Essay: Policy on substance abuse.

In this Assignment, you write a proposal for some form of social advocacy that will seek to change a social, organizational, or legislative policy. The proposal may also involve advocacy for the amelioration of a social problem. The purpose of this assignment is to thoughtfully and thoroughly plan how you will advocate changing a social problem or policy that is of interest to you.

The policy practice/advocacy can take whatever form you wish and can be on any level: agency, community, state, or federal. You will submit a prospectus (3–4 pages) that describes the problem that is being addressed and the expected advocacy activities.

By Day 7

Provide a brief synopsis of your social problem and identification of a policy on substance abuse.

Describe the social problem or policy you would like to change, and the specific action you plan take to effect change.

Be specific when describing the social problem or policy you would like to change and address the following:

If you selected a policy, when was the policy enacted, by whom, and for what reason?

How are you going to work to change the policy/problem (i.e., plan for social advocacy)?

How will your efforts address the policy/social problem described?

Is continued policy practice/advocacy needed to make a long-term impact? Why or why not?

REFERENCE TO USE

Jansson, B. S. (2018). Becoming an effective policy advocate: From policy practice to social justice (8th ed.).

Pacific Grove, CA: Brooks/Cole Cengage Learning Series.Chapter 8, ”Placing Policy Proposals in Policy Briefs in the Second, Third, and Fourth Steps of Policy Analysis” (pp. 246-283)

Stuart, P. H. (1999). Linking clients and policy: Social work’s distinctive contribution. Social Work, 44(4), 335–347

Midgley, J., & Livermore, M. M. (Eds.) (2008). The handbook of social policy (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Chapter 6: ”The Impact of Social Policy” (pp. 83–100) (PDF)

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.