“family homelessness” or “chronic homelessness.

For this class, you will pick a problem/policy area and write a 1200 – 1500 word policy brief. You can pretend that you are presenting this to the mayor of a city (perhaps Philadelphia, or perhaps the city that you are using for your portfolio). Pick a manageable topic for this brief. For example, instead of choosing “homelessness” as a topic, you would want to drill down and choose “family homelessness” or “chronic homelessness.” This policy can be one that you discuss in your city portfolio too.

Components of your policy brief:

Executive Summary – this is usually placed at the beginning of a much longer report. Its purpose is to summarize the key points of the longer report. Oftentimes, people will read the executive summary to obtain the key points of the report, or they will read it before reading the whole report. In one to two paragraphs, capture the reader’s attention as to why s/he should care to read this brief. What is the problem or issue and what policy(ies) seems to work to address it? Focus on the practical implications of the findings of this brief.

Problem description – What is the problem? What’s the scope of the problem (for example, how many people are affected by it, costs, etc.)? Who are the stakeholders (These can consist of a range of constituencies, so think broad. For homelessness, you could include business owners downtown, and several other groups in addition to people who are actually homeless.)?

Policy alternatives – What is currently occurring to address the problem? How can it be changed or refined to be more effective?

Policy recommendation – Conclude with what you have found, based on the evidence in your review of research, to be most effective, just, and applicable here. You may want to go back to the first week of class to consider evaluative criteria.