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Revision as of 17:08, 4 October 2007

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1. Select an urban or suburban neighborhood, a small town or a rural region to focus on in the completion of the requirements for this honor.

Unless very sparsely populated an area of even one square mile may be sufficient or possibly too large for this project. Choose an area that you can actually assess carefully in the time you allot with the number of people you have to do it. Then with photocopies of a map of the area define each team's "zone" for them so that there will be no unneeded overlapping and no place unchecked.

2. Compile a file folder of information on the selected community, including:

Most resources providing demographics for the USA will provide much of the information required by this step.

a. A map of the area

Use one of the many online mapping services, or obtain a street atlas. Online mapping services include:

b. A demographic profile

Easy and free demographics are available online at city-data.com.

AdventSource and your local city manager's office may also be able to provide you with up to date demographics. AdventSource will refer you to the Center for Metropolitan Ministry at Columbia Union College, which is the only Adventist organization currently providing demographic reports for local communities. You can reach the staff at 800-438-9600.

c. Public health statistics

You may contact your county/parish or state/common wealth health services department by mail, phone or internet to gather these statistics.

d. Economic indicators

This information is usually included with any standard demographic report. If it is not you can get information like this from your municipality, county/parish, or state by contacting the Department of Economic Services and Community Development. They will be able to provide you with income reports and business statistics for their jurisdiction; you may also contact the Department of Revenue for sales tax and other local revenue statistics.

e. Housing information

General housing information is part of every standard demographic report. This information should include percentage of rental vs. ownership, average square footage, high and low square footage, average age of construction, oldest and newest construction as well as other generalities. The local Department of Community Services and a tour of the area will provide you more specific information.

f. Environment and transportation

This information is easily obtained. As local inhabitants your environment should be readily observable. If you need information about specific environmental factors contact your local Department of Environmental Quality or US OSHA. Transportation statistics are only vague on demographic reports, you may obtain more detailed information from your state's Department of Transportation and the local transportation authority. They will be able to provide you with mass transit statistics such as buses and bus routes as well as the number of seats actually filled on any form of mass transit.

3. With a friend or assigned partner take an awareness walk of at least 45 minutes through a specific part of the selected community with the goal in mind of seeing human needs. List all of the needs you see - such as yards and public areas that could be cleaned up, litter that could be picked up, lonely or aged people that could be helped, low-income families with children that could be assisted, etc.

This information can be compiled by your club with ACS and used as the basis of a broader plan for outreach by your club and church in service to your community or a community in need.

You can find an instrument and detailed instructions for how to do a "windshield survey" of a community in Understanding Your Community by Monte Sahlin. It is available from The Center for Creative Ministry .

For advanced work, complete the following (skill level 3)

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4. Interview at least one civic leader or community professional in the selected community. Ask this person about the needs in the community, the various organizations that provide services in the community, and how a Christian youth group might make a contribution to the community. Take notes during the interview.

My recommendation is a local Council or Alderman. If this is not easily enough managed seek out the emergency planner for your municipality or the emergency management coordinator for any department within you locality. These people carry with them a great deal of knowledge on local needs and services, they are familiar with local professional and volunteer organizations that operate in your area.

In the book Understanding Your Community by Monte Sahlin there is an entire chapter that explains how to do this. It includes a list of 50 civic leader roles that typically exist in communities in the United States, with specific questions for each of these roles. You can order this book at Center for Creative Ministry.

5. Prepare a report of at least 10 pages on the selected community based on the information that you have collected and suggesting specific projects that ADRA or the local Adventist Community Services organization, or Youth Emergency Service (YES) Corps unit might provide which are needed in the community.

Do not overlook the items that your club and other ministries in your church can address. Reports such as these are important to help focus the efforts of the church to the true needs of the community it serves. Only through careful consideration of those needs can we do our Christian duty of service in a way that is useful and beneficial, community outreach is not only for the productivity of the church but the true benefit of those it is to effect. Because this is true and evaluation of those items identified in earlier steps of this Honor need to be prioritized in addition to identified to the ministry best suited to execute the service.

6. Make a presentation of at least 15 minutes based on the report to a local church committee, Adventist Community Services unit, or similar group.

As the instructor, it will be up to you to arrange the meeting between the young people making the presentation and the committee to whom the presentation will be made. This is a real opportunity for the youth in your church to assess the needs of your community and actually do something about it. The committee should be one that has the authority to approve the project.

For the presentation, encourage the youth to be creative. If possible, they should use visual aids in their presentation, such as a slide show or presentation software. They could take pictures showing the areas they wish to change, and possibly use photo editing software to illustrate the proposed changes. The better they make the presentation, the more likely they are to impress the committee that they are capable of handling the project.

References

Studying Your Community by Roland L. Warren, Free Press, New York and London ( 1965)

The Church That Cares: Identifying and Responding to Needs in Your Community by Kenneth R. Miller and Mary E. Wilson, Judson Press, Valley Forge, Penn

Understanding Your Community by Monte Sahlin, Center for Creative Ministry, Lincoln, Nebraska (Third Edition, 2006)