Assignment:
Your community is opening a brand new community center. Now that you are an expert in the field, you have been chosen to lead a development team that will create a proposal for interactive, fun, and educational programming activities that will be provided for children and adolescents in this center. Utilize problem-solving techniques in exploring developmental issues, grounded in child development, in order to assess what activities and items should be included in each program. Once you have chosen these features, you will present your ideas to a mock city council board (i.e. your instructor) with a written proposal describing the programming.
You have been asked to propose programming for five different age groups in the community center:
- Infant (0-1 year)
- Toddler (1-3 years)
- Early Childhood (3-6 years)
- Middle/Late Childhood (7-12 years)
- Adolescence (13-18 years)
In your proposal, you will identify and describe at least 2 weekly activities for each age group (for a total of 10 activities) that address their developmental domain pathways: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial. All three domains of development must be addressed within your classes or activities.
For example, you may have one activity which enhances cognitive and psychosocial development and a second activity which enhances physical development for a particular age group. In addition to identifying these activities, you will demonstrate a foundational knowledge of the age group's developmental continuum by explaining your reasoning for choosing each activity, based on your analysis of theory and current child development research.
Additionally, you will search for at least 1 age-appropriate game, toy, picture, or other "play" item to enhance the chosen activities within each age group. Keep in mind that this may include things like art, music, technology, or safety gear as you deem fit. For each item that you recommend, your proposal will provide a link to a website from which the item can be purchased by the city, as well as an explanation for why the city should purchase the item informed by research and theory.
The overall goal of the final project is much like that of a grant proposal, in which a developer must convince the city council that their new business or activity is both cost-effective and beneficial to the community. You are encouraged to be creative and persuasive in your proposal, but remember that everything must be supported by the theories and research covered in our class. Included is a Community Center Proposal Template, demonstrating what information should be included in your written portion of the project.
In your Community Center Proposal, you must include the following:
1. Please complete each section of the template including the information requested.
2. Within section "iv" for each room, you will be asked to justify your activities and items by analyzing interactions of the major themes: Health and Well-Being, Family and Parenting, Education, Culture and Gender as factors influencing the developmental physical, cognitive and psychosocial pathways.
Your written proposal must address how you have accounted for each of these themes in its associated room as they relate to physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Each theme must be included in at least one room, and each room must address one or more themes. (Please see these samples for ways to explain how you have accounted for this.)
3. Cite your sources according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center, located within the Learning Resources tab on the left navigation toolbar in your online course. The EBSCOHost and PSYCinfo databases in the Ashford Online Library are helpful sources of information, as are the required and recommended resources found in your course materials. To locate EBSCOHost and PSYCinfo, visit the Ashford Online Library through the tab on the left navigation toolbar in your online course and select "Databases by Subject" and then "Psychology." (For further assistance in researching scholarly sources, please access the tutorials page on the Ashford University Library website.)
The Community Center Proposal:
1. Must be 6 to 8 double-spaced pages in length, and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
2. Must include a title page with the following:
- Title of Community Center
- Student's name
- Course name and number
- Instructor's name
- Date submitted
1. Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement, in which you introduce the topic and your Community Center.
2. Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought within each of the designated age groups.
3. Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis and thanks the mock city council for their time and consideration of your proposal.
4. Must use at least 2 scholarly sources, including a minimum of 1 from the Ashford Online Library.
5. Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.
Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.