SOC-480: Needs Assessment Worksheet 2

Topic 2: Cultural Competency in Practice and Research
Describe the environmental influences on your selected community (food infrastructure, transportation infrastructure, recreational facilities, etc.). How are these environmental influences affecting the mental and physical health in your community? (50-75 words)
The environmental influences on my selected community include food insecurity, limited transportation infrastructure and inadequate recreational facilities. This is because my selected community consist of people from the low socioeconomic group in the country thus do not have access to quality services. These environmental influence affect the mental and physical health of my selected community adversely. Most of the individuals have reported to have depression and also suffering from obesity.
What is the culture (ethics, values, customs, traditions, religious practices, etc.) of your community? (50-75 words)
In my selected community, individuals portray collectivistic values that emphasizes on family closeness. My target population also listen various types of music. For instance, Gospel, jazz, hip hop and rap. In my selected community, it has become widely accepted in culture that it is challenging to have trust in the police and to always be wary of racial profiling. Family reunions are an important tradition that are still practiced today. It plays an important role in fostering family harmony and aids in the older generation’s transmission of customs and traditions from the younger generations.
Next, explain how the environment and culture in your community are affecting your target population/client. (50-75 words)
Diet is one of the environmental factors that is affecting my target population with obesity. Most of the people look for the readymade food instead of cooking their food at home. Most of the individuals in my target population are elderly hence watch the Television for long hours. Fresh produce that is better for general weight control is typically more expensive and less frequently consumed because of this.
Explain how the selected social issue affects your community. What risk factor might be driving patterns and behaviors related to your selected social issue? (75-100 words)
Obesity affects my selected community negatively. This includes discrimination in jobs and also in schools. Learners with obesity are reported to be bullied more in school than other students (De Frel et al., 2020). It is also reported that obese individuals in my selected community suffer from depression. This is attributed by the low quality life these individuals live caused by lack of employment. Numerous elements, such as eating habits, physical activity levels, and sleeping patterns, might lead to excessive weight gain (Ward et al., 2019).
Next, use the Strategic Prevention Framework document in the Community Toolbox website in the Study Materials, to guide you in assessing your community.
Although you will not be able to utilize all the information presented in the Strategic Prevention Framework (SPF), you will be able to use it as a guide. Summarize the Cultural Competence step in the SPF (50-75 words):
The ability of a person or organization to communicate effectively with those from other cultures is known as cultural competency. Planners may ensure that individuals of varied demographic groups can participate fully in, feel at ease with, and benefit from preventative activities by taking culture into account at each stage of the Strategic Prevention Framework. For instance identifying the subpopulations that are susceptible to behavioral health inequalities and the differences they encounter and prioritizing community participation in the planning process.
How will you utilize this information when planning your proposal? (50-75 words)
I will utilize the information gathered when planning my proposal by creating logical models with a decrease in health inequities as a long-term goal. I will also ensure that other practitioners comprehend both the general importance of cultural competency in their job and the particular requirements of the subpopulations who suffer from inequalities.
Describe the characteristics and resources of your selected community (schools, faith-based resources, health and human service providers, etc.). Explain if these resources are easily accessible or not. (50-75 words)
My selected community has access to goo schools that are affordable to them. The community has access to faith-based resources with majority being the churches because most of them are Christians. The only challenge that they have is easily accessible health care services and the human providers. This is because most of them do not have any insurance cover and the income that they get, they usually invest it in the schools and the churches.
Who are the stakeholders (police, businesses, schools, faith-based organizations, universities, etc.) in your community?
The stakeholders are the police, churches, schools and the businesses.
How can you, as a social worker, engage stakeholders in your community to help prevent the social issue that affects your community? What are the benefits to stakeholders for participating in your proposed program? (75-100 words)
I can engage the stakeholders in my selected community by getting to talk to them and explain the social issue present. Along with identifying current connections and interests, I’ll make sure the relevant stakeholders are receiving the right amount of involvement. Stakeholders will benefit from the program by gaining new insight on the social issue. The stakeholders will be able to build better relationships amongst themselves (Kadavasal, 2021). The stakeholders will also benefit from the program by having their voices heard. This will make them feel valued and hence will help my selected community in solving the social issue.
Lastly, after reading about Cultural Competence , citing two scholarly sources, explain how the culture of the community (ethics, values, customs, traditions, religious practices, religion, income level, education levels, geographical location, or professions) can be involved in all areas of preventing your selected social problem. (150-200 words).
The culture in my selected community can be involved in all areas of preventing obesity in that during family reunions, the family members can take initiatives of talking about ways to reduce obesity and how to prevent their children from gaining the excess weight. Individuals in my selected community can also reduce their television watching hours and instead be physically active by creating creation. For example, Tiktok dancing videos. This way, they do not need to spend any money going to the hospital or the gym. Through cultural competence, the stakeholders will be able to offer the obese individuals jobs, which will enable them to afford healthier foods (Kadavasal, 2021). By performing process and result evaluations to show whether my proposed program and practices are having the desired effect on my selected community will involve cultural competence in the evaluation process. Allocating the assessment funds necessary to determine if the chosen interventions are having the desired effect on the behavioral health disparities the project designers are seeking to eliminate is advised (Peterson et al., 2019).

 
References
De Frel, D. L., Atsma, D. E., Pijl, H., Seidell, J. C., Leenen, P. J., Dik, W. A., & Van Rossum, E. F. (2020). The impact of obesity and lifestyle on the immune system and susceptibility to infections such as COVID-19. Frontiers in nutrition, 279.
Kadavasal, P. V. V. (2021). Examining the Effectiveness of the Strategic Prevention Framework on Underage Drinking Prevention in Kansas Communities (Doctoral dissertation, University of Kansas).
Peterson, N. A., Powell, K. G., Treitler, P., Litterer, D., Borys, S., & Hallcom, D. (2019). The strategic prevention framework in community-based coalitions: Internal processes and associated changes in policies affecting adolescent substance abuse. Children and Youth Services Review, 101, 352-362.
Ward, Z. J., Bleich, S. N., Cradock, A. L., Barrett, J. L., Giles, C. M., Flax, C., … & Gortmaker, S. L. (2019). Projected US state-level prevalence of adult obesity and severe obesity. New England Journal of Medicine, 381(25), 2440-2450.