Syllabus

Master of Social Work

SSWO 618 Homelessness (Fall A 2019)

Credits - 3

Description

Homelessness and Social Work: Voices from the Street. This course is aimed at increasing student awareness of contemporary social welfare policies, programs and practice issues relevant to providing social work services to homeless and other poor people. The homeless experience is examined in the context of societal oppression and political resistance.

This course explores the complex issues surrounding homelessness from multiple perspectives. From the perspective of the “lived experience” of homelessness and from the perspective of social policy, i.e. in terms of its historical, cultural, economic, political and legislative contexts. The course begins by putting a “face” on homelessness and defining homelessness in terms of demographic trends that distinguish different homeless subpopulations, e.g., “chronically homeless.” The course then examines homelessness by looking at key policy and legislative actions such as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act that authorized funding for many if not most of the homeless services currently available in this country. Next, the course looks at the various types of program interventions and models currently being used to address homelessness, including emergency shelters, supportive housing and “rapid re-housing” models. In this same context, the course looks at the way homeless services are organized at the community level, the core agencies that provide coordination, oversight, and accountability among various service providers and defines the service delivery network. Finally, the course looks at homelessness from a theoretical perspective and explores the way in which social theories such as “resiliency” have influenced the design and evaluation of homeless services using concepts of “vulnerability”, “self-sufficiency”, and “risk.”

Written assignments include an analysis of the “Ten-Year Plan to End Homelessness” adopted by their local town or state and prepare a final paper describing homelessness in their own community. In addition, students are required to prepare a five-minute video presentation of a “testimony” prepared for a legislative hearing on some topic concerning homelessness. Finally, students consider the implications for social work practice and prepare an “advocacy plan” that details next steps they will take to pursue advocacy issues beyond the course and make their own impact upon homelessness.

Materials

Learning Objectives and Outcomes

School of Social Work Program Outcomes:

Graduates of the UNE SSWO will demonstrate knowledge, skills, and leadership in the following:

1. Demonstrates ethical and professional behavior.
2. Advance human rights and social, racial, economic, and environmental justice.
3. Engage in anti-racism, diversity, equity, and inclusion (ADEI) in practice.
4. Engage in practice-informed research and research-informed practice.
5. Engage in policy practice.
6. Engage with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
7. Assess individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
8. Intervene with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.
9. Evaluate practice with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

Course Objectives:

Through the completion of their assignments, students will be able to:

• Explain the issues associated with homelessness.
• Use relevant research findings and evaluation methods that suggest best practices in working with people who are homeless.
• Explain the structure and rationale which accompanies contemporary conceptions of social needs.
• Recognize the impact of political, economic, and cultural factors upon homelessness.
• Analyze specific concepts of social welfare services for people who are homeless.
• Evaluate the service delivery network that coordinates and integrates program effort as well as monitoring, planning and evaluating the overall effectiveness of community services that address homelessness.

Assignments

A variety of learning activities are designed to support the course objectives, facilitate different learning styles, and build a community of learners. Learning activities for each module include the following: reading materials, podcasts, videos and interactive lectures.

Readings and Multimedia

Description: This course includes extensive reading materials as well as some videos and other materials.

Discussions

Description: The course uses a policy framework to explore the phenomenon of homelessness along multiple dimensions and through this lens view the complexities of homelessness from a variety of perspectives, i.e., from the “lived experience” of homelessness, from the perspective of its historical, cultural, economic and political contexts, and from the various policy, legislative and judicial contexts that fund homeless services, determine their priorities and hold the system accountable. Discussion topics each week are framed around these dimensions.

You are expected to actively participate in whole class and/or small group discussion forums each week. To actively participate in the forums means to provide an initial response to the discussion questions and a minimum of two (2) responses to different classmates per week, unless otherwise indicated. Your initial post does not count towards responses to others. This is the minimum standard for response discussion, however, there are no limitations to the number or length of your response in class discussions.

The “Discussion Board” is an opportunity for you to examine new ideas and learn how to articulate some of the essential concepts, theories, and language that frame your profession. Think of it as your “sandbox” to explore, challenge, and reflect on practice. Your professional success going forward will depend upon what you know but it will also depend upon how well you can express what you know and use knowledge effectively.

Responses to others must add substantively to the discussion by building upon classmates’ ideas or posing critical questions to further the discussion. For example, a posting of “I agree with what people are saying” is not sufficient. What is considered sufficient is initiating further discussion; promoting further thought; providing critical or integrative dialogue; providing effective support or encouragement; challenging by showing supporting literature or other documentation, and/or self-reflecting regarding the topic. Responses should reflect your ability to apply critical thinking in the discussion and topical analysis. What is critical thinking? Very simply, critical thinking means that you provide an objective, logical analysis of a topic by asking questions.

Your initial post to the weekly discussion prompt should be submitted by 11:59 p.m. Eastern Time on Saturday, or as early as possible in the week, since doing so facilitates student-to-student interaction and maximizes the learning experience for everyone.

Response posts are due by 11:59 p.m. ET on Tuesday. Late responses may result in a reduction in grade.

Grading and Feedback Method: Grading and feedback methods are listed with each specific discussion assignment. Please refer to the rubrics provided in each Learning Modules and Discussion Boards for more information. The course facilitator will return any assignments and other grading items (discussion boards, participation, etc.) to students within three days of the assignment due date. The course facilitator will provide weekly feedback about participation and performance no later than four days after the learning module closes. Feedback can be via email, within the assignment itself, or using the Feedback column in the Grade Center.

Discussion forums are graded using the College-wide Discussion Rubric.

Writing Assignments, Projects, and Assessments 

Analysis of Local Plan to End Homelessness in your Community

Description: One very important dimension of homelessness concerns how a community responds to homelessness, how community providers and community leaders organize homeless services, and how they plan to address homelessness in their community. Another dimension concerns how these services are funded and how funds are monitored and communities are held accountable. In this country, a major source of funding for homeless services is legislated by Congress through the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and is administered by the U.S. Dept. of Urban Development (HUD). HUD requires that every community receiving funds under the McKinney Act organize community stakeholders to consider and decide upon a comprehensive plan to “end homelessness” in their community within the next ten years. The organization of community stakeholders is known as the “Continuum of Care” and the plan they create is called the “Ten Year Plan to End Homelessness”. Almost all states and all communities have both a Continuum and a Ten Year Plan.

In this assignment, you are asked to critique the Ten Year Plan for your community. To complete the assignment you will need to either find the Ten Year Plan online for your community or you can download the sample Ten-Year Plan for Portland, ME. To find the Plan for your community, try conducting a web search or contact your local or regional Community Development Office for a copy of the Plan. To help guide you through the Plan, it is also advisable that you contact the Chairperson of the local “Continuum of Care” to obtain their perspective and insights into the unique issues facing your local community or region.

For your paper, consider the following questions:

• What are the major issues the plan addresses?
• Does the plan focus on chronic homelessness or other populations?
• Does the plan distinguish between families who are homeless and individuals?
• What are some of the program and collaborative strategies the plan proposes to implement to end homelessness?
• Based on the other research and solutions you have read on the topic and your community, how would you rate the Plan’s capacities and abilities to end homelessness in your community in 10 years?

This analysis will take the form of a paper which will be 5 pages in length, not including the cover or reference pages. The paper is due by the end of Week 3.

Reflection Paper “Homelessness and its Impact on My Community” (Paper)

Description: In this course, you will prepare and submit a written paper that discusses some aspect of homelessness in your community. In it, you will describe homelessness in your local community. “Community” here is defined as your own city or town or your local region, e.g., “lower Fairfield County”.

Your paper should describe homelessness within your community along the multiple dimensions of homelessness we explore through our class discussions and presentations, e.g., general characteristics of the homeless population, history, policy and legislative issues, program interventions, etc. Through your readings and discussions, you will find that homelessness is a complex, many-layered phenomenon; your paper should reflect that same complexity. For example, you will note the complexity of the homeless population, i.e., the social-economic demographics and various sub-populations, such as young adults and the “chronically homeless.” We will discuss cultural factors associated with homelessness, how cultural values within our community impact services (e.g., stigma) and how economic factors and implementation issues impact upon the problem (e.g., think of key pieces of funding legislation, such as the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act and the creation of local “Continuum of Care” within each community).

Keep in mind that the paper is not a general discussion of homelessness but a discussion of homelessness in your own community. Focus your description locally and apply the knowledge you gain through this course to explore the various aspects of homelessness in your own local community, i.e., on various sub-populations, on service design, and how various stakeholders collaborate through advocacy coalitions and integrated service models, effectiveness and cost.

To best accomplish this you may want to visit your local shelter if you have not done so already and gain insights from that first-hand experience.

Finally, add your own conclusions and provide your own summary evaluation of homeless services in your community. Briefly summarize where you believe progress has been made and where your community remains challenged. What are the implications for program development and policy advocacy? What would be your recommendations to improve the community’s response to homelessness? Try to be as specific as possible. To support your conclusions and add depth to your arguments, be certain to provide relevant data and evidence whenever possible and use citations where appropriate.

The assignment should be six to seven pages in length.

Next Steps and Final Reflection

Description: For the past seven weeks, you have been keeping a journal of your new knowledge and practice implications for working with someone who is experiencing homelessness. For this assignment, you will bring this together into a formal academic paper. Please reflect on your journal entries and consider how you may use what you have learned in your social work practice with someone who is homeless.

• How will you approach the first intake meeting?
• What components would you need to be aware of in your continuing work with that person or family or system?
• What practice methods have you gleaned from the literature which you can leverage in your work? 

Your paper should be 5-7 pages, including references.

Weekly Journal (7 weeks)

Description: You will keep a journal log and each week write an entry into the log that captures your own thoughts and reflections about the material covered in the class and our class discussions. What are the issues and challenges of homelessness? How do these issues impact upon your own community?

Due Dates: Due dates for all learning activities are provided in the “Course Schedule.”

Grading Policy

The School of Social Work uses the following grading system for all courses with the exception of field education courses. Students are expected to maintain a “B” (3.0) average over the course of their study. Students with less than a GPA of 3.0 will be placed on academic probation. Students must have an overall GPA of 3.0 in order to receive their Master’s Degree.

Your grade in this course will be determined by the following criteria:

Grade Breakdown

Assignment	Point Value	Percent of the Total Grade
Discussions	225 points (9 discussions x 25 points each)	22.5%
Analysis of local plan to end homelessness in your community	125 points	12.5%
Weekly Journals	300 points (50 points X 7 weeks)	35%
Reflection paper "Homelessness and its impact on my community"	150 points	15%
Next Steps and Final Reflection	150 points	15%
Total	1,000 points	100%

Grade Scale

Grade	Points Grade	Point Average (GPA)
A	94 – 100%	4.00
A-	90 – 93%	3.75
B+	87 – 89%	3.50
B	84 – 86%	3.00
B-	80 – 83%	2.75
C+	77 – 79%	2.50
C	74 – 76%	2.00
C-	70 – 73%	1.75
D	64 – 69%	1.00
F	00 – 63%	0.00