our weekly meetings. The staff seem convinced that Daniel will not have a positive experience at Phoenix House and feel he is being picked on and bullied by the other clients despite their efforts to prevent it. Some staff members have also pointed out that this may be an ethical issue because they feel the situation violates the social work value of “Do no harm.”