Psych 104

Ashford 6: - Week 5 - Final Project

Community Center Proposal

Focus of the Final ProjectYour community is opening a brand new Community Child Development Center.  Now that you are an expert in the field, you have been chosen to lead a development team that will create a proposal for interactive, fun, and educational programming activities that will be provided for children and adolescents in this center.  Utilize problem-solving techniques in exploring developmental issues, grounded in child development, in order to assess what activities and items should be included in each program. The chosen activities and items must be developmentally appropriate and based in theory.  They must also address the themes of this class, including Health and Well-Being, Family and Parenting, Education, Culture, and Gender.  Once you have chosen these features, you will present your ideas to a mock city council board (i.e. your instructor) with a written proposal describing the programming in detail.

You have been asked to propose programming for five different age groups in the Community Child Development Center:

• Infant (0-1 year)
• Toddler (1-3 years)
• Early Childhood (3-6 years)
• Middle/Late Childhood (7-12 years)
• Adolescence (13-18 years)

The Community Child Development Center will have a room dedicated to each of these age groups.  In your proposal, you will identify and describe two specific activities for each “room” (for a total of 10 activities) that address their developmental domain pathways: physical, cognitive, and psychosocial.  All three domains of development must be addressed within your activities.  For example, you may have one activity which enhances cognitive and psychosocial development and a second activity which enhances physical development for a particular age group. In addition to identifying these activities, you will demonstrate a foundational knowledge of the age group’s developmental continuum by explaining your reasoning for choosing each activity, based on your analysis of theory and current child development research.  

Additionally, you will search for at least one age-appropriate game, toy, picture, or other “play” item to enhance the chosen activities within each age group. Keep in mind that this may include things like art, music, technology, or safety gear as you deem fit.  For each item that you recommend, your proposal will explain why the city should purchase the item informed by research and theory. 

The overall goal of the final project is much like that of a grant proposal, in which a developer must convince the city council that his or her new business or activity is both cost-effective and beneficial to the community.  You are encouraged to be creative and persuasive in your proposal, but remember that everything must be supported by the theories and research covered in our class. Included is a Community Child Development Center Proposal Template, demonstrating what information should be included in your project.

SPECIAL NOTES: You will utilize the Community Child Development Center Proposal template to create and submit your proposal.  Enter the requested information on the title page where indicated. Where you find the text “This is where you will…” within the proposal, please remove that and enter your own content. The headings in bold should not be altered. Replace the verbiage “paragraph #” with the title of your activity or object.  You will use bullets in the outline phase, but create cohesive paragraphs with appropriate headings for the final submission.   Remember your audience wants to see what you are going to provide and why. The final content for each “room” will consist of four paragraphs that will address two activities, one object or toy and a short discussion of the major themes addressed in the room. 

In your Community Child Development Center Proposal, you must include the following:

• Please complete each section of the template including the information requested.  A good way to brainstorm different age appropriate activities is using Google search.  For example, enter “activities to support cognitive development in toddlers” and numerous sites with suggested activities.  Remember that your activities may be simple (especially with newborns) but they must also be specific and age appropriate, and you are to connect them to developmental theory within the proposal.  You must also cite the sources in your proposal.   
• Within each room, you will be asked to justify your activities and items by analyzing interactions of the major themes: Health and Well-Being, Family and Parenting, Education, Culture and Gender as factors influencing the developmental physical, cognitive and psychosocial pathways.  Your written proposal must address how you have accounted for each of these themes in its associated room as they relate to physical, cognitive, and psychosocial development. Each theme must be included in at least one room, and each room must address one or more themes. (Please see these samples for ways to explain how you have accounted for this.)
• While much of the support for your proposal will come from the text book, you must include information somewhere in the proposal from two [2] scholarly sources  Remember to cite all your sources (including the text book) according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center. For information regarding APA samples and tutorials, visit the Ashford Writing Center through the tab on the left navigation toolbar in your online course. The EBSCOHost and PsycINFO databases in the Ashford Online Library are helpful sources of information, as are the required and recommended resources found in your course materials. . On the library website, click on “Find Articles and More” and select "Databases by Subject" and then "Psychology." (For further assistance in researching scholarly sources, please click on the “LibraryU” link on the Ashford University Library website.)

The Community Child Development Center Proposal

• Must be seven to eight double-spaced pages in length (not including the title page and references), and formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.  
• Must include a title page with the following:
  • Title of Community Center
  • Student’s name
  • Course name and number
  • Instructor’s name
  • Date submitted
• Must begin with an introductory paragraph that has a succinct thesis statement, in which you introduce the topic and your Community Center.   
• Must address the topic of the paper with critical thought within each of the designated age groups.
• Must end with a conclusion that reaffirms your thesis and thanks the mock city council for their time and consideration of your proposal.  
• Must use at least two scholarly sources in addition to the text book. Be sure to integrate your sources rather than simply inserting them. 
• Must document all sources in APA style, as outlined here and here.
• Must include a separate reference page, formatted according to APA style as outlined in the Ashford Writing Center.