The purpose of this assignment is to give you the opportunity to synthesize and apply the knowledge you have gained from all your courses toward the completion of a comprehensive community project for a chosen geographic/geopolitical community. The community can be a city, town, borough, county, or parish. You will critically analyze the health of the selected population using principles of epidemiology, and you will design an evidence-based and assessment-based intervention for health promotion/risk reduction. 

The objectives of Community Analysis and Program paper are to develop skills to:

Assess the social determinants of health and healthcare needs of a selected community.

Gather historic, demographic, and bio-statistical data on a community.

• Analyze data to identify a wellness deficit or gap in care or services or social determinant of health that negatively affects the health and well-being of this community.
• Diagnose the strengths and weaknesses of the community.
• Research evidence-based approaches to address the identified gap in care or services or social determinant of health identified. 
• Create a feasible, collaborative community intervention to address one wellness deficit or gap in care or services or social determinant of health identified in your analysis of this community.
• [CO 1, CO 2] 
• INSTRUCTIONS

Identify the geographic/geopolitical community in the area where you live. Conduct a windshield survey of the geographic community. (Note: The time spent completing your windshield survey for this project can be used for your practice experience hours.) Use public information and databases to collect demographic and vital statistics data for the community you identified. Evaluate the data collected to analyze the health of the population and design an evidence-and assessment-based community intervention to address the wellness deficit or gap in care or services or social determinant of health identified in the analysis of this community. 

GUIDELINES

Community Assessment Background

Complete a Windshield Survey.

The Windshield Survey portion of your assessment should be completed by driving around the geographic community you selected (town, city, municipality, township, etc.). The Windshield Survey is composed of general qualitative observations that give you a snapshot of the community.

Refer to Chapter 11 in your textbook and consider the overall physical environment, levels of economic development and safety, access to food/grocery stores, recreation, health and social services, and public transportation. 

Collect demographic, health, and vital statistics data.

Demographic and vital statistics data for the community you selected can be obtained online from the selected geopolitical community administration. If data for a particular geopolitical community is not available, you can supplement the information with data from the state in which the community is located. 

• All information needed for this project is in the public domain and accessible to you.

Writing the Community Analysis and Project Paper

• Section I: Definition of Community—Identification and History
• Give a brief description of the area assessed in terms of geographic location and history.

Describe significant trends and events related to current function and status of the community (e.g., was this a manufacturing community that has experienced plant closings and job losses?).

• Section II: Assessment

Demographics

• Describe the following demographic and socio-economic characteristics of your geographic community:
• Demographics

Population size and density

Racial and ethnic diversity

• Percentage of households where language other than English is spoken

Educational levels for residents > 25 years of age

• Current unemployment rate
• Types of occupations of residents

Per capita income

• Percent of households with incomes below the federal poverty level

Median value of homes

• Average age of homes

Demographics conclusion and summary–interpret demographics information, compare to surrounding areas if appropriate.

• Windshield Survey 

Summarize windshield survey observations with a focus on health and wellness.

• Important available community resources to help families achieve optimal levels of wellness can be listed in the Appendix.
• Representation
• Describe the local government structure.
• Who are the state representatives and what is their party affiliation?
• Who represents the members of this community in the United States Congress?
• Vital and Health Statistics
• Summarize the most current available data with comparison to state and/or national rates for perspective, including the following information: 
• Incidence and prevalence of five most common major chronic diseases (identify chronic diseases)
• Death rates for five leading causes of death
• Infant mortality rates
• Incidence of births to mothers < 20 years of age
• Incidence and prevalence of five most common reportable communicable diseases
• Crime/violence statistics; may include child abuse statistics

Vital and health statistics conclusion

(Tables may be utilized for succinct presentation and easy comparison. See also Demarco, Chapter 7.)

Vital and Health Statistics Summary

• Summarize and analyze the findings.
• Social Determinants of Health
• Based on the community variables you assessed, describe at least two Healthy People 2030 social determinants that may negatively affect the health of this community and how you reached that conclusion. 

Section III: Problem Identification and Plan

• Community Plan
• Critically evaluate all data and information collected to identify a wellness deficit or gap in care or services or social determinant of health that negatively affects the health and well-being of the population in this community. Clearly describe the relationship between your evaluation and problem identification.
• Based on your assessment, what are some important strengths and weaknesses of this community?
• Describe at least one evidence-based approach to address the identified gap in care or services or social determinant of health.

Create a feasible, evidence-based, collaborative community intervention to address the wellness deficit or gap in care or services or social determinant of health identified in the analysis of this community. Describe how this intervention builds on identified community strengths.

• Section IV: Implementation and Evaluation

Describe the methods you would use to implement the intervention. 

• Describe methods you would use to evaluate the outcome of the intervention.
• Who could be instrumental and able to implement your plan for this community?
• Section V: Conclusion
• In one paragraph summarize your geographic community and proposed intervention, and projections for the ability of this community to reduce the identified gap(s) in care or services or reduce the effect of a social determinant of health. 
• Note: These directions and the grading rubric for this assignment will be used to evaluate and grade your assignment. (See the Evaluation Rubrics area of the course.) Please refer to the details of each rubric when preparing your assignment.
• If you have questions about the requirements for the paper, be sure to discuss them with your mentor well in advance of the final submission. Consult the Course Calendar for this paper’s due date.
• WRITING AND RESEARCH RESOURCES

The following links provide online writing and research aids to help you with your paper assignments.

OWL (Online Writing Lab) at Purdue University

• Writer’s Handbook, the Writing Center at the University of Wisconsin–Madison

APA Style Guidelines

Information Literacy for TESU Students (an online guide from the New Jersey State Library to assist you in starting your research, searching databases for articles, citing sources, using ILLiad to request books or articles, etc.)