Advocacy Project: Children, Families, Schools, and Communities

Advocacy Project Overview

This semester-long project is designed to help you link course content to your understanding of how to enhance collaborative relationships between families, schools, children, and community.  You will identify an issue at your school or community that needs solving or highlighting.  You will

• draft an advocacy statement,
• interview stakeholders,
• research the issue, and
• create a public service announcement or op-ed piece that demonstrates what you have learned.

The project is scaffolded into four assignments, each building off of each other:

1. Advocacy Statement (10 points)
2. Stakeholder Interviews (25 points)
3. Annotated Bibliography (30 points)
4. Fostering Support (35 points)

After each assignment, you will receive significant feedback.  The success of each individual assignment and final project depends on your positive response to and ongoing improvement based on that feedback.

Examples of successful Advocacy Projects from previous semesters include

• Convincing the city council to set aside funds to install an additional crosswalk and traffic light in front of a preschool located in a high traffic area;
• Requesting funds from the school administrator to purchase children’s books in multiple languages;
• Creating a grant proposal from an after-school program that sought to create a program to send dinner home to families in danger of food insecurity;
• Developing protocols for events at a community center that outlined, clearly, the food selection, preferences, allergies, and religious observances of community members;
• Petitioning a school to offer Individual Education Plan meetings in the evenings, weekends, and/or via Zoom to increase access for families.

Note that you are not required to implement your Advocacy Project this semester.  This renewable assignment is designed to help you brainstorm a project, and develop resources around it prior to implementation.  Many prior students in this course have implemented their projects at the end of the semester in their communities or places of employment.  Implementation, not required but recommended, is not part of your final grade.

Step One:  Advocacy Statement

• Due approximately ¼ of the way into a semester
• 10 point total

The purpose of your Advocacy Project is to

• examine areas of strength and needed improvements within communities, schools, and families.
• identify relevant intervention strategies to support strengths and weaknesses.
• develop an advocacy statement that supports the intervention strategy.

Step Two:  Stakeholder Perspective

• Due approximately 1/2 of the way into a semester
• 25 point total

Instructions:

1. Review your Advocacy Statement and relevant instructor feedback.
2. Interview a minimum of three community stakeholders that are important for your project.  Stakeholders are individuals who have a “stake” in the outcome of a debate or project.  They range from direct users, to business people, to politicians, etc.  Your task in this assignment is to collect qualitative data about the strengths and weaknesses of your Advocacy Statement.  Interviews will help you to answer
   1. Has this work already been done and you just don’t know about it?
   2. Would the community support your idea?
   3. Would the community outright reject your idea?
   4. What are the angles that you have not yet considered?
3. You may also gather data on stakeholder support or debate about your advocacy statement through attendance at community meetings, reputable news sources, or reputable social media posts.
4. Your interviews or attendance at community meetings should last approximately 45 minutes- 1 hour each.
5. For each interview or data collection source, submit the name, contact information, and a maximum two-page, double-spaced summary of what you learned.
6. You will submit your assignment in a single document, ensuring that each interview is separated by a header.  I will provide feedback on your document, so watch for a graded, annotated file.
7. After receiving feedback, you have the option to revise and resubmit your work if you received 20 or fewer points.

Grading:

Step Three:  Annotated Bibliography

• Due approximately 3/4 of the way into a semester
• 35 point total

Instructions:

1. 1. Review your Advocacy Statement and relevant instructor feedback.
   2. Review the data you collected in your Stakeholder Interviews and relevant instructor feedback.
   3. Research information relevant to your Advocacy Statement.  Your research must originate in the college Library databases and other reputable sources.  Simple Google searches will not suffice.
   4. Begin your submission by placing your Advocacy Statement at the top of your document.
   5. Turn your Advocacy Statement into a Research Question.  Place this directly under your Advocacy Statement at the top of your document.
   6. Write an Annotated Bibliography in APA 7th edition format with a minimum of three research-based sources related to your Advocacy Statement and stakeholder interviews.  Each annotation must include a summary, evaluation and reflection on your source.  Each annotation should be approximately one page in length, or approximately 4-8 sentences.  Your Annotated Bibliography must be double-spaced.
      1. The OWL Writing Center at Purdue University offers fuller explanations and examples of annotated bibliographies if you are unfamiliar with this format.
      2. Your college Librarian can also be helpful for this assignment!
      3. Check out this interactive slideshow tutorial if you need additional guidance with APA formatting.
      4. Check out this interactive tool if you need additional guidance with the anatomy of an annotated bibliography.
      5. After receiving feedback, you have the option to revise and resubmit your work if you received 24 or fewer points.

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      Step Four:  Fostering Support

      • Due at the end of a semester
      • 35 point total

      Instructions:

      1. Review your Advocacy Statement and relevant instructor feedback.
      2. Review the data you collected in your Stakeholder Interviews and relevant instructor feedback.
      3. Review the research you outlined in your Annotated Bibliography and relevant instructor feedback.
      4. Your task is to foster community support for your Advocacy Project. Create a video-based Public Service Announcement or a Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed about your Advocacy Statement.  Your Public Service Announcement must be no longer than 3 minutes and must include a mixture of image and voice.  Your Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed must be no longer than 600 words.
      • Penn State University offers examples and a description of elements to consider when creating a Public Service Announcement.
      • Tips for writing effective Op Ed pieces
      • More tips for writing effective Op Ed pieces, with step by step instructions

      You must include evidence from Assignments 1, 2, and 3 in your Public Service Announcement or Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed.  Think carefully about how to integrate qualitative, quantitative, and research-based evidence into your outreach for support and funding.   You must include an APA style Works Cited page.

      Grading:

      Criteria	Points	Comments
      Student adheres to length guidelines and includes a properly formatted Works Cited page in APA or MLA style.	/3
      Student includes evidence from Advocacy Statement.  This should include the statement itself, strengths, areas of needed improvement, or some combination of those above.	/8
      Student include evidence from Stakeholder Perspective.  This should include at least one direct quote or paraphrase from stakeholder(s).	/8
      Student includes evidence from Annotated Bibliography.  This should include at least two direct quotes, paraphrases, or data points from your research.	/8
      Public Service Announcement or Letter to the Editor or Op-Ed engages with a specific audience or stakeholder type.  This is evidenced by the images, language, and messaging used to convey the advocacy statement and key convincing points.	/8
      If applicable if a student receives 28 or less points:  Student revised the assignment based on instructor feedback in any of the criteria listed above.	/7