Reference no: EM132280067

Policy Interview Paper

You will identify a current policy issue relevant to you, interview a key community stakeholder that can speak to the issue, and write a final policy interview paper that describes current social policies related to the issue, incorporates background research, and provides recommendations for future policy and practice.

The paper is worth a maximum of 100 points and should be limited to 6-8 double-spaced, typewritten pages excluding the title page and references. All papers are to be turned in via BeachBoard using the Dropbox feature. The
course calendar lists related due dates.

Writing the Paper

Content and Organization

Address each of the points in the following outline. This outline should be used to organize your paper. Explanations given below will be discussed further in class, and your essay should be based on both.

I. Title Page (Title, Your Name, Course, and Semester)

You do not need a running head or abstract.

II. Introduction (Purpose, Organization)

The Purpose of your paper is to gain an in-depth understanding of an important issue facing children and families today, and to understand how social policies in the United States are related to the community programs and services designed to address this need.

You must explain what social policy is and why it is important to children and families. Make sure you include citations. When writing about the Organization of your paper, state the sequence in which topics will be presented in the discussion, reflection and conclusions sections of your paper.

III. Discussion

A. (Your Topic if Interest)

Your focus in this section will be on describing a social policy issue of importance to you (e.g., The importance of after-school programs, Increasing access to high-quality early care and education for low-income families). Why does this issue matter? How does it impact children and/or families? What are best practices or programs that have shown to have positive effects? Are there key components to ensure high quality services? You must cite a minimum of three outside sources in this section (e.g., books, peer-reviewed journal articles).

B. An Interview with (Title of Community Stakeholder Interviewed)

Provide a description of the community program you chose for your interview. What is it called? Where is it located? What types of services do they provide? Provide a description of the community stakeholder you interviewed. What is their title/role? What do they do? Provide context for the interview. When and where did it take place? How long did it last? What was it like?

Talk about the most meaningful highlights from your interview. You do not have to recap the entire interview, rather explain the most relevant and interesting things you learned. What did you learn about the program/topic of interest? What did you learn about the children and/or families who participate in the program? What did you learn about how the program is funded?

C. Social Policy Connections

Based on what you learned from your interview and your own research, how does social policy relate to your topic of interest? Specifically, what government actions help to fund the program/services you learned about? For example, is there a law or universal program to address the need? Is it a funding priority for a particular branch of the government (e.g., Administration for Children and Families, Office of Child Care, Office of Family Assistance)? Does the money come from the federal government, the state, or local community?

Based on what you have learned, what recommendations do you have for future policy efforts? What recommendations do you have for practice? How can we better meet the needs of children and families?

IV. Reflection and Conclusions

What was the experience of conducting the policy interview like? What was easy about it, and what was challenging? What was the most meaningful thing you learned about your topic of interest? What did you learn about social policy? What did you learn about yourself through this experience?

V. References

Provide a list of the published sources you used when writing your paper. You should cite these sources in the text of the paper and should provide a listing of them at the end of the paper. You will be required to use APA format for in-text citations and the reference page.