Community Nutrition Project Proposal for Homeless Population

(1) An abstract and (2) A 8-9 page proposal paper (reference page, title page and double spaced). Students must choose one of the following scenarios to guide their community nutrition project. Use the chapters covered in this course as a resource when completing this project (in addition to other resources/articles you may need).

You are a dietitian or health educator working for our local Food Bank and a very wealthy donor has given a grant of 1 million dollars for a program to improve the nutrition services and health services offered by various homeless organizations (Homeless Coalition of Harris County). The donor has asked for a proposal to help address the issues of poor nutritional health, poor activity levels, overall poor health awareness of many diseases and health conditions of this population.

They have asked that you work in partnership with the many non-profit organizations in the Houston area (you will find them on Homeless Coalition website). Research what other cities are doing for their homeless population in the US and mention them (Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, New York City). Have a sample month of your activities or services being proposed. Don’t forget to include incentives (why would the homeless participate and evaluations (how do you measure if they participate in activities).

Once you have chosen one of the case study options, you will then create a minimum 8-9 page proposal (includes title page and reference page) covering the following aspects from your scenario (Use APA format): Google what a proposal is if you aren’t sure.

Identify and describe the nutrition/health problem(s) common in the population you are assisting : prevalence, trends, possible short and long term consequences of this problem, causes of the problem, and barriers to treating the problem. (search under the population and also CDC data or local Houston or Texas data)

Describe any multicultural or diversity issues related to treating this problem. There are ALWAYS multicultural and diversity issues to consider. (use the CDC website for national, state or local statistics) This may mean certain ethnic populations are more affected than others.

Identify existing programs, organizations, or resources for helping to treat the nutrition/activity problem and provide your critique of existing programs including strengths, limitations, and gaps in those programs. NO program is perfect otherwise no one would have the nutrition problem. (search state, city or county websites)

Develop and describe a nutrition program/strategy to help solve the problem. Include goals, objectives, target audience, change strategies (i.e., how will you change behaviors of the program participants?), setting, necessary supplies etc. to be used. (use the chapters in the book to help design an appropriate program)

Outline a plan for evaluating outcomes of the proposed program. What are the measures you would use to evaluate whether your program was achieving the stated goals and objectives (make sure the goals and objectives align to each other)? What types of process outcomes would you look at to determine whether the program was being delivered as you intended? (use the chapter in the book to help with your evaluations)

Students are to succinctly describe their community project in an abstract. Do not go over or under the word count. The abstract will be a shortened, written document describing your proposal. The abstract should  be approximately 200-300 words (~1/2-3/4 page), single-spaced, 12- point fontin WORD or PDF format.