Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Welcome to our Blog for the Research Practicum, Fall, 2012! We will use this Blog to post your presentations about the social work agencies that are the contexts for your research proposals. This way you can learn more about social work agencies and their needs in the United States and Lithuania, and give each other feedback about your proposal ideas.
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Getting to Know Your Agency
ReplyDeleteKathleen Best, Rebecca Edds, and Sarah Klowden
Whittier Elementary School, located in Oak Park, a suburb outside of Chicago Illinois, is one of seven public elementary schools and two middle schools that make up District 97. Whittier Elementary schools is 67% White, 27% Black, 3% Hispanic, and 3% Asian/Pacific Islander. Whittier spends an average of $12,000 per student, while the national average is $9,200. Seventeen percent of students at Whittier qualify for free and reduced lunch while the national average is 39% (Great Schools). According to published statements, “The mission of Oak Park Elementary School District 97 is to guarantee that each student achieves optimal intellectual growth while developing socially, emotionally, and physically through a system distinguished by: exemplary instruction focused on each student, commitment to the needs of a diverse population, meaningful partnerships with families and the community, celebrations of the power of art, music, and language, and confident students challenged to be educational risk-takers” (Oak Park Elementary District 97). As part of District 97, Whittier strives to uphold this mission to the greatest extent.
Whittier provides a variety of programs and services in addition to the primary focus of educating children in kindergarten to fifth grade. Some of these services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, nursing services, an on staff psychologist and social worker, and providing therapy and counseling for the students and special education classrooms. Whittier also sponsors several clubs, such chess and Spanish club, along with band and orchestra.
Two early childhood classrooms are housed in Whittier that provide special education services for children ages three to five who qualify. Additionally, Whittier conducts Play Based Assessments (PBA) for the district to identify which preschool age children qualify for the several district early childhood intervention programs.
Furthermore, for the past twenty years Whittier has been the home school for the children living in Hephzibah, a group home for abused and neglected children ages birth to twelve. Hephzibah in turn offers a free afterschool program for all children attending a district elementary school.
Rainbows is another program run by Whittier. Rainbows targets children dealing with parental loss due to divorce or death. Because students experiencing divorce often benefit from extra support, Whittier has implemented the Rainbows program in an effort to support the subset of their population affected by divorce. At the moment Whittier does not evaluate the outcomes from their Rainbows group. The lack of evidence-based practice surrounding Rainbow’s effectiveness solicits the idea for further research.
References
Whittier Elementary School Overview. (2012). Retrieved September 20, 2012, from Great Schools website: http://www.greatschools.org/
Mission. (2012). Retrieved September 20, 2012, from Oak Park Elementary District 97 website: http://www.op97.org/
Getting to know your agency: The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless
ReplyDeleteDevon Spooner, Kellie Stryker, and Samantha Bauer
The Chicago Coalition for the Homeless is a non-profit that uses community organizing, advocacy and legal aid to press for measures that help homeless people get back on their feet. CCH counters public complacency about people left homeless and without options due to extreme poverty. The Chicago Coalition for the homeless is a non-profit organization. Donations, foundations, corporate and partner sponsors as well as individual support fund them. The agency Speakers Bureaus also help raise funds for outreach projects. CCH works in these key areas: Community organizing, Advocacy and Public Policy, and the Law Project.
Community organizing trains homeless people to advocate on key issues. Each year, more than 4,500 people participate in weekly to monthly outreach programs at shelters, transitional housing and street programs across Chicago. They also use community outreach, Speakers Bureaus, and various projects to spread awareness and resources throughout the city of Chicago and the surrounding areas.
Advocacy and Public Policy
Advocacy and public policy works to preserve the shelter safety net, develop affordable housing, and improve the supply of transitional and living wage jobs. We press for access to support services and public schools. CCH also pursues re-entry options for the formerly incarcerated, including women who were trafficked in the sex trade.
Law Project
The Law Project offers no-charge legal aid services.
Under state and federal law, homeless students are entitled to remain at the school they attended before they became homeless, or enroll in the public school nearest to where they are now living. Children and teens whose families must double-up with family or friends to avoid being on the street are recognized as homeless by the U.S. Department of Education. The law intends to protect school stability for children who already coping with the instability of their family’s homelessness.
Working with CCH community organizers, the Law Project provides regular outreach at family, youth and adult shelters. At shelter visits, the Law Project distributes information about the legal rights of homeless people. The Law project is waiting to receive a new grant and from there would like to spend more time working with the pregnant and parenting teen wards of the state.
As a part of the Law Project the agency wants to know how pregnant and parenting teens close to emancipation are fairing. This is where research proposal comes in. We want to find out how these teens are doing, from the prospective of the teens themselves. It is relevant to the Chicago Coalition, because their aim is to prevent and eliminate homelessness.
References
(Dworkin, Blonsky, Lambertson & Kostrzewski, 2000)