If I Were a Community Leader: My Hypothetical Social Program

If I Were a Community Leader: My Hypothetical Social Program

 

If I Were a Community Leader: My Hypothetical Social Program

Communities comprise people from different cultures, ethnicities, genders, ages, and social classes, among other factors. Generally, the community’s well-being depends on people’s strengths, including employment opportunities, access to health, and economic empowerment programs. Learning institutions represent communities of students, scholars, and employees. Improving such communities’ social and economic status requires different interventions depending on their needs. Accordingly, community leaders should play a central role in advocating for social programs to advance the social conditions of a community. The purpose of this paper is to describe a suitable social program for Northern Essex Community College (NECC) based on a needs’ analysis.

Community’s Description

Learning communities bring people together to pursue a common purpose- to get quality education to improve people’s quality of life. To enable students to achieve this goal, learning institutions offer different programs depending on their resources, community’s immediate needs, and government’s support. NECC is not different and has enrolled over 15,000 students (NECC, 2022). Broadly, NECC is a public community college in Essex County. It has two campuses- the suburban Haverhill campus and the urban campus in Lawrence (Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, 2020). Students can choose either facility depending on the learning program or proximity to where they live. They can also learn online.

NECC has other core features that make it ideal for many students within and outside Essex. Its heart is over sixty academic programs, including health care, business, computer science, and liberal arts (Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, 2020). Students looking for immediate employment opportunities also get unique learning options through non-credit programs. As a highly welcoming community, NECC seeks to empower and inspire students through quality education. It is highly committed to providing vibrant and innovative opportunities for its diverse students to ensure that they meet the needs of the current employment market. Above all, NECC partners with area employers to develop programs and courses relevant to the current workplace (Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, 2020). These characteristics represent a community ideal for many learners looking forward to quality education.

Community History

A community’s history outlines how it has grown to attain its current social and economic statuses. Established in 1961, NECC has developed gradually into a Hispanic Serving Institution (HIS). It attained this status in 2001, being the first in all New England (NECC, 2022). Attaining this status implies that over 25% of the students must be Hispanics. Since 2001, significant changes have occurred regarding community development, with the doubling of the Hispanic students a dominant feature. Besides enrollment, the graduation rates have tripled from 10% to 34% (NECC, 2022). As time advances, more changes are expected to ensure that the institution does not erode its rich history.

People Living in NECC

NECC is predominantly a student community. Like other learning institutions, its primary goal is bringing diverse students together to prepare them for adult life through skills. Regarding ethnic composition, NECC is predominantly a Hispanic serving institution, with Hispanics occupying 42% of the student population (NECC, 2022). A significant proportion of this Hispanic population comes from the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. Whites comprise 40.7%, African Americans and Blacks 2%, and Asians 2.01% (Data USA, 2022). Other non-dominant populations include Native Hawaiian and Alaska natives.

Positive Strengths of the Community

A community’s strengths are critical to its growth. They also help the community to cope with socioeconomic challenges. One of the NECC’s strengths is culture and diversity. Over time, NECC has built an organizational culture that highly regards innovation and develops students’ strengths (Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, 2020). Such a culture plays an instrumental role in the community’s progressive growth and enables members to respond to the current world’s challenges effectively. Diversity is first demonstrated by the institution’s diverse learners. The second element is the commitment to recruiting and retaining a diverse workforce without discriminating against anyone (Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges, 2020). Diversity and inclusion foster cohesion in a community, and people can work together to achieve a common goal.

Other major strengths include students’ support and access to opportunities. Their defining elements include grants and scholarships, loans, and work-study programs. Grants and scholarships are non-refundable, while loans enable students to borrow against future earnings (NECC, 2022). Their terms and conditions vary significantly but enable students to access education. The work-study programs are need-based but provide students with unique opportunities to supplement other sources of education funds. Generally, such support encourages students to seek education to better their lives.

Ranking the Community

A community’s ranking primarily indicates its strengths and ability to cope with everyday needs. It is defined by social class, which mostly deals with people’s categorization depending on wealth, power, income, and race (Taylor & Cantwell, 2020). Each step higher in the social ladder denotes access to more resources. I would rank the community at the lower end of the social class ladder. In this end, people are not wealthy and have minimal access to resources (Wingen et al., 2021). The same characterizes the students’ population. Most students depend on parents and the government’s aid to study. Furthermore, the work-study program is not well-paying to meet all students’ needs.

Community’s Weaknesses

A community’s weaknesses deter its progress and increase its vulnerability to social vices such as crime and violence. A leading NECC’s weakness is the lack of adequate employment opportunities. Most students cannot access the work-study program, which is need-based. The inadequacy of employment opportunities increases students’ vulnerability to financial challenges, and most rely on loans to complete their education. Later, the loans become an economic burden, and many students from minority populations cannot pay them. Hanson (2021) noted that 67% of Hispanics have student loan debt. Unless employment opportunities increase or students get more financial aid, the financial burden will continue tormenting the students.

The other visible weakness is poor graduation rates among Hispanic students. Despite the enrollment composition being as high as 42%, the graduation rate was as low as 34% in 2020 (NECC, 2022). The graduation rate implies that more than half of the enrolled students do not complete school. Nichols and Anthony (2020) argued that the disparity in graduation rates accurately illustrates the disparity in students’ ability to afford education based on their race. It is a severe problem in the US education system that will be persistent for a long time unless addressed effectively. Students’ inability to complete education increases their vulnerability to poverty, health care challenges, and crime (Whistle, 2019). They are also unable to pay their education loans. The government and community leaders should collaborate to identify and support such students through innovative programs.

The Social Program: The Unique People’s Grant

As a community leader in NECC, I would propose the Unique People’s Grant as a social program. Presently, the support available for students does not address students’ specific problems. It is not primarily about the most vulnerable in this community and accessing it is challenging. Grants and loans usually encourage enrollment. However, students face many challenges that affect their graduation rates along the way. Some students become pregnant, others become depressed, and many lack finances to meet their housing, health, and entertainment needs. Financial challenges are the leading problem (Beer & Bray, 2020). Since the minorities are the most affected, there should be a special program for unique needs besides basic education. Students should be more encouraged to be in school, enjoy learning, and complete when expected.

The Unique People’s Grant is expected to benefit NECC in three main ways. Firstly, it will increase students’ retention rate, increasing the college’s score in this critical area. Secondly, it will empower minority students as a vulnerable population to concentrate on education and complete successfully. The grant is a way of ensuring that unique problems that increase dropout rates and decrease learning motivation are addressed. Thirdly, it will promote equality by reducing the socioeconomic gap between minority students and whites. Overall, it will be a unique intervention for empowering students to cope with learning challenges that affect completion.

Conclusion

Social programs address a community’s unique problems. They advance a community’s social conditions through empowerment. Their primary objective is to reduce economic inequalities in society and promote the well-being of targeted groups. The Unique People’s Grant meets this criterion. It seeks to reduce the inequality between minority and dominant races by empowering NECC minorities to increase their graduation rates. A higher graduation rate implies a more empowered community through education and more employment opportunities. Social vices such as poverty, crime, and insecurity will also reduce significantly.

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

References

Beer, A., & Bray, J. B. (2020). Bridging financial wellness and student success: Effective models for community colleges. Association of Community College Trustees. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED607406.pdf

Data USA. (2022). Northern Essex Community College. https://datausa.io/profile/university/northern-essex-community-college#:~:text=Enrollment%20by%20Race%20%26%20Ethnicity&text=The%20enrolled%20student%20population%20at%20Northern%20Essex%20Community%20College%20is,American%20Indian%20or%20Alaska%20Native.

Hanson, M. (2021). Student loan debt by race. Education Data. https://educationdata.org/student-loan-debt-by-race

Massachusetts Association of Community Colleges (2020). Overview. https://masscc.org/northernessex/

NECC. (2022). Serving the Hispanic community. https://www.necc.mass.edu/discover/serving-the-hispanic-community/

NECC. (2022). Types of aid. https://www.necc.mass.edu/afford/types-of-aid/

Nichols, A. H., & Anthony, M. Jr. (2020). Graduation rates don’t tell the full story: racial gaps in college success are larger than we think. The Education Trust. https://edtrust.org/resource/graduation-rates-dont-tell-the-full-story-racial-gaps-in-college-success-are-larger-than-we-think/

Taylor, B. J., & Cantwell, B. (2020). Unequal higher education: wealth, status, and student opportunity. Rutgers University pres.

Whistle, W. (2019). Ripple effect: The cost of the college dropout rate. third way. https://www.thirdway.org/report/ripple-effect-the-cost-of-the-college-dropout-rate

Wingen, T., Englich, B., Estal-Muñoz, V., Mareva, S., & Kassianos, A. P. (2021). Exploring the relationship between social class and quality of life: The mediating role of power and status. Applied Research in Quality of Life, 16(5), 1983-1998. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11482-020-09853-y

 

 

If I Were A Community Leader: My Hypothetical Social Program
Hypothetical Social Program. This assignment requires the student to put themselves in the position of a community leader with the task of creating a hypothetical social program for the community in which they live. Assignment may be in an essay format or created as a video or audio presentation. Here are some details to consider for this assignment:
Put yourself in the position of a community leader of your community (the residence in which you reside) that wants to improve the quality of life for its residents. This assignment asks you to be creative in your program design.
Do not cite a program that already exists in your community–unless, you have added something new to the existing program.
Give the social program a name.
You may choose to submit this assignment as an essay OR you may create a video recording.
The “must-haves” of the assignment-whether it’s in essay form or a video:
Describe your community as though you were describing it to someone that had never been there before.
What is the community’s history? (a brief description)
Who are the people that live there? (Ethnic make-up)
What are the positive strengths of your community?
Where would you rank the community at the upper or lower end of the social class ladder? Go to Chapter 9 in the OpenStax text to help answer this question. This information must be included.
What are the community’s weaknesses? (Identify social problems such as crime, poverty, unhealthy community environments, violence, and unemployment or the absence of employment opportunities).
End your essay by stating in your conclusions why the suggested social program will benefit your community.

Include as many theories/themes covered in class to support the reason(s) why you suggested your particular social program.