This assignment requires completion of All Souls, review of From Homeless to Harvard (available on youtube), and the integration of the person-in-environment perspective. Assignment guidelines are as follows (also located in the syllabus).
Analysis of All Souls
Michael MacDonald’s All Souls describes his and family’s experiences growing up in South Boston during very challenging times for the City of Boston. Their experiences were complicated by systems issues and multiple problems in the environment. Most notably these issues included poverty, living in public housing, racism, substance abuse, and the public welfare system.
In approximately five pages discuss the following:
What do you see as the most prevalent issues for this family? What do you see as the forces (micro, mezzo, macro) that kept this community and the MacDonald family unable to break the cycles of poverty, substance abuse, etc.? Choose three characters/family members and discuss how the person-in-environment perspective relates to their outcomes.
Given the similar urban environment depicted in Homeless to Harvard, what factors do you think account for the difference in their outcome? How might a human service professional have intervened with the MacDonald family? Where and on what level would you intervene to have the most positive impact? How do these two family’s experiences challenge your own values? What reactions do you have to the demonstrated societal values? Briefly discuss what you feel you have learned from this book about the field of human services and your overall impressions of the book.
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/lesley/reader.action?docID=3118024 : link for the book All Souls
