sw260_document_W01 Change Agent_Identifying a Community Problem & Seeking Solutions
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Brigham Young University, Idaho *
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260
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Communications
Date
Feb 20, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by PresidentRaccoonMaster928
W01 Change Agent: Identifying a Community Problem & Seeking Solutions
Instructions
Answer the following questions completely
. It will probably take you 2-3 well-formed paragraphs to answer the questions well. Question 1
Spend a few days reading your local newspaper or exploring local issues online. Make a list of problems discussed in these (and any other sources) that affect members of your local community or the larger national or international community. The problems should be ones that negatively affect the
lives of some members of the community.
Describe why the things you list should be considered issues. Think about the following questions: How is something determined a problem or issue? Where can you go to find out about problems in your community? Do problems have to affect your entire community or could they be population specific? Could a problem be negative for one group but positive for another? How can we identify when this occurs?
Here are some examples of problems we have seen happening locally, nationally and internationally.
“Rigby man given probation after inappropriately touching girl as she slept” (East Idaho News)
“Pocatello man facing life sentence after alleged sexual assault of a minor” (East Idaho News)
“Thousands try to watch influencer Ruby Franke court hearing in child abuse” (East Idaho News)
“School district agrees to pay $27 million to family of 13-year-old in fatal bullying case” (East Idaho News)
“Bullying in schools under-reported say experts” (BBC News)
“Mum says school failed girl who was harassed after bullies shared details” (BBC News) The headlines show how the minor population is being affected by caregivers and close ones. Usually that population is the most susceptible to sexual assault crimes and home abuse, and they are easily silenced by the oppressor. Why this is such reoccurring crime in society? I believe it is because a lot of people come from broken
homes and probably never received the counseling that almost always is needed for life. Another problem is that
people are so concerned with the stigma and they are ashamed of getting help. One of the most disseminated information out there is that almost always the abusers were also abused and replicate that behavior in either minors they know or even with their own kids. Yet, the discussion about the topic in communities is not very open, or even unheard-of. For example, I have never been invited to a school meeting or received any information on the topic on how to prevent and what is BYU-Idaho SW 260
considered child abuse. Is up to us to bring awareness for this important topic. We must ask what is being done in our schools to leave an open channel for kids so they can open up and be heard. How we can have empathy and lift the stigma? Many of these questions need to be addressed and discussed, not put under the carpet and be forgotten. As a consequence, we see these types of crimes increase every day.
Another problem that we see that is affecting middle-schoolers to highschoolers is bullying, is a much-heard problem but in theory, but when it comes to its practice schools are still failing to address the issue in a firmer way. The kids that are suffering bullying are left with signs of anxiety, school absent and mental healthy issues. On the case of the girl from Manchester that suffered cyber bullying, when got her information’s shared at school. The most serious case happened with Diego Stolz a 13-year-old that was punched by students at his middle school and died after falling on the ground and having brain damage and consequently dying days later. Besides the effort of the family that already had reported the bulling, the school did not take that seriously. That was a totally preventable situation if more severe policies are forced, for example, if bulling was considered a crime, I believe students would be afraid of the consequences. Access to services like counseling programs to support those that suffer bullying will also be a good solution to the problem, as well as talking about mental health and how to react and become more resilient. (East Idaho News https://www.eastidahonews.com/news/crime/
) (East Idaho News
https://www.eastidahonews.com/2023/09/school-district-agrees-to-pay-27-million-to-family-
of-13-year-old-in-fatal-bullying-case/
)
( BBC News - https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-65389485#:~:text=Bullying%20in%20schools
%20under%2Dreported%20say%20experts
) (BBC News https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-manchester-65916522
) Question 2 Of these problems, choose one that you care about. Write a few paragraphs offering ideas about how you and others in the community could work together to help create a solution or a partial solution to the problem. Identify the problem and why it is a problem, ideas you and/or others in the community could work together to help create a solution or partial solution to the problem, and what barriers you might encounter and why as you implement your solution. The news that I choose it is: “Thousands try to watch influencer Ruby Franke court hearing in child abuse” (East Idaho News)
The case of the Ruby Franky and Hildebrand, from Springville made national headings, because astonishingly they are licensed clinical mental health counselors. Franke was teaching
about parenting on YouTube and had two million subscribers.
BYU-Idaho SW 260
It is alarming to see that we live in a world that we can’t trust even the ones that are supposed to be protecting the innocent. For example, when my son was diagnosed with level 3 Autism, we were told that we could use the Respite care that was provided by the government, to our surprise we were warned that would be very hard to find someone that we could trust that could provide good care for our son, living in a rural area. As a fact we decided to not use Respite to protect our son as well as the driving services which we also heard could not be trusted.
This case it is a problem, because it shows that the system is failing our children and adolescents. What we learned with Franke’s case, was that before everything came to light, 14 visits from the Social Services were not enough to proof the abuse. We need to analyze where the laws are failing our kids, and advocate for most effective laws that can protect better the minors. The way we have the system right now is protecting the predators not the victims. Also, we need to make people’s voice heard. How was it ignored by social services the
opinion of neighbors’ and the older daughter and even the kids? How qualified are the people
that are doing the checkings? When it comes to a case like that, we learn that we have to insist until the truth can show itself because the justice system will not always facilitate.
(East Idaho News https://www.eastidahonews.com/news/crime/
)
BYU-Idaho SW 260
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