HSE 480 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric
The final project for this course is the creation of a comprehensive human services program proposal.
You will complete a capstone that integrates the knowledge and skills you have developed in previous coursework by conducting a community needs assessment that will ultimately inform the creation of a comprehensive human services program proposal designed to meet a specific consumer need in the community. There are three major components: (1) community needs assessment; (2) human services program proposal; and a (3) professional and personal reflections paper. Think of the community needs assessment and human services program proposal as the two parts of one final assessment. Your personal and professional reflection will be a separate document attached to your final submission as an appendix.
In this assignment, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following course outcomes:
*Evaluate the social, political, and historical milestones and trends in human services in relation to the human services professional’s role in advocating for individuals, families, and communities in need • Apply culturally responsive strategies across diverse populations to strengthen professional practice and enhance human services outcomes • Apply legal and ethical standards in the administration and delivery of human services systems to provide comprehensive and well-informed care • Employ professional, interpersonal dynamics in formal and informal networks to improve human services delivery • Evaluate the policy development cycle for advocacy avenues, communication strategies, and coalition-building opportunities to effect social change • Develop knowledge and skills in inquiry, critical and creative thinking, and decision making to create and implement appropriate assessment and intervention strategies.
Prompt
Your completed capstone project will be a final paper with several sections and follow this outline:
- Cover Page
- Table of Contents
- Executive Summary
- Community Needs Assessment (Capstone Component 1)
- Human Services Program Proposal (Capstone Component 2)
- Appendices (Appendix A and B)
- References
- Appendix: Personal and Professional Reflection (Capstone Component 3)
Instructions
Attn: For this Final Project I chose Child and Family Welfare in the community that I work with in the Bronx, New York. Focusing on Neglect and Abuse Children.
Capstone Component 1: Community Needs Assessment
For the first of three components, you will choose a local community and conduct an assessment of that community in relation to a social problem. Typically, this is a community that is somewhat familiar to you and is limited to a city, county, or neighborhood level. For example, if you have identified a problem with child hunger in your hometown, your assessment should seek to uncover how and why this is happening by conducting a review of the literature and collecting and analyzing data on your chosen community, while also identifying existing resources designed to combat child hunger. You will not be conducting a full community needs assessment; rather, you will be identifying a need through a preliminary review of local newspapers or other relevant sources and talking with other human services professionals who live or work in the area. Your instructor is available to review sources and identify ways to obtain information and navigate the system. From there, you will research what is out there, what is missing, what others have done to solve the problem, and so on. This comprehensive evaluation also presents the opportunity for you to engage the community. In your evaluation, you will be required to contact appropriate individuals in the community, either directly or using the internet or the telephone, to interview them about the problem you have selected. This does not fully meet the “fieldwork” definition, but it will require you to become involved with your selected community in some form and engage providers and consumers.
Your community needs assessment should include the following sections:
I. Overview of Community and Problem: This section should serve as the foundation for presenting your community assessment and is your opportunity to comprehensively describe the selected community and identified problem. Overall, it is important to include any information that is pertinent for comprehending the community and problem—it is up to you to establish a robust context for understanding and responding to the community’s need.
II. Gathering Community Information (Methodology): In this section, you will discuss your methodology for collecting the information about your community and provide a summary of your findings. Your methodology will involve conducting a brief systematic literature review of your chosen community, the problem you identified in Milestone One, and other communities who have dealt with the same issue or problem. In other words, for this section, discuss how you will collect the information and provide justification for your chosen method(s) by outlining the exact steps you will take to complete your systematic literature review.
III. Literature Review: Using primary and secondary sources, analyze how the problem is being addressed in other communities. How prevalent is it? Through a review of the literature, evaluate the social, political, and historical milestones and trends relative to the identified problem. You should also review interventions that have been attempted in other communities and their success, or lack thereof.
IV. Needs Analysis: This section should include your analysis of the information you gathered on the community. This will provide the conclusions you have drawn from thinking about the findings you described in the preceding section. Based on your assessment of the community and comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the problem:
• What is the magnitude of the problem in the community?
• What resources and interventions currently exist in the community?
• Provide a description of the impact the current resources and interventions are having on the population. Are they effective? Why or why not?
• What are the obstacles that exist in the community that prevent impacting or addressing the problem?
• Why is this problem one that the community needs to address? What are the demographics of the individuals affected by the problem?
Citations/Formatting:
Your community needs assessment should be approximately 5 pages in length and should include the necessary elements that one would find in a professional needs assessment. It should include a title page, table of contents, bibliography, and appendices, if applicable. The information should be cited according to the rules of the latest publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). You may include illustrations, photographs, graphs and charts, and other non-textual materials as needed to support the needs assessment. These can be placed as an appendix at the end of the final paper or, if appropriate, incorporated in the body of your paper.
Capstone Component 2: Human Services Program Proposal
Based on your findings and assessment of your chosen community, you will develop a proposal that lays out a program/project description for addressing the problem you have identified.
The proposal should have the following elements:
I. Statement of Need: This section serves as a summary of the community assessment document you just created. This is where you should highlight the most important points of your needs analysis, being sure to also address specific cultural considerations.
II. Program Proposal Description: In this section, you will describe the evidenced-based program you think the community should implement and discuss how and why it will make a positive difference in the community.
III. Goals and Objectives: This section is an opportunity for you to offer a comprehensive description of what your program aims to do and how those goals will be achieved. Define potential measurable improvements in behavior, performance, and process, or highlight a tangible item that will result from the project.
IV. Method/Intervention: This section should include a detailed description of the activities required to achieve the project objectives. You will summarize them in the “Intervention” column in the logic model chart and then explain them in the body of your paper.
V. Staffing/Administration/Resource Needs: This section should cover the resources necessary to implement your program, such as staffing and overall budget needs (the resources column in the logic model chart). It should include a short description of the number of staff members needed, their qualifications, and a brief summary of what they will do. You will summarize the information in the provided chart template and explain it within your paper.
VI. Program Evaluation Plan: The logic model chart that you will add as an appendix represents your program evaluation plan. You now need to describe the data collection process. This section is a description of how the organization will know the project is a success. What methods will be used to evaluate success? What types of measures will be used? Who will do the measurement? What data will need to be collected? Who will collect the data?
VII. Guidelines for Program Implementation and Stakeholder Communication Tool: You will begin by creating an implementation plan using the provided Implementation Plan Chart Template, which will be placed in Appendix B and described in this section of your capstone project. You will also identify one key stakeholder that you want to communicate with. Describe a communication tool that you determine would be most effective in gaining support for the proposed program from that one key stakeholder. A key stakeholder could be a mayor, governor, member of law enforcement, superintendent, legislator, or other person. Examples of appropriate communication tools include but are not limited to:
• Professional presentation that is designed for a specific audience
• Editorial for potential publication in the local paper in your community
• A letter for potential distribution to local media, with the goal of getting the story published or featured on the local news
• A letter for potential distribution throughout the community
• Social media messages
Regardless of your chosen communication tool, you must build a solid communication plan for a specific target audience that aims to convince them and gain buy-in for your ideas. For instance, your presentation might be crafted to be given before constituents at a town hall meeting or community leaders that have influence on ensuring that your proposed program moves forward. Your choices essentially depend on your overall project: your community, the identified problem, the data that you gathered in your needs assessment, and your program proposal.
Citations/Formatting:
Your program proposal should also be approximately 5 pages in length and include the necessary elements that one would find in a professional needs assessment. It should include a title page, table of contents, professional bibliography, and appendices, if applicable. The information should be cited according to the rules of the latest publication manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). You may include illustrations, photographs, graphs and charts, and other non-textual materials as needed to support the program proposal. These should be placed as an appendix at the end of the final paper.
Capstone Component 3: Professional Reflection
For the third and final component of your capstone, you will write a 4-page essay in which you discuss the process and outcomes of this project, as well as how your coursework culminated in the capstone project. This may include discussions of unforeseen problems or obstacles, and any unexpected surprises. The essay should also discuss your identified strengths and problems that you encountered while completing the project and outline how you will apply what you have learned to your future academic and/or professional life. Finally, the essay will examine how the capstone project will be useful in the job market or in furthering your education.
You should envision this component as a personal reflection on the capstone and your experience in the Human Services program as a whole. For instance, relative to the capstone, you could discuss what you did (or intended to do), and then consider what worked well, what challenges you faced, and what you would change or do differently to make your experience better. In reflecting on your time here at SNHU, you might discuss where you started, where you have ended up, where you see yourself going, and so on. Note that this component is not about evaluating the capstone itself but rather your experience within the capstone project. Include how your program and its implementation align with the code of ethics for human services professionals.
Some of the issues that you could address in this final component of this capstone may include:
• Overall, what was your capstone experience like?
• Reflect on the significance of the capstone in relation to your own experience at SNHU.
• What connections do you see between your capstone and your academic program?
• What ethical dilemmas or issues came up for you during your education as well as in the completion of the capstone?
Sample Solution