Assessment of Context
Part 1 of the Capstone Project starts with an assessment of the context in which you are conducting your capstone project. This could be your field placement, place of employment, or local community. Drawing on generalist skills, this assignment reviews the policy and context within which the social work intervention will occur. It should include:
1. Description of the context (topics you could include: name and mission of the agency; tax status: for-profit, non-profit, or public; population/community served; whether staff members are generally from the target population/community; presence of social work within the organization; annual budget; important events that have happened in the agency’s past/recent history, community demographics, community needs assessment data)
2. Summary of two policies at the state or federal level that impact the work of the agency and how.
*Note: for students not in field or working in the field, your capstone project must be focused on your community.
Problem Identification
This section of the Capstone Project introduces the selection of client system and assessment of the presenting problem for intervention. This will provide an overview of the client system identified for intervention and related problem(s) to be addressed. These potential topics can be at the individual, family, group, community, organizational, or societal levels. Please note that the goal of the overall capstone project is for implementation of the intervention, and discussion with field supervisors can help ensure that the intervention plan is appropriate for the client and setting.
1. Description of the identified client system. Who is the client (individual, group community)?
2. Description and results of assessment activities (biopsychosocial, community needs assessment, other formalized assessment).
3. What is the level of intervention and why: individual, family, group community, organization, society? This is where you will identify the level at which you will target your capstone project intervention.
a. Example: Micro-level intervention – clinical treatment of a presenting problem with a specific client (e.g., treating depression with a 41-year old male)
b. Example: Mezzo-level intervention – program/agency-level intervention to address agency problem (e.g., provide a suicide screening training for high school teachers)
c. Example: Macro-level intervention – analyze a policy and engage in advocacy to address a community concern (e.g., panhandling laws and procedures in your community)
The capstone will be about language barriers and parents not understanding the IEP, children tend to miss or lose services due to parents not being able to understand about IEP (language is a big issue. This will take place in the Bronx NY.