For this module, your Be The Change assignment focuses on assessing a need to learn more about an identified problem.
Start by thinking of a topic that is important to you. It can be the environment, senior supports, the opiate crisis, immigration, education, healthcare, gender equality, social justice, or any other area of concerns to you.
Pretend you are eligible to receive a considerable amount of grant funds to help with this issue in your community, but you have to create a meaningful plan for making a difference. In order to truly know the needs and develop intervention strategies, you will need to talk to stakeholders about their ideas and perceptions.
Who would you want to include as part of your task force or advisory board? Choose at least 5 individuals (can be actual people or you can share roles or titles, and briefly share why you want to include them in the planning phase of your project (5 points).
For example, if your topic was related to changes in the foster care system, you could invite:
Foster care supervisor from the local child welfare agency to help us understand current trends that are impacting the number of youth in care and the number of local foster families in the community.
Foster parent to give perspective on what resources are helpful to support their work.
Director of inpatient addictions agency to discuss possible options for creating more programs to keep youth connected to their parents while undergoing treatment or rehab.
Safe and Drug Free Community Coalition leaders who have the data from schools and the community to understand current trends of substance abuse.
Local pastor whose church hosts different support groups in the community and whose congregation has set up an emergency fund to support families in need during crisis (eviction, utility shut-off).
As your first task would be to conduct interview or focus groups, what key (at least 5) questions would you ask your committee given your topic of choice? Be sure the questions are specific to the topic and not general questions like “what do you think would make the greatest impact?” (5 points).
