Gathering, assessing community data, proposing project

Part of this class involves collecting data that will form the basis for ongoing research efforts. To that effect, data that can be collected over time is useful to assess changes that may be occurring within a community. Each of you needs to choose some area to focus on: demographics, education, criminal justice, health care (mental / physical), communications, government, utilities, commerce, transportation, the arts, food production, resource consumption, housing, construction, social welfare, social organization, faith, athletics, recreation, land use . . . that’s pretty open. Your proposal should address some issue you’ve identified through your research (using the course resources, such as Stoecker’s textbook, and the ‘design principles’). Choose some area that seems important to communities, one that can be measured over time, described, and that has an impact on the overall health and well-being of communities and their members.

Term project point breakdown (100 points possible)

• Evidence of thoughtful choices made in identifying an area of focus (10 points)
• Demonstration of effort (as documented in your paper, 10 points)
• Background research identified, collected. Could include collection, description, and submission of actual data sets / data available that relates to your area of focus. Include identification of information you could not find, but which would be useful to generate or collect (you may want to look for examples in other communities/states, etc. This section should inform your proposal (20 points)
• Write-up of your results (50 points)
  • what you set out to do,
  • description of your area of focus (community, agencies, organizations, individuals, clientele/consumers, etc.)
  • your background research (make tables and graphs where useful for presenting information)
  • your proposal—expressed as a statement or question;
  • how your proposal reflects community-based research and development as Stoecker describes it
  • description of your methods for carrying out your proposal (consider also the ‘design principles’ from class);
• Writing (proofread) and documentation of all sources (10 points)

Possible resources

• Check out the Canvas home page link to project-related resources
• Guidance, questions, issues
• Project design principles (checklist)
• Additional guidance

Paper format

• Description of community (demographics, infrastructure, the things that matter for your area of focus). This is where you demonstrate you’ve been learning about communities, how they are structured, how they can function, how they can change over time.
  • Use credible sources, cite them (APA style or whatever you’re used to, but be consistent), demographics should be disaggregated, there are plenty of resources in the Canvas shell you should have been examining
  • Consider some spatial element, like a map
  • Description of how your area of focus fits within the community
• Your area of focus–you have had ample time to explore sources, ask questions, make inquiries, and know this inside and out, describe it in some detail, including relevant agencies, organizations, stakeholders, all of the things we have discussed in class (see other links under ‘possible resources’ above–I will be looking to see that you addressed these in some detail)
  • Data you have collected (use the resources page and make sure you address bullet points in it with detail and cited sources)
  • Data include any and all related interviews or events should be included and described as they relate to your area and your community development project
  • You need to build a foundation for your research-based project proposal here
• Project proposal
  • Provide your rationale for the proposal
  • Discuss the design principles and how you would incorporate them–here is a simple list. I will expect to see these thoughtfully integrated.
  • Integrate Stoecker’s chapters in participation and the cycle-based approach
  • Do not leave out the evaluation component (how will you know if your project has been successful, how would you define and measure success?)
• Documentation. Cite all of your sources, including individuals with whom you’ve spoken or conducted interviews (whether email, video, audio, etc.). Do not discount the importance of individuals to point you in the right direction, but choose them strategically and provide your reasoning for including their information in your paper. Ground your ideas in your sources–you are learning this material, but the expertise and information you have used to do so is what you will want to showcase in this paper (and presentation).

See the Canvas project-related resources page for some sample papers from previous classes.

100 pts possible, due June 13 by midnight in Canvas, paper should be 8-12 pages in length

40 pts possible for presentation (finals week, Monday June 12, 8-10 am)