Specific Problem and Population

Due Wednesday 9/21 by 11:59 pm

Please fill in the target population template on in your channel in Teams with the information below. The document should be about 2-3 single-spaced pages. The goal of the section is to make the problem and its severity clear (first section) as well as to outline its geographic and demographic scope (second section). See the link at the bottom of the page for more information about the level of detail needed.

This section is important for justifying the time and effort you'll ask partners to contribute and for making a compelling case for support in an op-ed. It will also be critical when you're writing up your evaluation procedure later in the semester: you'll refer back to it regarding the fraction of the target population you were able to reach and the degree of benefit you were able to provide each person. Finally, it will also help you think about how the scope of your action could be extended by other people in the future.

Specific problem to be addressed

Describe the specific problem your action plan will address. Be as clear and concrete as possible about what's going wrong for the population described below. Some things to discuss include: the cause of the problem; how the severe the impact is on the individuals affected; what makes it a social problem; and how your intervention will help (i.e., will it prevent the original problem, mitigate its impact, or provide some kind of remediation to offset the impact).

Target population

Describe the target population in detail. Start with geography by indicating where the participants live in terms of the most relevant government jurisdiction. The most relevant jurisdiction will usually be the smallest one that contains the population. For example, if almost everyone is in Syracuse, the city would be the jurisdiction. However, if people are spread out over Onondaga County, the county would be the jurisdiction and if they are scattered all over Central New York, the jurisdiction would be several counties (be specific about which).

Moving beyond geography, indicate the number of individuals in the target group and describe their demographic and socio-economic characteristics. Please be quantitive about both the number of individuals and their characteristics (e.g., their median income). You may be able to get this information from your partner organization but if not you'll need to get data from the Census. Please note that this section must have a numerical bottom line number for how many people you're trying to reach, even if it's initially pretty rough.

Additional Information