There are many skills that human service workers need to be successful. Because this course is an introduction to these skills, each week you will complete a 2-3 page essay that involves you reading about and practicing these skills. This week, your essay will focus on advocacy.
Read The Importance of Advocacy and Advocacy Competencies in Human Service Professions
Use the OCU Discovery Service to identify a peer-reviewed research article on advocacy. Choose an article that is of interest to you published within the past 5 years. Please do not submit any references that come from .com websites. If you are unclear as to what is considered a scholarly source, please visit here
After you have completed your reading and research, plan to have an intentional conversation with someone you encounter during Week 1. Being mindful of your new insights on advocacy, navigate the conversation by thinking through advocacy and what type of advocacy supports could benefit this person you are conversing with.
Practic
ing and Analyzing Advocacy Essay-
Write a 2-3 page essay analyzing what you learned about advocacy and how that information informed your approach to your conversation.
First, share the details of your conversation. Who/When/What was talked about?
Second, what new awareness did you have about advocacy for this individual given what you learned about this week? How is advocacy used in the field of human services?
What were the challenges of conveying your advocacy skills in this conversation? How could you overcome those challenges in the future?
How did elements of diversity that you learned about this week in this course could factor into your ability to serve as an advocate for this person? Did diversity make it easier or more difficult? Why?
Throughout this paper, be careful to support your arguments with your course readings and research in order to achieve full points. Please make sure to include APA text citations and reference list.
I have shared the first essay from week one in the files below.