Q Assignment Title: Advocacy Project Overview of the Assignment: Meets Competencies 2, 3, 5 (25% of final grade) Purpose: The purpose of this assignment is to document and measure your understanding of course themes and concepts, and, to apply critical thinking to analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice. Description: You will choose an issue of interest that is related to social and economic justice (see options listed below). You will submit your issue topic at the end of week 7 for review and approval by your instructor. At week 14 you will submit the following: 1. A Policy Brief (using Word Newsletter or Brochure: see examples) that covers the first component of the assignment (numbers 1 & 2). 2. The second component is a written legislative analysis of your topic. Component One: Advocacy Campaign/ Policy Brief 1. Research Steps: • Issue Research - Choose an issue. Describe the problem. o Why care? Understand the issue so you can make it easily understood for others. o Who is most impacted? Why should the public and those in power care? Compile data and match with compelling stories. • Issue Assessment o Conduct a SWOT analysis on the issue (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats). o What are the trends? Viewpoints/agenda of leaders? Public opinion? Media? Coalitions? Money? Who has power? Why focus on this issue and intervention at this moment? o What are the implications of the existing or proposed policies? o Write this up using a standard SWOT diagram. • Intervention Planning & Implementation - Choose a remedy. o What possible remedies are there? Why this one and not others? o How will what you choose have a real improvement in people’s lives? o Is it winnable in this political, economic, and social climate? o Does ‘fixing’ the problem translate into measurable action and consensus? o What’s your timeline? o What level of policy implementation will you choose (city/county, state, administrative departments, federal)? Why? • Evaluation & Next Steps o What happens after your intervention? How will you know what success looks like? Social and Economic Justice Social Work 6201 2. Policy Brief: • Create a Policy Brief (see examples) o Include key findings from your issue research o Include policy implications from your issue assessment o Include suggested remedies/outcomes from your planning & implementation Component Two: Legislation Analysis In addition to the policy brief, you are required to analyze Ohio legislation related to your issue (see example). Your analysis should include the following: • Status (where the bill is in committee, how many hearings it’s had…) and co-sponsors • Summary of no more than 2 pages that could be read by any person, regardless of whether they have read legislation in the past • Analysis (how it will change current law, if the bill is problematic and why, what other states are doing and how this compares, what’s the law say about this legislation and how will it change current statutes, what current events happening are related to this legislation?) Component Three: Evaluation How do you plan to evaluate the intervention/remedy? Please be thoughtful and practical. For instance, if there is already data that you could use, use it! If you want to run a survey, give a few sample questions. Topic Issues: Many possible issues exist. Below is a list to help you brainstorm. When you are asked to choose an intervention, this means a policy remedy. For example, if you are interested in disability rights, perhaps you focus on the Deaf community’s access to healthcare. One policy remedy is to decide that Medicaid needs to pay for interpreters for medical appointments; other states do it, Ohio does not. Food Security Immigration/Migration Labor HIV/AIDS Healthcare Voting Rights Environmental Rights Indigenous Rights Disability Rights LGBTQ Rights Housing and Homelessness Poverty Racial Profiling/Police Practices Women’s Rights/Equality Incarceration/Criminal Justice Reform Social Assistance Programs Drug Abuse/Drug Policy Human Trafficking Minimum Wage/Living Wage Intimate Partner Violence Death Penalty Veteran’s Affairs Juvenile Justice Education Childcare/Maternity Leave/Infant Mortality ***Please see the next page for RUBRIC*** Rubric: Total of 40 points possible 1. Policy Brief (30) Exemplary Good Marginal Unacceptable Quality of research 8 points Information is accurate; sources are varied and legitimate (peer-reviewed); accurate APA citation format. 8 points Information is accurate; sources are mostly varied and legitimate; mostly accurate APA citation format 7 points Information and sources are somewhat inaccurate/vague; marginally sourced and errors in APA citation format 6 points Information and sources are inaccurate and/or misleading; sources are not cited. 5-0 points Key findings 8 points Informative; clear and concise; reflects thorough depth of analysis 8 points Mostly informative; mostly clear; covers most points of analysis 7 points Somewhat informative but not clearly nor logically presented 6 points Gives no little information and very poorly organized. 5-0 points Implications of policy 7 points Implications as presented reflect a clear and deep understanding of the policy. 7 points Implications as presented reflect a mostly clear understanding of the policy. 6-4 points Implications as presented reflect a general understanding of the policy. 4-2 points Implications as presented reflect a little to no understanding of the policy. 2-0 points Suggested remedies 7 points Suggested remedies are clear and measurable; reflective of a thorough understanding of the issue and policy. 7 points Suggested remedies are mostly clear and measurable; reflective of an understanding of the issue and policy. 6-4 points Suggested remedies are vague; reflective of a general understanding of the issue and policy. 4-2 points Suggested remedies are incomplete or absent; reflective of little to no understanding of the issue and policy. 2-0 points 2. Legislation Analysis (10) Exemplary (10) Good (9) Marginal (8) Unacceptable (7-0) Summary Summary is 300 words or less with no grammatical errors; can be easily understood by those unfamiliar with the bill; status and co-sponsors of bill is clear and thorough Summary is 300 words or less with few grammatical errors; could be mostly understood by those unfamiliar with the bill; status and co-sponsors of bill are included Summary exceeds 300 words with many grammatical errors; poorly written; not easily understood by those unfamiliar with the bill; status and co-sponsors of bill are incomplete Summary is poorly written; several grammatical errors; demonstrative of a lack of understanding of the bill; status and co-sponsors of bill are not included.