Discussion 1: Project Ideas

Part A

While I’ve not had any experience in writing grants, I am familiar with conducting a SWOT and SMART analysis that was a required part of an assignment in a previous course taken here at Walden. During that time, I also became familiar with RFPs and RFAs. I am nervous about the process as I’ve read through required material this week, but I am hopeful that I will do well as class progresses.

Challenges I anticipate is coming up with a research question for my topic of choice, and of course picking a topic. Gitlin & Lyons (2014), shared that picking a topic in implementing a proposal can be challenging, and I couldn’t agree more. I want to ensure that the topic I select, will match the mission of the organization/funder. Another challenge would be in possibly including qualitative and quantitative research in my proposal. Seeing as though, I’ve not conducted any research like this since my undergraduate years, I would need to brush up on it to ensure accuracy of the information I’ll include in the proposal.

I recently moved during the ending of the last quarter from my home state of Arkansas back to Georgia for personal reasons and anticipate working within the Division of Family & Children services as a Child Abuse Investigator, which is what I did while in Arkansas. However, I can’t think of any relative topics that I could pursue funding for in this area of employment right now.

Reference

Gitlin, L. N., & Lyons, K. J. (20140. Successful grant writing: Strategies for health and human service professionals (4th ed.). New York, NY: Springer.

Part B

I’ve narrowed potential topics down to three which are increase number of children with Autism from our course text, lack of afterschool activities correlated to high crime rate of teens within a community, and cultural competence in the workplace. The need of learning about the number of children born now with autism will help researchers discuss possible causes and solutions to lessen the amount. Implementing after school programs can decrease the number of crimes such as vandalism, car theft, and break-ins within a neighborhood/community, and thus employing cultural competence in the workplace can improve outcomes of services receives from places such as mental health, healthcare, and/or other government agencies.

Either of these projects may be attractive to funders because it promotes positive social change in the form of empowerment, wellbeing, safety, and better outcomes to the issues/concerns currently faced in society. Lastly, others who’s addressed issues with teen violence had better outcomes when community centers and after school programs were put in place and exercising cultural competence within the workplace has been linked to better service outcomes for families of different cultures living in America. Although I am not sure how the increase number of children with Autism will be distinguished because I didn’t find any supporting information of others who’s addressed it. This can be unique and distinguishable due having never been addressed before, funders can view it as an opportunity to explore solutions using research.

Reference

Gitlin, L. N., & Lyons, K. J. (20140. Successful grant writing: Strategies for health and human service professionals (4th ed.). New York, NY: Springer.