Assignment Description

In preparation for your course project, the purpose of this assignment is to explore a social justice problem that addresses a specific population or subgroup (for example, access to health care, access to social services, immigration, or veterans’ mental health and services). This should be a problem that presents current challenges for social workers providing services and support. You will need to investigate the various forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination within this social justice problem and identify policies that are currently enacted to address this problem. Ultimately, you will choose one of these policies to analyze as the topic for your federal policy analysis course project.

To ensure this is a viable scholarly topic, explore the literature in your area of interest by doing article and book searches through Capella University Library databases and other electronic resources, including government, educational, and organizational websites. Exploring scholarly, respected literature will be the preliminary work for this project. Congress.gov will be an invaluable resource for your research during this project.

Assignment Instructions

To complete this assignment:

Choose a social justice problem that addresses the needs of a specific population or subgroup that interests you. To find scholarly research about your topics, use the Capella University Library; government, educational, and organizational websites; and the United States Congress website, Congress.gov. Refer to the SWK5002 library research guide, Social Policy Research Tutorial, for assistance in doing policy research and locating resources.

Analyze the forms and mechanisms of oppression and discrimination of your chosen population or subgroup that exist within this social justice topic (for example, race, religion, disabilities, gender orientation, socioeconomic status, or access to services). In your analysis, describe how the oppression and discrimination impacted this population.

Identify and analyze the ethical problems associated with your selected social justice problem. Use the “NASW Code of Ethics” website and the Social Work Speaks policy textbook to guide your analysis.

Analyze the policy implications for this social justice problem. In this analysis:

Research and describe current, enacted policies that seek to address this social justice problem. These policies must be passed legislation that currently in practice. Legislation can be at the federal or state level, but ultimately your course project will require you to select a federal policy.

Analyze how effective these policies are in addressing the needs of your chosen population or subgroup. Do the policies effectively address the social justice problem? Provide a rationale that includes scholarly, peer-reviewed research.

Assess the impact these policies have had on your selected population or subgroup. What policy constraints exist for this population?

Compare advocacy methods for the selected social justice problem.

Guidelines

Read the Exploration of Social Justice scoring guide for information on how your work will be graded.

Reference the Social Policy Research Tutorial for guidance on how to conduct your research.

Additional Requirements

The assignment should meet the following requirements:

Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.

APA formatting: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA style and formatting standards.

Cited resources: Minimum of five scholarly sources. All literature cited should be current, with publication dates within the past five years.

Length of paper: Four to six double-spaced, typed pages.

Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.

Due date: Assignment must be submitted to your instructor in the courseroom no later than 11:59 p.m. Central Time on Sunday of this week.