Overview
Homelessness in Dallas , Texas
With demographic of Dallas, Texas
The final project for this course is the creation of a comprehensive human services
program proposal.
As the final stop in your journey toward your Bachelor of Arts in Human Services, you will complete a capstone that integrates the knowledge and skills you have
developed in previous coursework by conducting a community needs assessment that
will ultimately inform the creation of a comprehensive human services program proposal designed to meet a specific consumer need in the community. You will also reflect on your journey through the Human Services program and
how you plan to position yourself
professionally through a third component in the form of a personal and professional
reflection.
This capstone will be assessed somewhat differently than other courses you have taken
online at SNHU. There are three major components: (1) community needs
assessment; (2) human services program proposal; and a 3) professional and personal reflections paper. Think of the community needs assessment and human
services program proposal as the two parts of one final assessment. Your personal and professional reflection will be a separate document attached to your final
submission as an appendix. The components will be submitted at different times during the course; however, they operate together to comprise the whole
capstone experience. They are not assessed separately. You will be evaluated on all three as a unit in determining whether you have demonstrated proficiency in
each outcome. Your instructor will guide you through this process, keeping a running narrative of your strengths and areas for growth in relation to the outcomes
as you progress through the class. Your work is expected to meet the highest professional standards.
The project is divided into five milestones, which will be submitted at various points throughout the course to scaffold learning and ensure quality final
submissions. These milestones will be submitted in Modules Two, Three, Four, Five, and Six. Components 1, 2, and 3 are due in Module Eight.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
• Evaluate the social, political, and historical milestones and trends in human services in
relation to the human services professional’s role in advocating for
individuals, families,
and communities in need
• Apply culturally responsive strategies across diverse
populations to strengthen professional practice and enhance human services outcomes
• Apply legal and ethical standards in the administration and delivery of human services
systems to provide comprehensive and well-informed care
• Employ professional,
interpersonal dynamics in formal and informal networks to improve human services
delivery
• Evaluate the policy development cycle for advocacy avenues, communication
strategies, and coalition-building opportunities to effect social change
• Develop knowledge and skills in inquiry, critical and creative thinking, and decision
making to create and implement appropriate assessment and
intervention strategies
Prompt
“Be the change you wish to see in the world.”
—Mahatma Gandhi (1869–1948)
Gandhi inspired the world through his tenacity, strength of spirit, and belief in reducing
human suffering and promoting freedom and equality using only nonviolent means.
Fallible and imperfect, he used his whole self (body, mind, and spirit) to effect positive
change in the world. He was able to look at individual
suffering and create change on a
large scale. While most people do not enter into a human services program expecting to
become the next Gandhi, in many
ways human services professionals share his vision
concerning the inherent value and ethical treatment of human beings as well as the
dignity, respect, safety,
and equality each individual deserves.
This capstone project is an opportunity for the student to move along the continuum of
human services work from an
individual and organizational focus to one that incorporates both views toward community change.
Working individually and with your instructor, you will identify, research, and analyze a social service need in your community as the
foundation for developing a
human services program proposal that will include an
intervention or set of interventions aimed at solving a problem from the perspective of the consumer.
Your topic and recommendations will depend on your area of study. For
example, for students on a general track in this degree program, your problem might
center on the mental health of veterans or barriers to receiving adequate healthcare for
elderly populations. If you have a concentration in child and family
welfare, then your
selected problem must focus on needs and issues surrounding children, adolescents,
and/or teens and their families. For example, you might
focus on childhood nutrition or
domestic violence.
Generally speaking, you will conduct a needs assessment of your community, which will inform the creation of a human services related program proposal that
attempts to address the identified need or problem.
This proposal will also include the
development of appropriate tools and support materials that would be
used to
implement the program and measure outcomes.
Your completed capstone project will be a final paper with several sections and follow this outline:
1. Cover Page
2. Table of
Contents
3. Executive Summary
4. Community Needs Assessment (Capstone Component 1)
5. Human Services Program Proposal (Capstone Component 2)
6. Appendices
(Appendix A and B)
7. References
8. Appendix: Personal and Professional Reflection (Capstone Component 3)
Capstone Component 1: Community Needs Assessment
For the first of three components, you will choose a local community and conduct an assessment of that community in relation to a social problem.
Typically,
this is a community that is somewhat familiar to you and is limited to a city, county, or neighborhood level. For example, if you have identified a problem with
child hunger in your hometown, your assessment should seek to uncover how and why this is
happening by conducting a review of the literature and collecting
and analyzing data on
your chosen community, while also identifying existing resources designed to combat
child hunger.
You will not be conducting a full community needs assessment; rather, you
will be identifying a need through a preliminary review of local newspapers or other
relevant sources and talking with other human services professionals who live or work in
the area. Your instructor is available to review sources and identify
ways to obtain
information and navigate the system. From there, you will research what is out there, what is missing, what others have done to solve the
problem, and so on. This comprehensive
evaluation also presents the opportunity for you to engage the community. In your
evaluation, you will be required to
contact appropriate individuals in the community, either directly or using the internet or the telephone, to interview them about the problem you
have selected.
This does not fully meet the “fieldwork” definition, but it will require you to
become involved with your selected community in some form and engage providers
and consumers.
Your community needs assessment should include the following sections:
I. Overview of Community and Problem: This section should serve as the foundation for
presenting your community assessment and is your opportunity
to comprehensively
describe the selected community and identified problem. Overall, it is important to
include any information that is pertinent for
comprehending the community and problem—it is up to you to establish a robust context for understanding and responding to the
community’s need.
II. Gathering Community Information (Methodology): In this section, you will discuss your methodology for collecting the information about your
community and provide a
summary of your findings. Your methodology will involve conducting a brief systematic
literature review of your chosen
community, the problem you identified in Milestone One, and other communities who have dealt with the same issue or problem. In other words, for
this section, discuss how you will collect the information and provide justification for your
chosen method(s).
III. Literature Review: Using primary and secondary sources, analyze how the problem is
being addressed in other communities. How prevalent is it?
Through a review of the
literature, evaluate the social, political, and historical milestones and trends relative to the identified problem. You should also
review interventions that have been attempted in
other communities and their success, or lack thereof.
IV. Needs Analysis: This section
should include your analysis of the information you gathered on the community. This will provide the conclusions you have
drawn from thinking about the findings you described
in the preceding section. Based on your assessment of the community and
comprehensive analysis
and evaluation of the problem
:
• What is the magnitude of the
problem in the community?
• What resources and interventions currently exist in the
community?
• Provide a description of the impact the current resources and interventions are having on the population. Are they effective? Why or why not?
• What are the obstacles that exist in the community that prevent impacting or addressing the problem?
• Why is this problem one that the community needs to address? What are the
demographics of the individuals affected by the problem?
• What are the obstacles that exist in the community that prevent impacting
or addressing the problem?
• Why is this problem one that the community needs to
address? What are the demographics of the individuals affected by the problem?
Citations/Formatting:
Your community needs assessment should be approximately 5–8 pages in length and should include the necessary elements that one would find in a
professional needs assessment. The information should be cited
according to the rules of the latest publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). You may
include illustrations, photographs, graphs and
charts, and other non-textual materials as needed to support the needs assessment. These can be placed as an appendix at the end of the final paper or, if
appropriate, incorporated in the body of your paper.
Capstone
