Psychology Service Project

Instructions: Type your essay in the spaces below. Save frequently to your computer as you work. Edit your work thoroughly. UPLOAD YOUR DOCUMENT as a WORD or RICH TEXT FORMAT file into the SERVICE PROJECT ESSAY DROP BOX in your BLACKBOARD CLASSROOM for grading by the DUE DATE.

1. In Paragraph 1, describe the specific history of the agency where you selected to volunteer. What is the name of the agency/organization? Where is it located? What does your agency/organization do? What social problem is your agency working on and what specific intervention are they using? This part of the 1st question must be a minimum of 150 words.

In Paragraph 2: What did you do while volunteering that helped with this intervention? For example; poverty is the social issue and they are providing meals is the intervention. This will require you to research online, talk with the people in charge and/or read information provided by the agency. What is the name, title, phone number and/or email address of your supervisor or agency contact person for your project (this is required!)? Be sure you CITE any sources for this agency in your BIBLIOGRAPHY section in the template you will use to complete your essay. Sources don’t count towards word count. This second part of the 1st question must also be a minimum of 150 words. (Note: these two paragraphs contain 153 words and 9 lines of text). Worth a maximum of 20% and/or 20 points

Skip a line between the question and YOUR ANSWER!

Bibliography: Any references you used, including books, websites, articles, personal interviews, cite here as shown in the instruction sheet.

2. How does your time serving in the community influence your ideas and perceptions about your community and the people who live there? This question must be a minimum of 100 words. Skip a line between the question and YOUR ANSWER! Worth a maximum of 10% of your grade or 10 points.

3. Relate what you have learned in the readings and class discussion to your experience in your agency. Specifically, you must relate at least 2 specific concepts from your textbook in this class to your experience in your agency. You MUST reference in the body of your paper the sources that you used with the specific page number. For example, if you used page 35 from your textbook in the body of your paper, be sure you cite your textbook author and year and page number (such as: Myers, 2014 p. 35 or Henslin, 2015, pg 101). As well, you will need to include this citation in your “bibliography” section of the template for this essay. See below on citing your sources. Note: The bibliography doesn’t count in the word count. This question must be a minimum of 200 words. Skip a line between the question and YOUR ANSWER! Worth a maximum of 20% of your grade or 20 points.

Bibliography: Any references you used, including books, websites, articles, personal interviews, cite here as shown in the instruction sheet.

4. Will you continue to volunteer and take action? What impact do you hope to have by continuing to volunteer at your selected agency? If you choose not to volunteer at your selected agency, then describe and discuss in SPECIFIC DETAIL, at least ONE ACTION STEP that you would be willing to do to apply some aspect of “social responsibility” that you learned in your volunteer work in your life. This question must be a minimum of 100 words. Worth a maximum of 10% of your grade or 10 points.

5. UNDERSTANDING THE EMPIRICAL DATA ON POVERTY: Below you will be examining some graphs and data related to poverty. Please type in the correct answers to the blanks BELOW IN THE ANSWER based on reading the data in this paragraph and these graphs.

Worth a maximum of 25% of your grade or 25 points. The rest of your points will be based on Organization (5% or 5 points) and your WRITING MECHANICS (10% or 10 points).

ANSWERS GO HERE: TYPE YOUR ANSWERS TO 5A, B, C, D and E: Delete the blanks, and PUT YOUR ANSWERS TO THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS BELOW:

5A) The # of homeless children and teens that die on the streets of America is ___________.

5B) If I am a homeless child in America I am most likely __________________(age group) and LEAST likely to be ______________(race).

5C) If current trends continue into the year 2020, WE CAN PREDICT that ______ % of adults WITHOUT a high school diploma will live in poverty, while only _________% of people with an Associate’s degree will live in poverty.

5D) Based on 50 week year, you will make $________ more a week if you have an Associate’s degree than if you have a high school diploma, and $___________ more a week than someone who has NO high school diploma, and based on a 50 week year, you would make $__________ a year with a high School Diploma versus $___________ a year with a 4 year Bachelor’s Degree .

5E) You will be ____________ times as likely to be unemployed if you don’t finish high school than if you have your Associate’s Degree.

EMPIRICAL AND GRAPHICAL DATA ON POVERTY:

5 A) Read the information below and answer 5A) So, who are the people you helped in doing your service project? Well, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP, 2014), a large percentage of people you are helping with your service project include American children and adolescents. More than sixteen million children and adolescents in the United States (21% of all children under the age of 18) live in families with incomes below the federal poverty level (NCPP, 2014). As well, only three in four American adolescents graduate from high school. That means, 25% of all American teens won’t graduate high school. This is troubling because not graduating from high school raises the chance of living in poverty by 49%, generating a cycle of poverty within families.

Other problems with poverty and lack of proper education are seen in the problem of homelessness. One in 50 U.S. children are currently homeless. Outside of the issue with lack of education, another reason for homelessness is that 44.9% of the children and adolescents who are now homeless had parents that were alcohol or drug addicted. There are many problems associated with homelessness. When children and teens are homeless it makes them more vulnerable to getting sick, as more than 1 in 7 homeless children and teens have moderate to severe health conditions, such as asthma. Tragically, homelessness also leads to 13 children or teenagers dying on the streets of America every day (Slesnick, 2004). Most children whose families are chronically homeless will not graduate high school.

Research conducted by Betts (1995) indicates that the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods have a negative impact on schools due to a declining tax base, making it harder to have decent facilities, educational supplies, and quality teachers. Many schools in low income areas are underfunded, and have trouble taking on all the challenges of giving the most needy children and adolescents the type of education that can lead them out of poverty (Betts, 1995). Hence, we see the succession of poverty that extends generationally in an unending cycle of despair.

Betts, J.R. (1995). Does school quality matter? Evidence from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth. The Review of Economics and Statistics, 77-2, pp 231-250.
National Center for Children in Poverty (2014): Basic facts about low-income children. Retrieved from http://www.nccp.org/publications/pub_1145.html

Slesnick, N. (2004) Homeless children and youth: A guide to understanding. Praeger Publisher.

5A) Put your answer above in the section for your answers: Calculate how many homeless children and teens will die each year in America based on 352 days in a year.

For 5B: Homelessness, Children & Teens: Fill in the blank: These two pie charts show the distribution of ages when it comes to homeless children and teens, as well as the racial make-up of the over 3.5 million homeless Americans. Put your answers above in the space for answers.

5B) By looking at the data in both the pie graphs below on the percentages of age groups and percentages of racial designations of the homeless children in America, if I am a homeless child in America, I am MOST likely _____________________(which age group?) and LEAST LIKELY to be _____________________ (which race)? (put your answers above in the answer sheet.

Figure 1: Age groups of homeless children in U.S.

5C ) TRENDS in POVERTY and UNEMPLOYMENT as they RELATE TO EDUCATIONAL ATTAINMENT: The line graph below shows us trends across 4 decades of time in the relationship between poverty and educational levels. The 2nd graph, a comparative bar graph, gives us a graphic representation of data on unemployment rates and salaries based on educational attainment. Please put your answers above for the space for answers to these questions regarding the trends in people without college educations and those with college education as they relate to poverty, earnings and unemployment rates.

5C) Based on the line graph below, and IF the current trends in poverty rates continue into 2020, put your ANSWERS ABOVE in the space for answers by filling in the statistical percentages for each educational level for living in poverty (based on the previous decades of change). If current trends hold steady, in 2020, we can predict that _______________% of people without a high school degree will live in poverty, while only ____________ % of people with a two-year college degree will be living in poverty.

Figure 21 March Curnet Population Survey NOTE: Civilians 25 years and older

5D and 5E) Relationships between educational attainment salary and unemployment. This comparative bar graph shows us the relationships between educational attainment, salary and unemployment rates. Put your answers above in the space provided for ANSWERS.

5D) Based on the comparative bar graph below, Calculate: In 2014, people with an Associate’s degree will make $____________ a week MORE than someone WITH a high school diploma and $______________ MORE a week than someone WITHOUT a high school diploma, and based on 50 weeks for a year, you would make $____________ a year with a high school diploma versus $__________ a year with a Bachelor’s Degree. .

5E) According to the bar graph below, you are ________ times more likely to be unemployed and if you have a high school diploma or just take a few classes here at Amarillo College, than if you stay the course and finish your ASSOCIATES degree or certification program.