practice exercise community demographics 1

Getting Started

You’ve identified a need within your own local community and a stakeholder who helped you assess it, developed a problem summary statement, and considered ethical dilemmas.

In this worksheet activity, you’ll find more information for your social action proposal by evaluating community or organizational demographics based on public data sources and your own knowledge of the community or organization.

Using the United States Census Community Facts website, locate key population data for your community. Key population data can vary depending on the nature of your proposal, but it might include population size, major demographic groups within the community, and median age. You may use other locally available data unique to your community, available through the United Way or other community agencies, to help you identify key demographics. Additionally, use your own knowledge to help you identify diversities in your community. As you develop your proposal further, you will acknowledge and account for these diversities.

Upon successful completion of this assignment, you will be able to:

• Explore the impact diversity and difference have in working with communities and organizations. (PO 2)
• Interpret information and data collected from communities and organizations. (PO 8)

Resources

• Web Resource: Community Facts
• File: Community Demographics.pdf

Background Information

The Christens, Inzeo, and Faust article notes that community or organizational change involves bringing together people living in the community to investigate common concerns, exploring solutions, and implementing social action to address the concerns. People living in the community or working in the organization who are most affected by a social problem should be engaged in the solution. To best engage them, the macro social worker must first understand key demographic details such as population size, major demographic groups in the community, and median age. Understanding these issues can help the macro social worker identify the diversities present in the community.

Instructions

1. Review the rubric to make sure you understand the criteria for earning your grade.
2. Visit the U.S. Census Community Facts website to identify key demographics in your community that may be useful in developing your social action project proposal, which is due in Workshop Eight.
3. Review the assessment criteria in the grading rubric below to understand the grading guidelines for this reflection.
4. Download the Practice Exercise Worksheet: Community Demographics file. On the worksheet, do the following:
   1. For example, if your social action project deals with homelessness, you would want to search for data to quantify the number of homeless people in the community and the demographic groups that are most likely to be homeless.
   2. After you have searched the Community Facts website, identify your community’s population size, major demographic groups, and median age.
   3. Supplement this information with data from community resources that are relevant to your social action proposal.
   4. In two or three sentences, interpret what the data means and how you will use it to inform your social action proposal.

"Looking for a Similar Assignment? Get Expert Help at an Amazing Discount!"