Competency 5. Engage in Policy Practice
5.1 Identify social policy at the local, state, and federal level that impacts well-being, service delivery, and access to social services.
5.2 Assess how social welfare and economic policies impact the delivery of and access to social services
5.3. Apply critical thinking to analyze, formulate, and advocate for policies that advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice.

The purpose of this assignment is to learn how to critically assess and analyze social policy, so you can identify its impact on access and delivery of services, as well as advance human rights and social, economic, and environmental justice. Understanding policy is an important step in the legislative advocacy process and should help you formulate ideas and positions that can benefit diverse populations.

For this assignment, you will select a policy, do research on the policy, and then critically analyze its impact on social work practice.

General Assignment Guidelines:
• Use at least two scholarly journal articles to support your ideas. You may use your textbook as support, but this would be in addition to the required scholarly sources.
• Use reliable sources for any statistics used in the paper. Internet sources can be used if they are government or think tank reports. Do not use .com sites.
• Properly cite the policy you selected.
• Use APA format when writing your paper.

The assignment has the following components:

Policy selection
Select a social welfare policy that you want to learn more about. This can be a policy that was proposed, passed, or repealed. It can be at the federal or state level. You need to read the entire policy, not just a piece of it. If the policy has numerous parts, discuss this with your instructor. You will be provided an opportunity to discuss your policies with your instructor in class.

Analysis paper
The policy analysis paper should be 4-5 content pages and should be written in APA style with proper citations and references. In the paper you will summarize and analyze the policy you selected. In class, we will discuss a framework for policy analysis, which will help you to think about this assignment.

Your analysis paper should include the following areas:

1. Provide a brief introduction to your paper in which you tell your reader what policy you will analyze and the purpose of your paper.
2. Describe the social issue or welfare problem the policy is seeking to address. Include the following:
   a. What is the problem?
   b. How many people are affected by the problem?
   c. Is the problem getting better or worse in American society?
3. Describe the policy and its main goal(s).
   a. How is the problem defined in the policy?
   b. What social values are evident in the construction of the policy?
   c. What is the policy trying to do?
   d. Who supports the policy? Think about legislators (sponsors and co-sponsors), social groups, lobbyists, etc.
   e. Who opposes the policy and why? Think about legislators (sponsors and co-sponsors), social groups, lobbyists, etc.
4. Describe who would be or is impacted by the policy.
   a. Clearly identify the population that is impacted or would be impacted.
   b. Explain how they are impacted. Is the impact positive, negative, or both?
5. Analyze the policy’s strengths and weaknesses, including intended and unintended consequences.
   a. What is good or bad about the policy from a social work perspective? If the policy passed, what effect has it had on the problem?
   b. How does (or could) the policy impact social services? To help you answer this question think about the following:
   i. If social services programs emerge(d) from the policy, how does the policy guide those services. Do these services make sense to help address the problem? Why or why not?
   ii. If no social service programs emerge directly from the policy, think about how social services could be impacted, directly or indirectly, if the policy is enacted. For example, would new social services need to be implemented to respond to the policy? Would current social services be overwhelmed with work because of this policy? How would these services impact the problem? Explain.
   c. Describe some of the unintended consequences of implementing the policy.
   i. If the policy was passed, think about the things that happened that no one thought about.
   ii. If the policy was proposed but has not passed, think about what could happen if it does pass.
6. Describe possible advocacy actions to either support, oppose, or change the policy.
   a. As a social worker, what advocacy strategies could you use? What would they look like? What would you actually do?
   b. Who would you need to target in order to advocate for this issue? Why?
7. Provide a brief conclusion, summarizing the main points of your analysis. Do not introduce new issues in your conclusion.