Best Practice Briefs #4

This article focuses on several forms of community mapping. "Community Mapping" is used to refer to a process of inventorying resources or assets available to a specified neighborhood or community ("Best Practice Briefs", 1998-1999). This particular approach is called "community asset mapping". It includes identification of community assets for individual development and the inventorying of public capital and cultural resources. Then there is "community relationship mapping" which includes the visual presentations of relationships. Mapping is widely used for community, social and youth development ( Best Practice Briefs, 1998-1999). It is an appealing approach to building developmental aspects to avoid risky behavior.

WORK WORK WORK!!!

Last week was pretty rough. There were so many assignments that I had to complete for my Social Policy 445 class. Every other day, we had an assignment due, and they were very time consuming, especially when you are tyring to do a good job. We had to complete our policy paper draft which consist of over 40 pages, post comments on websites of our peers, and so many other things. Then next week, we have a set of policy term flashcards completed for Midterm. Then I also have a 10 page paper due in one of my other classes. Who knew college would be so much work? Yet and still, I am proud of myself, because I have been able to keep up...so far but I'm ready for this semester to be OVER! I am also so ready for this week to be over and done with so that I can enjoy a nice break. Luckily for me, this upcoming weekend starts our Spring Break session, which lasts for a week. During this time, I will get some well needed rest and focus on me for a change.

This is Why We Advocate!

Is This Guy Serious!- This is a Prime Example of Why We are Advocates!

According to Howard Hudsock from City Journal, " Housing projects radiate dysfunction and social problems outward, damaging local businesses and neighborhood property values. They hurt cities by inhibiting or even preventing these rundown areas from coming back to life by attracting higher income homesteaders and new business investment. Making matters worse, for decades cities have zoned whole areas to be public housing forever , shutting out in perpetuity the constant recycling of property that helps dynamic cities generate new wealth and opportunity for rich and poor alike".

In this article, Hudsock explains why public housing is harmful to society and contributes to social problems. His view of public housing is that it takes all the negative people in society such as welfare- dependent single-parent families " whose fatherless children disproportionately turn out to be school drop outs, drug users, non- workers, and criminals" ("Hudsock", 2003). Some of this may be true but what he says is not true for the majority of people to which he is referring to. Hudsock thinks that public housing is a s equally economically damaging as it is socially.

Link- http://www.city-journal.org/html/13_1_how_public_housing.html

Families on Welfare

This article takes a look into the economic situation of those families who have left cash assistance. Is there really a successful transition off of welfare? In order to answer this question, researchers take a look at the work or place of employment for these families. There are usually frequent turnovers in cash assistance programs, but little to no facts about whether or not families succeed after leaving these programs. Once people leave welfare ( welfare leavers), a lot of them do not find the best of jobs and end up working for minimum wage. About 2/3 of those employed work as clerical/administrative workers, service workers, or they work in the trade industry. These families are often referred to as "working poor" families. Then they also loose benefits such as Medicaid and child care subsidies. Welfare leavers with jobs tend to work in the same industries and occupations as those who are near poor and low income mothers.

" IF YOUR NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION, THEN YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM"

The Future of Children: Policy Brief 2007

This article gives you an in depth overview of how the skills, values, and knowledge installed in children at a young age, reflects their abilities once they get older and go out into the world. In order for us to have and sustain a productive future, we must invoke adequate knowledge into our children, even the ones who reside in urban/poor areas, in which we tend to look over in society. As the article points out, this means we need well-trained teachers who are adequate in technical subjects such as math and science. The article also speaks of poverty and the economy. The article introduces three factors that affect poverty. These factors include the economy, changes in family composition, and changes in government spending. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to know that the government does not spend much money on social issues, such as poverty and welfare as they do on war and other non-important entities. Poverty in female headed- families is four to five times higher than that of married families. It is a proven yet interesting fact that if American children were living with their married parents, then poverty would decline. The article also speaks about the welfare system in American society and the inequalities that are present within the system.

Facebook Group/ Wordpress site- " The Fundamentals of Public Housing"

I created a group in facebook for one of our social policy 445 assignments. This group offers you information you might want to know about public housing and what revolves around the particular concept. The group was also created for those of us who maybe unfamiliar with the concept of Public Housing. Many people , may be aware of public housing or may have heard he term before but may not know the fundamentals which the concept is built upon. I will be updating information about Public Housing throughout the semester and people are free to add their comments or suggestions at anytime. The link is as follows- http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=313888625759&ref=ts#!/group.php?v=info&ref=ts&gid=313888625759.

There is also information available to you at http://www.policy445.wordpress.com/ about Public Housing. This site offers more information that is both sufficient and helpful to those wondering minds. Information on this site will also be updated throughout the semester. So far on this site, I have discussed information about Public Housing and a brief introduction which speaks about the scope, target population, history, and etc. about Public Housing.

Kirsten Gillibrand [New York State Senator]. (n.d.). Retrieved February 7, 2010, from United States Senator Web site: http://gillibrand.senate.gov/

Chapter 9- Political Institutions

For this assignment, I located the Senator and Congressional Representatives of New York state which is my home town. The two senators of New York state are Kirsten Gillibrand and Charles Schumer. The Congressional Representative is Carolyn Mcarthy. Both websites offer you adequate and sufficient information. They both offer you information on social issues such as the senators website offers you information about the economy, health care, education, etc. The Congressional Representatives website also offers information about education and health care but this particular website gives you more choices of issues to choose from and read about, whereas the senators website is a little more narrow. Information on each website is adequate and they offer a lot of information. Both seem to focus from a liberal point of view with their focuses both being on social justice and their views of health care. On Senators Kirsten Gillibrand's website, she makes reference to the economy. She states that economic development and job creations were her first priority when she became senator. Congressional Representative Carolyn Mcarthy makes reference to the health care issues. It says that she has been working hard to provide a well trained and strong forced health care workforce that can meet growing demands. Governor David Paterson also has a lot of information on his website as well, only this information doesn't really seem to be about anything besides his speeches and bill reforms.