Influencing Policy and Legislation Assessment 3

Influencing Policy and Legislation Assessment 3

Task introduction:

For this assessment, you are required to prepare a2000-word policy proposal. In order to be an effective social policy advocate, it is vital that you be able to recognise when policy change is needed, be able to research and evaluate potential solutions for these issues, and be able to work collaboratively to build coalitions that can advocate for policy change to those who have the power to implement your solution to the policy problem.

Scenario 1. Homelessness:You are a human service worker at a homeless services organisation. You work in the intake area and this means you are on the front line and get a good overview of homelessness in your area. You have become increasingly aware of the fact that older women (those aged over 55) are coming into your service seeking support, but there are not good options for meeting their housing needs. You decide that something must be done to address this issue as it is clearly a major one in your local area. You decide to prepare a policy proposal looking at the issue and outlining policy option(s) for better responding to older women's homelessness.Here is a link to a podcastthat discusses older women and homelessness.

Introduction (approximately 80-100 words)

Provide an overview of the policy issue (10 marks, approximately 500-600 words):What is the problem? What evidence is available that demonstrates why this is an important issue? What are the factors that lead to this being a problem?

Policy proposal (10 marks, approximately 500-600 words):Based on your research, what is your proposed solution to the policy problem? What is the evidence that lead you to believe this is the best action to address the policy problem? Who has the power to implement your solution to the policy problem?

Opportunities and threats (10 marks, approximately 500-600 words):What are the barriers and obstacles that might prevent this action being taken? How can you counter these barriers and obstacles? Who can you partner with to effectively campaign for this solution to the policy issue? How can you facilitate this partnership/collaboration?

Identification of first steps (5 marks, approximately 200-300 words):What is a first step can you (and/or your organisation) can take that will move you toward implementing your policy solution?

Conclusion (approximately 80-100 words)

3003HSV Influencing Policy and Legislation

Policy Advocacy Assessment

Student name:

Student number:

Teams Group (e.g., Online Group C):

Word count:

Introduction

This is a basic template for completing an assignment and it contains some tips and tricks that I hope can help you format and construct your essay. You can simply type your assignment over this text to ensure your document is well formatted in APA7 style. The initial section is the typically the introduction. Its goal is to inform the reader of the topic you are addressing and how you will be structuring your response to the essay question. For example, if your essay question was something like provide an overview of homelessness policy in Australia, you might begin your introduction by paraphrasing the question in some way. Introductions are typically not too long (a single paragraph) and end by taking the reader through the structure of the assignment as you will be covering it (typically the same structure/order as the rubric).

Overview of the policy issue

The first section may comprise multiple paragraphs that answer the first criterion of the rubric. An important component of any essay writing is to ensure the reader is clear about when you are switching to answering a different criterion. While the use of headings in this template helps with this, it is still useful to learn to use signposting at the end of the section. For example, you might conclude a section by saying something like, Having identified the various definitions of homelessness and how these impact on people in different ways, in the next section, we will turn our attention to discussing primary homelessness in more detail.

Policy Proposal

Before submitting your assessment, it is a good idea to read each section and have the marking rubric next to you. Have you clearly addressed what the criterion has asked you to address? Your job is to now work your way through the body of your assignment and make sure that you are addressing each of the criteria and clearly signposting when you are moving to the next one. Continue doing this until you have addressed all the assessment criteria.

Opportunities and threats

Many students get very confused by APA7 referencing. The good news is that Griffith have an APA7 referencing guide that will show you how to format your in-text and reference list referencing depending on the type of source you are citing (https://www.griffith.edu.au/library/study/referencing/apa-7). You can also ask the librarians for assistance and access a lot of online tutorials etc. (https://www.griffith.edu.au/library/study/referencing/apa-7#contact). In basic terms, you should use a reference whenever the information to which you are referring is not you own. In-text references typically contain the authors last name and the date of publication (Baker, 2021). If you are directly quoting from the source material, you will also need to include the page number (Baker, 2020, p. 22). Students often paraphrase from a textbook or other long-form source (e.g. legislation or white paper). When paraphrasing from such a source, it is important that you provide page numbers so that the reader can find the section to which you are referring (https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/citations/paraphrasing). It is not acceptable to simply find a long document (e.g. a book on homelessness) and attribute a section to it as you presume in a book on homelessness they might talk about what you are wanting to say. If you are citing two different articles that were written by the same author in the same year (Smith, 2021a), you should separate them by appending the reference with a lowercase letter (Smith, 2021b).

First steps

Your reference list (see an example at the end of this document) should always be in alphabetical order. Before you submit your final assignment, it is a good idea to allow time to read it out loud. Do you get confused when trying to read a section out loud? Do you run out of breath? This may indicate that the section needs to be clarified or that you may need to look at punctuation. One final tip. An assignment should be clearly expressed and should use non-technical writing wherever possible. Dont fall into the trap of trying to make your work seem academic. Rather than say, In this assignment I will ruminate on the contemporary malaise that is homelessness and elucidate both the temporal and existential issues that frame our discourse in the Australasian context. It is better to simply say In this assignment I will examine homelessness and the issues that drive homelessness in Australia. The word count for the assignment does not include the reference list. In-text references and headings are included in the word count). Although students may not think so at times, as markers, we really do want you to do well. There is nothing as satisfying for a marker as reading a clear and well written assignment and giving it a high mark. Good luck and I hope this template and the tips contained in it are helpful.

Conclusion

Once you have addressed all the criteria for your assignment, you should write a short conclusion. This will largely be a restatement of the introduction and should typically only be one paragraph.

Reference List

https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/australias-welfare/homelessness-and-homelessness-serviceshttps://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/our-focus/ending-homelessness/older-women-and-homelessness/#:~:text=A%20troubling%20trend&text=The%202016%20Census%20reported%20that,This%20is%20an%20alarming%20statistichttps://www.dss.gov.au/housing-support/programmes-services/homelessnesshttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6849546/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6888428/https://oce-ovid-com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/article/00000454-202191040-00012/HTMLhttps://humanrights.gov.au/our-work/age-discrimination/publications/older-womens-risk-homelessness-background-paper-2019https://www.oldertenants.org.au/sites/default/files/ageing_on_the_edge_queensland_report_march_2020.pdfhttps://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/our-focus/ending-homelessness/older-women-and-homelessness/https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/who-can-get-age-pension?context=22526https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0886260511421669https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-05-01/labor-affordable-housing-shared-equity-scheme-campaign/101028354?utm_campaign=abc_news_web&utm_content=link&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_source=abc_news_webhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/1753-6405.13156https://www.oecd.org/els/family/HC3-1-Homeless-population.pdfhttps://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Retiring-into-Poverty-National-Plan-for-Change-Increasing-Housing-Security-for-Older-Women-23-August-2018.pdfhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.13156https://researchonline.nd.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1283&context=theseshttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1753-6405.13156https://www-tandfonline-com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/doi/full/10.1080/00036846.2022.2045000?scroll=top&needAccess=true&https://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/_cknw/files/FINAL%20Feb%202014%20Petersen%20%20Parsell%20Older%20women%27s%20pathways%20out%20of%20homelessness.pdfhttps://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/_cknw/files/FINAL%20Feb%202014%20Petersen%20%20Parsell%20Older%20women%27s%20pathways%20out%20of%20homelessness.pdfhttps://www.chde.qld.gov.au/about/strategy/housing/abouthttps://www.chde.qld.gov.au/about/strategy/housing/housing-and-homelessness-action-plan-2021-2025/housing-support-for-older-peoplehttps://www.york.ac.uk/media/spsw/documents/news-and-events/FEANTSA%20Womens%20Homelessness%20Review.pdfhttps://www.facs.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0007/590515/NSW-Homelessness-Strategy-2018-2023.pdfhttps://www.oldertenants.org.au/sites/default/files/docs/parity_vol28-06_-_peterson_pp9-11.pdfhttps://www.aasw.asn.au/document/item/4356https://link-springer-com.libraryproxy.griffith.edu.au/article/10.1007/s11121-019-00997-4https://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Retiring-into-Poverty-National-Plan-for-Change-Increasing-Housing-Security-for-Older-Women-23-August-2018.pdfhttps://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/Retiring-into-Poverty-National-Plan-for-Change-Increasing-Housing-Security-for-Older-Women-23-August-2018.pdfhttps://griffitheduau.sharepoint.com/:b:/r/sites/3003HSV_3221-Home1/Shared%20Documents/Home%201/Mission%20Australia%20Ageing%20and%20Homelessness%20report_November%202017%20-%20WCAG%20(1).pdf?csf=1&web=1&e=qxHkRehttps://homelessnessaustralia.org.au/about-homelessness/https://www.mercyfoundation.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2020/07/NOWHHWG-Submission-FINAL.pdfhttps://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6445694/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2927811https://womenshousing.com.au/https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2012.00884.x?saml_referrerhttps://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1468-2397.2012.00884.x?saml_referrerMarking Criteria for Individual Task

Your assignment will be marked based on the following criteria:

Criteria Excellent Good Average/Poor

Provide an overview of the policy issue (10 Marks): Provides a clear and concise description of the specific policy problem being addressed and who is affected by the policy problem.

Uses relevant evidence from quality sources to inform the analysis of the policy issue.

Demonstrates knowledge and understanding of the factors that led to the problem. Provides a description of the specific policy problem being addressed, though some gaps in understanding are evident. Limited understanding of who is affected by the policy problem.

Evidence from sources are used to inform the analysis of the policy issue, however, the quality of these sources varies.

Demonstrates some knowledge and understanding of the factors that led to the policy issue. The policy problem is poorly articulated and those affected by the policy problem are poorly understood.

Insufficient or poor quality sources are used to inform the analysis of the policy issue.

Little demonstrated knowledge and understanding of the factors that led to the policy issue.

Policy proposal (10 Marks): Identifies a clear and concise proposal for how the policy issue can be addressed.

Provides relevant evidence from quality sources that justify why the proposal is likely to be effective.

Demonstrates an understanding of who has jurisdiction over the policy problem and identifies a relevant stakeholder (or stakeholders) who have the power to implement the policy proposal. Identifies a proposal for how the policy issue can be addressed. Some details lacking in clarity.

Provides evidence from sources that justify why the proposal is likely to be effective, however, the quality of the sources vary.

Stakeholder (or stakeholders) who have the power to implement the policy proposal are identified, however, there are some issues related to the relevant jurisdiction or relevant stakeholder.

The proposal is poorly articulated and lacks clarity. Poor understanding of how the proposal will address the policy issue.

Evidence from sources used to justify the proposal are of poor quality or are inadequate.

Stakeholder (or stakeholders) who have the power to implement the policy proposal are not identified clearly and it is unclear if these stakeholders have jurisdiction over the policy problem.

Opportunities and threats (10 Marks): Clearly and concisely identifies the likely barriers and obstacles that would need to be addressed in order to implement the policy proposal.

Identifies relevant stakeholders who can be partners in advocating for the policy proposal.

Identifies effective ways in which the partnership/collaboration can be facilitated and managed. Identifies some barriers and obstacles that would need to be addressed in order to implement the policy proposal. Some gaps in analysis and/or analysis lacks clarity in areas.

Identifies stakeholders who can be partners in advocating for the policy proposal though some may not be relevant.

Shows some appreciation for how the partnership/collaboration can be facilitated and managed, however, there is a lack of clarity about some areas of the discussion. T

Inadequate identification of the barriers and obstacles that would need to be addressed in order to implement the policy proposal.

Stakeholders who can be partners in advocating for the policy proposal either poorly identified or not identified at all.

Limited/no appreciation for how the partnership/collaboration can be facilitated and managed.

Identification of first steps (5 Marks): Clearly and concisely articulates an achievable first-step that can be taken to move toward the proposed policy solution. A first-step that can be taken to move toward the proposed policy solution is identified, however, it lacks some clarity. A first-step that can be taken to move toward the proposed policy solution is either not identified at all, is irrelevant, or impractical.

Presentation of the submission (5 Marks): The writing is highly engaging and demonstrates clarity of thought and the ability to synthesize complex ideas so that they can be understood by the reader. Excellent application of the APA7 referencing style in text and in the Reference list. Ideas are mostly well structured and expressed with only minor errors in relation to structure and clarity. Good application of APA7 referencing style with minimal errors in text and in the Reference list. Ideas are poorly structured and poorly expressed (i.e., lacking clarity, poorly edited and a lack of reading and research). Frequent errors in APA7 referencing style in text and in the Reference list.