Essay Instructions: Winter 2014
ASSIGNMENT 2:
A LESSON IN SOCIAL ACTIVISM
Due Date: Week 10 by start of Seminar
BACKGROUND TO THE ASSIGNMENT
This assignment asks you to plan a social action strategy in support of a group of single mothers who are all experiencing various types of landlord difficulties. You will be given a brief case history that explains the situation upon which you are to base your strategy.
In our course text, Chappell writes the following: “Social action is based on the assumption that there are disadvantaged or oppressed groups in society who have to be organized in order to demand justice from the larger society. Social activists may choose to either join forces with these disadvantaged groups or act on their behalf. In either case, social action is a collective effort that attempts to convince those holding power to reform unjust policies, practices or systems. (Social action) does not require a consensus for change within the community. Indeed, social action may take place even when a majority of the community denies that a problem exists.”
“Social activists use a variety of strategies to promote their cause, gain support, and bring about positive change. These include collaboration strategies (such as lobbying), campaign strategies (such as petitions), and contest strategies (such as demonstrations).” pp217, 218-Chappell.
Here is the case history.
You are a caseworker in a community family shelter. Molly has been a shelter client for several weeks.
Molly is a 25 year old single mother. She has two children: Ben, 5 years and Alexis, 4 years. She is not married to the father of the children who has been out of the picture since Alexis was born. He does not provide any financial support to Molly and her children. His current whereabouts are unknown. Molly is receiving social assistance.
Three weeks ago, Molly was evicted from her small apartment in the downtown core. The family is living temporarily in your shelter. It appears that her former landlord, Mr. Paladin, evicted the family when he found out that Molly was on welfare and apparently was also late with two rent payments in a row. Molly quotes him as saying, “I’ve got no use for you young moms who just live to rip off welfare, can’t keep the place clean and don’t want to get a job. Not only that, but I’ve had complaints that your shouting at those kids keeps disturbing my other tenants. So out you go.”
Mr. Paladin is well known to the staff at your shelter. Molly and her family are only the latest of about a half dozen, woman lead, lone-parent families in similar circumstances who have been evicted by him over the past eighteen months. If there ever was a model for a slum landlord, Paladin is the poster boy. His apartments and buildings are notorious for terrible living conditions but they are cheap, centrally located and therefore appeal to individuals with limited means and usually one or more kids.
The shelter staff has decided that they have had enough of Mr. Paladin’s antics, attitudes and abusive behaviours. They have also decided to target several other local landlords who have a lengthy history of similar behaviours and attitudes. Enough is enough and they have collectively decided to take action and stop this cycle of harassment and evictions. You have volunteered to be the lead planner in this action.
REQUIRED OUTLINE AND CONTENT CATEGORIES FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT
Your Assessment Of The Essential Dynamics In The Case Study
Briefly describe what you believe to be some of the key dynamics in Molly’s situation with Mr. Paladin. On a broader scale, what is your impression of the apparent systemic housing and discriminatory issues that the shelter staff has identified over the past eighteen months?
Your Social Action Plan And Strategy
You have four possible approaches in developing your social action plan against Mr. Paladin and the other discriminatory landlords in the community.
Your plan and strategy can be one of the three that Chappell identifies: collaboration, campaign or contest. Or a fourth approach which is a combination of all or some of these strategies.
Although you can decide what specific points to include in your plan, here are some points you may wish to consider.
What is the objective(s) and desired outcome(s) of your plan and strategy?
What specific steps will you do to put your plan into action? What is the rationale for each step?
What support do you expect to receive for your plan and from whom?
What will be the anticipated challenges and barriers that will need to be overcome?
How do you propose to deal with client confidentiality?
What are the possible legal considerations, if any, of undertaking this action?
What legislation, if any, do you need to consider in planning your actions?
How do you anticipate the local media will respond to your action?
How do you expect the landlord group and their advocates to react?
How will you know that you have been successful in realizing all or some of your desired outcomes?
Feel comfortable in being quite creative, but realistic, in developing your plan and strategy for implementing it. However, whatever you choose to do in your action plan, it must not contravene existing laws.
Your Reflections On The Learning You Have Done In Completing This Assignment
This is a challenging assignment! Describe how doing the assignment has informed your understanding of (a) social activism and (b) the influence of policy and practice in shaping the daily lives of vulnerable, at risk population groups.
THE TEAM PROJECT OPTION
An alternative method of completing this Assignment is a ‘team project’ option in addition to the usual method of a student completing the assignment on his or her own.
IF YOU CHOOSE THE PROJECT TEAM OPTION
Here are the expectations.
Team Size. A maximum of three students can form a project team. Two students can also form a team. There will not be any exceptions made for a team larger than three individuals. Experience with project teams can be frustrating for conscientious students if fellow team members do not share your interest level, work discipline and passion for excellence. Limiting a team to only three active members reduces the chances of non-contributory or absent members.
Confirming Team Membership. A team must notify the Instructor as soon as possible of their intent to complete the Assignment as a work group. It must be via email and the Instructor reserves the right to refuse to approve the proposed team membership. The Instructor will confirm his agreement with the team membership via email to the team members.
Appointing A Team Manager. Each team must designate someone to be the manager. The manager is the team’s contact with the Instructor if needed. The manager’s main responsibility is to ensure that each team member actively participates in the research, planning and writing up of the Assignment. The name of the team’s manager must be made known to the Instructor in an email before the team begins work on the Assignment.
Identification Of Responsibilities. In the submitted Assignment, a project team must include a short section that lists each of the members and his or her specific contributions to the development and writing of the paper.
A Team Experiencing Difficulties. The team manager must notify the Instructor immediately if the team is experiencing difficulties in peer relationships, work ethic and meeting personal commitments. Based on the information provided, the Instructor may choose to personally intervene with the team’s members to help resolve the dysfunctional behaviours and/or attitudes.
Grading The Assignment. All project team members will receive the same grade for the assignment as given by the Instructor.
ADDITIONAL EXPECTATIONS FOR YOUR ASSIGNMENT PAPER
Cover Page. Include running head (flush left and in full caps), page number (indent five spaces from right margin), title of the assignment, your name, course name (COUN 56), instructor’s name and date the assignment is due. Must conform to APA standards. See example provided in assignment 1 outline.
Length and format of the paper. The assignment will require a minimum of six pages. Line spacing should be double spaced. The number of pages does not include the cover page.
Grammar, spelling and writing style.
APA standards.
Written communication is an essential core skill in the social work field.
If you are not yet skilled in any or all of these areas, please make sure you get a friend, class mate or family member who is skilled in these areas to proof read your paper before you hand it in! Also, use your computer’s spell check program to double check your grammar, etc. But remember that spell check is not infallible and will often miss errors.
Questions, concerns about the Assignment. Don’t stress yourself out unnecessarily on this assignment by sitting on your concerns and questions. Contact your Instructor in person or via the College’s email system with your concerns, etc as soon as possible.
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Another way of looking at assignment #2
Read Molly’s Story
You are a caseworker in a community family shelter. Molly has been a shelter client for several weeks.Molly is a 25 year old single mother. She has two children: Ben, 5 years and Alexis, 4 years. She is not married to the father of the children who has been out of the picture since Alexis was born. He does not provide any financial support to Molly and her children. His current whereabouts are unknown. Molly is receiving social assistance. Three weeks ago, Molly was evicted from her small apartment in the downtown core. The family is living temporarily in your shelter. It appears that her former landlord, Mr. Paladin, evicted the family when he found out that Molly was on welfare and apparently was also late with two rent payments in a row. Molly quotes him as saying, “I’ve got no use for you young moms who just live to rip off welfare, can’t keep the place clean and don’t want to get a job. Not only that, but I’ve had complaints that your shouting at those kids keeps disturbing my other tenants. So out you go.”Mr. Paladin is well known to the staff at your shelter. Molly and her family are only the latest of about a half dozen, woman lead, lone-parent families in similar circumstances who have been evicted by him over the past eighteen months. If there ever was a model for a slum landlord, Paladin is the poster boy. His apartments and buildings are notorious for terrible living conditions but they are cheap, centrally located and therefore appeal to individuals with limited means and usually one or more kids. The shelter staff has decided that they have had enough of Mr. Paladin’s antics, attitudes and abusive behaviours. They have also decided to target several other local landlords who have a lengthy history of similar behaviours and attitudes. Enough is enough and they have collectively decided to take action and stop this cycle of harassment and evictions. You have volunteered to be the lead planner in this action.
Add to the back story ??" who is Molly, does she have family, education, is she from the area, how did she get to where she is right now?
What are the dynamics of her situation? Why did Mr. Paladin say what he said, what are some of the apparent systemic housing and discriminatory issues that the shelter staff has identified over the past eighteen months?
Answer the following questions in detail
What is your plan to create some sort of social change?
What is the objective(s) and desired outcome(s) of your plan and strategy?
What specific steps will you do to put your plan into action? What is the rationale for each step?
What support do you expect to receive for your plan and from whom?
What will be the anticipated challenges and barriers that will need to be overcome?
How do you propose to deal with client confidentiality?
What are the possible legal considerations, if any, of undertaking this action?
What legislation, if any, do you need to consider in planning your actions?
How do you anticipate the local media will respond to your action?
How do you expect the landlord group and their advocates to react?
How will you know that you have been successful in realizing all or some of your desired outcomes?
Describe how your feeling and knowledge changed about social activism while doing this paper
*******************Please note: you can add to mollys story... example... how did she get to where she is now... is she impverished or did she just get into a bad relationship....if so, please outline this. please give a summary of her past... or anything you add to the story
when thinking of different things you can do.. somethings that came to mind would be : subsadized day care and housing, payment plans, money management, time managagment, food banks... getting the community involved but if so, would molly want to be kept anonymous? if not, why? do you want to get the landlords involved?? do you want to create programs? details need to be given and supported... please give a thorough explanations and many ideas/concepts/facts to support your ideas.
including in text citations - you may feel the need to draw upon facts or quotes from different laws etc. . . if this is the case please provide intext citations and a reference page - ive noted three references. but if you choose to have more that is fine too
*************** i will be sending around a rubric with this as well ( additional resources) so you can see how this would be marked.
example 4 marks are given 4 concret facts and support for those ideas/concepts.
Please let me know if you have any further questions. this is a fairly in depth paper
