Design a program that works toward preventing and/or controlling violence using a public health approach
Develop a program that seeks to prevent and or control one type of violence that has been covered in the class this semester. The program should use a public health approach, meaning that the program focuses on prevention and upstream causes of violence which may be within the health sector or beyond.
You will need to use the textbook and 5 additional sources to complete the assignment. You will submit a written description of the organization using the below form via BlackBoard. Below you will find details for completing the assignment.
The project is 20% of your grade for the course.
Scenario:
Imagine that you are a member of a community with a high prevalence of a certain type of violence. You have been given the opportunity to apply for a $50,000 grant from the WPU Foundation to start a program that works toward preventing and/or decreasing this type of violence. You have been asked to submit to the Foundation a one-page summary on your ideas on why controlling this type of violence is essential and how to go about preventing and controlling this violence that is causing harm to your community. Remember, you are the founder and president of the program, so its design is in your very capable hands!
The first step in this assignment is to choose a topic that has been covered in the class that you are interested in and would like to learn more about. With input from many of you, I have developed a list of organizations that work to prevent different types of violence. Use this list to learn about how violence prevention programs are structured and what types of activities comprise a violence prevention program.
When reading through the list of organizations and their work, think about what types of program activities are used (training, interrupters, hotlines, early child education, women’s empowerment classes, mentorship, enhancing positive student behavior, attendance, and academic achievement through consistent rewards and monitoring, bullying prevention, improve community supervision, train teachers and parents to manage disruptive youth, teach students interpersonal skills, etc). Which ones have been evaluated and proven to be effective? This is not a creative writing exercise. I expect that the components in your program are well thought out and based on research you have done on what works and why.
The program you develop should have two sections: 1). background data and information on the type of violence your program is working to prevent and/or decrease and 2). description of program activities. If this were a real-life proposal, you would need to include a budget and staffing plan. However, this is not necessary for this assignment. Just keep in mind that you are requesting $50,000.
The program document should be 3-5 pages and must include the following three sections (note, the questions are meant as a guide; you do not need to answer directly each question):
Background information (1-2 pages; 4 pts)
(1) Description/definition of the type of violence.
(2) What is the context of the problem and the magnitude of the type of violence you have chosen as the focus of your program?
a. Where does this violence occur and therefore where is your program based? (urban areas or within rural populations, both)? For some of you you may chose to be very specific (ie, Ann Arbor Michigan or Newark).
b. How many people are affected by this violence? (look up the data – how many people in the U.S. per year are directly or indirectly affected by this type of violence? How frequently does this type of violence occur?)
c. Who is affected by it (ie, women, men, children, adolescents, ethnic minorities)
d. What are the social conditions in which this violence tends to occur? (Are there social factors that tend to increase vulnerability for being abused or for experiencing more severe effects of violence such as race, ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation and other background factors)?
(3) What are the risk factors for the type of violence? Does this violence appear to be more prevalent in urban areas? Among less educated people? People who lack a supportive community? People whose family members have been involved in or victims of the same type of violence?
(4) The foundation looks at many proposals. Why should they prioritize this topic?
(5) Make sure to include references for all data used (either footnotes or endnotes, just choose one style and be consistent throughout the paper).
Program activities (1-2 pages; 3pts)
Using the list of organizations and the two assigned articles as resources, list and explain at least three program activities. Be specific when you explain the program activities that you are including in your organization. Who will participate both as leaders and as clients in the program? What are the goals and timeline for each activity? What does success look like?
Again, what gets included must be based on your research and not just what is seemingly a good idea. Please reference an existing program when describing the activities you have chosen to include in your program (ie, the interrupters in CeaseFire or include the name of the organization whose activity you are replicating in your reference list).
Summary (1 page; 2pts)
Include a one-page summary of the background and program activities. This should not be written in essay form. Think about how you would convey the information to a busy person working for a foundation who doesn’t necessarily have time to read through your essay. For example, you could use bullet points for key messages, include visuals such as graphs or photographs. Be creative!
Use endnotes to cite all references (1point)
Guidelines for use of endnotes:
a) Use a superscript number, such as 1after the data or quote that you are citing. Use the same number in the corresponding notes entry (if you use the ‘references’ tab in Microsoft Word, it will insert a superscript number and then directly take you to the end of the paper where you can list the full reference and website where it was found, if applicable).
b) The way you list the references should be consistent for all references listed. For example: Mark Lessing, “Diversity in College Increases.” Education Today 5, no. 2 (Spring 2018): 12, https://doi.org/xx.xxxxx.
Grading
This final assignment is worth 20% of your grade for the class. You will be graded based on the extent to which you follow the instructions in this assignment both in terms of content and organization. The points for each component are listed above. If you have any questions on this assignment, don’t hesitate to reach out to me.
Background Resources:
• Gang Prevention: An Overview of Research and Programs
https://youth.gov/feature-article/gang-prevention-overview-research-and-programs
• Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK44295/
• Public Health Approach to Violence Prevention: https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/pdf/ph_app_violence-a.pdf
