This has 2 assignments

Assignment 1: Discussion- at least 250 words, please cite source

 Why are cultural considerations so important when conducting research?  

Assignment 2: Program Evaluation Project- Please see attachment and follow outline. This assignment has 2 parts, outline and paper. Please read all requirements. 

 For more information about program evaluations please see the Royse, Thyer, & Padgett (2016) text included in the course.  see link at the bottom

https://ebooks.cenreader.com/#!/reader/2774fc6e-89e9-4d15-80b8-f80e3d987073/page/4366066460a00da5267d1a247c7e1604

Imagine you work as a licensed professional counselor for a local mental health counseling agency. The agency is made up of licensed counseling professionals and is supported by client pay (insurance and cash pay) and some small foundation-based and community grants. The agency provides services for a wide variety of client concerns in individual, couples/family, and group formats. Recently, an annual report showed that the agency was serving a sufficient number of clients overall but was only serving a small percentage of clients of color (e.g. clients that identify as Black, Hispanic, Native American, Asian, etc.). The majority of counselors at the agency are White.

Concerned with the findings of this report, the executive director asks you to figure out why the agency is only serving a small number of persons of color when over half of the community is racially diverse. The director also asks you to find out what the agency can do differently to provide services to people of color in the community. Because you are a hard-working and knowledgeable employee, you agree to the task.

For this project, please design a program evaluation that will aid your counseling agency in solving this problem. Please use the outline below to think through the elements of this program evaluation.

I. Introduction

A. Purpose

– Define the purpose of the program evaluation

– What situation or problem are you examining?

– What program/s will be evaluated?

B. Literature

– Explain why the problem is important according to research literature

– Why is this topic important? Who says so? What do we already know about this issue? Include at least two recent references from professional counseling journals.

II. Method

A. Participants

– Who will take part in the program evaluation as participants? How will they be chosen?

– e.g., the counselors, people in the community, or both

– What ethical issues need to be considered for the participants?

– e.g., risks, benefits, consequences of participation, protection of information, informed consent

B. Data Collection

– What type of data will be collected?

– e.g., statistics, personal stories, narratives, perspectives

– How will the data be collected?

– e.g., focus groups, interviews, surveys, questionnaire, self-report

– Who will collect the data? Will different people collect different pieces?

– How will the data be protected?

C. Data Analysis

– Discuss possible methods that could be used for analyzing your data

– i.e., What statistical or qualitative research methods could you use to make meaning from your raw data?

Hint: The data analysis methodology should match the type of data collected. If statistics were collected using surveys or questionnaires you would want to use a statistical analysis method (e.g. descriptive statistics, T-test, ANOVA, ANCOVA, etc.). If interviews were conducted or written comments, qualitative methods should be used (e.g. coding, thematic analysis, etc.)

III. Results/Findings

A. Audience

– With whom will you share your findings?

– What ethical concerns may arise at this stage?

B. Presentation

– How will you communicate the findings from your program evaluation?

– e.g., report, article, meeting, PowerPoint

– What findings will you include?

IV. Implications

A. How might your findings affect your agency?

B. What programmatic changes could take place?

C. What ideas would you offer based on your findings?

After using the outline to think through each element of the program evaluation, please write a paper elaborating on the information you’ve brainstormed. Please include your reasoning behind how you chose to design the program evaluation and thoughts you have about the project’s outcome.

Please use the outline headings to organize the paper (eg. I. Introduction; II. Method). The paper should be a minimum of five full pages in standard paragraph form, not including the title page and references. The format of the paper should be consistent with APA guidelines and will be graded on the thoroughness of the content included, organization, spelling, and grammar.

For more information about program evaluations please see the Royse, Thyer, & Padgett (2016) text included in the course.