Identify and make contact with a local politician or social welfare administrator in your community. Your task is to interview a politician or administrator and learn her/his position on a social welfare issue/problem of your choice and to present a well-developed position in an effort to advocate for your area of interest.
- In preparation for this interview develop a historical perspective of your area of interest. Include legislation, policy, programming, funding and the current state of affairs of the problem or issue you have chosen. (Note this analysis will be a part of the paper you will submit for a grade and important in your interview) I suggest a focus on your community and specific feature of a topic to avoid developing a topic that becomes too large to adequately address in this paper.
- Prepare a series of questions that will help you understand your interviewee's position and plans if any to ameliorate the problem/issue of interest to you.
- Prepare a statement to advocate for support of your selected problem/issue. Examine NASW policy statements to learn if there is a general, specific or common position that social workers have on the problem/issue you have chosen. Add this statement to your paper and opinion whether you agree or disagree with NASW's stance on your topic and why.
- Finally, document your process, how did you get to where you ended up in this assignment what your learned from your interview, your thoughts and feelings about your interaction with your interviewee, and how did your interviewee responded to your position?
The paper should be 7-10 pages, double spaced, and in APA format. Reference the people you contact being careful to protect identity with sensitive information You should also reference any other resources.
Paper must-
Applies knowledge and skills to implement sophisticated, appropriate, and workable solutions to address complex global problems using interdisciplinary perspectives independently or with others.
Specific position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) is imaginative, taking into account the complexities of an issue. Limits of position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis) are acknowledged. Others' points of view are synthesized within position (perspective, thesis/hypothesis).
Thoroughly (systematically and methodically) analyzes own and others' assumptions and carefully evaluates the relevance of social, environmental, political and economic contexts when presenting a position
Information is taken from source(s) with enough interpretation/evaluation to develop a comprehensive analysis or synthesis. Viewpoints of experts are questioned thoroughly.
Issue/problem to be considered critically is stated clearly and described comprehensively, delivering all relevant information necessary for full understanding.