Week 4 Assignment: Policy Selection and BackgroundDue: Sun Aug 3, 2025 11:59pm8/3/2025Assignment Description
Government policy impacts social justice problems. Some policies may create social justice problems just as they attempt to correct them. To successfully address social justice problems, social workers must have the knowledge and skills to locate, access, analyze, and interpret public policy.
Based on your analysis of the social justice problem in the Week 2 assignment, select a current enacted policy that is presently a law to analyze using relevant local, state, or federal policy resources. Your analysis must also address the problem that affects your chosen diverse cultural group (for example, based on race, religion, disabilities, gender orientation, socioeconomic status, or access to services). This will be the policy you analyze for not only this assignment, but the Weeks 6 and 9 assignments as well. Be sure to incorporate constructs that have been covered in this course into your analysis. You will compile all of the assignments you complete throughout the course in Week 9, so as you receive feedback for each assignment, revise your work as necessary.
If you need additional support for conducting your research, it may be useful to consult the following:
- Evidence and APALinks to an external site..
- How Do I Find Peer-Reviewed Articles?Links to an external site.
- Social Work Masters Program (MSW) Library GuideLinks to an external site..
- What Is Scholarly?Links to an external site.
By successfully completing this assignment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following CSWE EPAS competencies and general practices:
- CSWE EPAS Competency 5: Engage in policy practice.
- C5.GP.A: Use social justice, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lenses to assess how social welfare policies affect the delivery of and access to social services.
- Related assignment criteria:
- Describe the purpose of a currently enacted policy that addresses the social justice problem for a chosen population, using scholarly literature for support.
- Describe how the policy connects to the chosen social justice problem, using scholarly literature for support.
- Describe the historical issues and context that led to the creation of the social problem and policy development, including details about voting outcomes and legislative leaders, using scholarly literature for support.
- Describe the programs and services provided through the policy, using scholarly literature for support.
- Describe the impact of the historical influences on the implementation of the policy, using scholarly literature for support.
- Related assignment criteria:
- C5.GP.A: Use social justice, anti-racist, and anti-oppressive lenses to assess how social welfare policies affect the delivery of and access to social services.
Assignment Instructions
To complete this assignment, select a local, state, or federal policy that targets the form of oppression and discrimination you described in Week 2 (for example, the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA), Veterans Millennium Healthcare Act, Affordable Care Act (ACA), Adoption and Safe Families Act, Medicare, Medicaid, Temporary Aid to Needy Families Act, Social Security Act, or a relevant state or local policy, such as state or local affordable housing policies or health and safety policies related to COVID-19).
Then, complete the following:
- Describe the purpose of a currently enacted policy that addresses the social justice problem for a chosen population, using scholarly literature for support.
- Remember, this policy must be enacted—in other words, it must be passed legislation.
- Describe the programs and services provided through the policy, using scholarly literature for support.
- What are examples of the programs and services that are being offered as a result of your chosen policy?
- Who is the target population for these programs and services?
- Describe how the policy connects to the chosen social justice problem, using scholarly literature for support.
- Connect the policy to the social justice problem you selected by giving a brief description of the problem. Is it a new problem, something that has recently arisen, or an old problem that has never been resolved?
- Describe the historical issues and context that led to the creation of the social problem and policy development.
- Include information about the voting outcomes for the policy and the legislative leaders who influenced the policy historically and in the present.
- Include the impact these historical features have had on the policy’s implementation.
Guidelines
- Use scholarly, peer-reviewed literature to support your claims.
- Review the Policy Selection and Background rubric for information on how your work will be graded.
- Remember that your instructor will be providing feedback on your assignments. Use that feedback to improve the content of your final assignment submission in Week 9, Policy Analysis and Recommendations.
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