Progressive Project
When clients, like government ministries or corporations, are looking for someone to complete a project as a contract, they will often put out a request for proposals, or RFP. This common professional document outlines the client’s expectations and requirements for a project, enabling potential contractors to submit their proposal for how they would complete the project. If they win and their proposals are accepted, then they get to complete the project they outlined in their proposal.
This course is structured around a simplified and hypothetical version of this process. Students are given a Request for Proposal which outlines the client expectations and requirements for the course project. Based on this, students produce a Proposal, and then go on to research and write a Policy Brief and a Communication Package to share their work with different audiences. These documents are, thus, connected as a single, multi-step project.
Each stage of the project corresponds to a graded term assignment in this course:
Proposal (20%)– You will submit a proposal to conduct research that meets specific goals and criteria. These goals and criteria will be provided in the assignment.
Policy Brief (25%)– You will then complete the actual ‘Research’ paper that you proposed in the Proposal assignment.
Communication Design Package (30%) – Finally, you will develop a plan and materials to mobilize the knowledge from your policy brief, with an emphasis on accessible forms of communication for different audiences, including an infographic, a community presentation, and a social media story.
You will have the opportunity to study the Request for Proposals for this course Project in the Journal Task at the end of this Unit.
Orientation: What is a policy brief?
The course scenario project really turns on the research and production of a Policy Brief. First you will focus on a specific topic and develop a proposal to write a Policy Brief, and then you will research and write the Policy Brief. After writing it, you will work on distributing the knowledge from that brief to larger audiences. So, it would be helpful to look at some sample Policy Briefs, so you know what you are being asked to do!
In Unit 2, there are more developed lessons on the expectations, content and form of policy briefs. For now, we will just have a general introduction to the genre. Your goal in this section is to read over some samples to get a feel for the Policy Brief you will be developing.
Policy Briefs can take many forms, but essentially these are short (brief!) presentations of research and recommendations designed to inform decision-making about policy issues. The goal is a persuasive piece of research that works to convince decision-makers to shape policy in the interests or to the benefit of a particular group.
READ
| To gain an initial understanding of a Policy Brief, explore the following resources, focusing specifically on looking at samples of policy briefs: The IDRC document “How to Write a Policy Brief” includes links to several examples in the template section. Study the examples and we will return to this document in Unit 2 for applied practice. https://idrc-crdi.ca/en/funding/resources-idrc-grantees/how-write-policy-brief. The UC Davis Centre for Poverty and Inequality also has a library of sample policy briefs to examine. Choose 2 or 3 to read through, looking at the overall goal and structure of the documents. https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/policy-briefs ** Remember, for the projects in this course, you will be using secondary research only. Many of these examples refer to primary research projects which are beyond our scope! |
THINK & ENGAGE
| To guide your examination of Policy Brief samples, consider these questions about a specific example. UC Davis, “Social Safety Net Mitigates the Impact of Poverty on Brain Development and Mental Health.” https://poverty.ucdavis.edu/post/social-safety-net-mitigates-impact-poverty-brain-development-and-mental-health |
- Whose interests are represented and advocated for in this Policy Brief?
- What recommendation is offered to inform policy development?
- What is the function of the Key Facts box? What can you learn there?
Scenario: Call for Research to Inform Policy Development Social Isolation and Loneliness
We will use the following scenario to guide our work through the course. Note that this scenario is realistic in its intent, but somewhat simplified for the purposes of this project:
Many economic, social and cultural factors combine today to raise diverse questions about the nature and causes of social isolation and loneliness in British Columbia. Factors like demographic shifts, changing technology and social media use, urbanization and housing patterns, remote work arrangements, mental health challenges, and the lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic are just some of the issues that pressure us, as a society, to rethink questions of social connection and community cohesion.
Ministries within the BC Provincial government are facing pressure to develop policy stances on a variety of issues related to social isolation and loneliness, including increasing opportunities to design and implement interventions that strengthen social connections. These policy stances might be needed across many different government portfolios, including health and mental health, seniors’ services, children and family development, municipal affairs and housing, education, economic development, and Indigenous relations and reconciliation.
To support the development of policy stances across these areas, the government is soliciting research on the topics of social isolation and loneliness, and the potential issues, risks and opportunities they represent across a range of sectors and interest groups. The goal is to gather arguments representative of a range of perspectives and interests across the region on this issue to inform future decision making.
As such, the government will put out an RFP (Request for Proposals), asking for proposals to complete such research. This research will culminate in the submission of a policy brief and a communication plan to disseminate the information from the policy brief.
THINK & ENGAGE
| To get you thinking about the scenario, take some time to read over some initial resources related to the topic of Social Isolation and Loneliness. These are general, and you will certainly find more specific and relevant ones for your own project as you begin to focus your interests. Note: Some of these sources are Open, and some may require paid access through an institutional library. https://universityaffairs.ca/career-advice/creating-student-connection-and-belonging/ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-023-01617-6 https://psycnet.apa.org/fulltext/2022-59604-001.html |
Everything in the course will be linked to this scenario and your work to produce the communication documents requested. The first step will be to assess the Request for Proposals and begin to plan your proposal assignment. To do this, you will be asked to start thinking about the perspective and focus you would like to take for your project; hints about that are suggested above. This work is outlined in Journal Task 1.