The Assignment (2 page)Explain how you would evaluate a program for your selected topic using qualitative field research methods. Be specific and provide examples. Assume the proposed actions you suggested last week have taken place.

Introduction

The issue I am going to conduct is a needs assessment on a large number of unaccompanied children in our community. Unaccompanied minors are defined as children who have been left alone without the care of a parent or a guardian mainly due to separation from their parents and relatives (Gillespie, 2014). There are a lot of children in our community of this nature. This has led to an increase in the number of street children and crimes by young kids in the society. This issue has presented the need to find a way of taking care of these children and reducing the level of crime which they commit as they try to find a manner of livelihood. This is a great need since the welfare of the children is one of the most important aspects of any nation. 

•Why do you believe a needs assessment is necessary?

The need assessment, in this case, is important to be able to gather information on the reasons why these children come into this community unaccompanied. There can be various reasons such as lack of family, lack of anywhere to shelter or just social deviance. It is important first to understand the cause of this issue so that we can be able to develop the right remedies to correct this issue. The need assessment will be needed to identify the specific needs of the children who have already fallen victim or what help they would need to make their lives better. The needs assessment would also be necessary to help find out the source of the problem that is what causes the children to be separated from their families.

Explain how a needs assessment would benefit this issue and contribute to social change.

By so doing we can be able to develop a program that does not only provide the needs of the unaccompanied children but also helps to prevent an increase in the number of unaccompanied children in the community and hence and reducing the level of crime which they commit as they try to find a manner of livelihood.

Preliminary steps     

The steps would involve identifying my population (no sampling is needed in this case), identifying means of gathering data to be used in the assessment either primary or secondary and then developing tools and personnel needed to collect the data.

•What is the target population you hope to gather data about?

Since it may be hard or impossible to trace the parents of the children or their relatives, my main target population would be the unaccompanied children. I would love to hear their different stories of how they got there and their experiences and needs. They would serve as my primary data source target population. Since they are not too many I believe that sampling is not necessary. It is possible to reach out to all the minors.

 •Are there existing data sources that you can use? 

Yes. As mentioned earlier, it can be challenging to reach the families of these children for questioning and therefore I would receive information in the reasons why children are separated from their families and the circumstances that lead to this from publications and research for institutions such the children’s bureau. This would help provide good background information on the topic and help develop programs that could prevent more children from ending up unaccompanied.

•Do you need to collect new data? If so, what methods will you use to collect it? 

Yes. There is need to collect data from then unaccompanied children who would serve as my primary source of data. The collection of data would be done by means of interviewing the children. Oral interviews would be effective in capturing their stories from which we would draw the information we need.

References

Babbie, E. (2016). The basics of social research (7th ed.). Belmont, CA: Cengage

Gillespie, H. (2014). Unaccompanied minor. Blue Ash, OH: Merit Press, an imprint of F+W Media, Inc.

Gupta, K., Sleezer, C. & Eft, D. (2007). A practical guide to needs assessment. San Francisco, CA: Pfeiffer.