Assessment 1: Community Report

A1: Report

Weight: This assessment task comprises 60% of the total grade for this course 

Word count: 2,700 words, plus / minus ten percent

Submission process: Online on Moodle (submission link at the bottom of this page)

Aims

This assignment aims to develop your knowledge of services for families and your capacity to make appropriate referrals for families experiencing specific problems.

You will be able to select a community and a social issue to develop an in-depth understanding of your topic. You will also be able to connect with a community service provider to gain an understanding of their service provision. 

The case study report allows students to demonstrate their ability to follow academic conventions, including researching credible information, structuring a report, referencing, and academic writing. 

Instructions

Read the following information carefully. It tells you the steps you need to take to complete the community report. The report should follow the format detailed in step 4 below.

1. Select a community district and research its socio-economic profile using the UniSA Library Australian Bureau of Statistics database.
Go to the Australian Bureau of Statistics database via the library home page and select the most recent census. Search for the postcode of the selected district. Select Quickstats for your selected area. Record the following details so that you can describe your selected community:

• Percentage of Indigenous population.
• Percentage of people born overseas and main countries of birth outside Australia.
• Percentage of working full-time and part-time and unemployed.
• Median household income.
• Percentage of one-parent families.

This information is to be used to provide a descriptive demographic profile of the community you have selected.

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2. Select one issue from the following list* and identify a community organisation or service (this means that you should not target government agencies) in, or as close as possible to, the selected district responding to families/children experiencing the selected issue.

Choose one of the following issues: 

• Separation and Divorce
• Family Violence
• Family Poverty
• Child Maltreatment
• Child Sexual Assault
• Children with parents with a mental illness/substance addiction
• Children living in Out of Home Care

Information about your selected issue, including definition, prevalence, impact on children and families will need to be included in your report. Course materials should be a primary point of reference for this information. Failure to refer to relevant course materials will be penalised.

Academic practice rewards use of research reference materials. Assignments should feature at least 10 or more research references and always include relevant course materials.

* This topic should be different from your presentation topic (for internal students) and from the topic for your extended post (for external students). 

3. Visit the service
Talk to staff and gather written material about the service. You need to find out:

• What types of support the service provides to children/families experiencing the issue you have selected (you should not include details of other services the agency provides to assist different issues from the one you have selected.) Your information needs to be clear about what the service actually does to assist the child/family. For example, if the service provides financial counselling to low income families you need to specify how financial counselling helps the family. Eg. The service provides financial counselling to families to assist them to claim correct welfare entitlements, manage debts and to develop a budget.
• How can people in need gain access to the service – location, public transport, contact details, fees, waiting lists, referrals, operating hours. 
• How is the service funded, naming state or federal government programs and departments where relevant.

In addition to researching the organisation website, visit the selected service so you can assess its accessibility for families. Websites will not tell you if there is a waiting list, or if you need a referral. If the service staff will not speak to you, document this as an issue of accessibility. Students who only cut and paste information from the internet will be penalised.

4. Compile a community report which presents the information as follows:
Introduction 
Identifying the topic, the community and the services visited.
Part 1
Describe the characteristics of the selected community using Census demographic information including socio-economic data. Make links with your selected issue (eg. low incomes indicate poverty would be issue).
Part 2
Using course materials, identify and define the selected issue and detail its impacts on children/families.
Part 3 
Provide details of the community service and the ways it responds to the issue.
Part 4 
In your conclusion, critically evaluate how easy/difficult it is for families experiencing the selected issue to get appropriate help and support in their community.

Reference list

Assessment Criteria

Your submission will be marked against the following assessment criteria: 

• Relevance: the student has addressed the question and the report contains the required content.
• Clarity: expression is clear, spelling and punctuation are correct, and the language used conforms to the university’s inclusive language policy.
• Planning and Sequence: the report provides an easy to follow format which deals sequentially with the required information.
• Supporting documentation for arguments and proper acknowledgment of documentation and use of the Harvard Referencing system.
• Comprehensive coverage reflecting engagement with set readings, text(s) and other relevant materials.

Advice and resources

• Use the below letter of introduction as you approach your chosen community service provider. 
• Review the marking rubric below to ensure that you are familiar with the marking criteria for this assignment.
• Access the general assessment resources and use as needed. 
• drafts will not be reviewed by staff.

Academic integrity

All written assignments submitted through LearnOnline will automatically be assessed by Turnitin. To learn more about Turnitin it and how to interpret your similarity report, please read through the Using Turnitin page. 

Ensure that the work you submit is your own, and that you have followed academic conventions. This includes correct and appropriate paraphrasing, quoting, and referencing to acknowledge ideas that you have found in your sources. 

Students should use the UniSA Harvard Referencing system.