Oxford University Maslow Project Data Analysis Discussion
Response Guidelines
Respond
to at least two peers. Select the strength or weakness of the post that
most interests you and explain how it relates to an aspect of the data
analysis you are doing with your selected organization.
Student post down below:
Data
analysis is a direction towards looking into an organization and
viewing what that organization is supporting, completing, and working on
or towards. However, data representation and analysis are only as
useful as the information being gathered. When analyzing data, its
speaking for the organization as a whole. Understanding what is
happening within the organization, how the data is organized, what
information is being represented, etc. is helpful. It helps determine
what is working, not working, what changes are needed for the
organization to be successful, what are the opinions and views of
stakeholders and community members, and much more (Guenole, Ferrar,
& Feinzig, 2017).
The Maslow Project is a community resource
and outreach program to assist homeless and at-risk homeless youth and
their families. There is a range of demographics in the data that is
representing age, race, ethnicity, how many youths were helped with or
without guardians, what items were helped with (food boxes, clothes,
housing assistance, etc.), graduation rates, case management assistance,
and much more. Their continuous growth has allowed more access and
connections to the local resources within the community. The limitations
of the data are that they do offer diverse services that they are
working with in the community, however the population that is served in
not very diverse and is predominantly white. The data needs to represent
the reality of the population in need and show how all populations are
being served based on those needs. The problem focus area for the Maslow
Project is not only working and assisting with homeless or at-risk
homeless youth and their families, but the “why” that is behind it. Why
are the numbers of homeless and at-risk homeless youth increasing? What
services are working for the needs of the community? What services are
missing? What are the needs of the community in its entirety? What is
causing the need of assistance (mental health, poverty, substance
misuse, etc.)?
The strengths of The Maslow Project are its
partnership with the local children in the community and its partnership
with other local community resources (Department of Human Services,
tutoring services, employment opportunities and training, case
management, housing, etc.). The data is representative of what is
happening in these areas of need and how they are serving that
population. The weakness of the data for the Maslow Project is that the
“why” is not being answered when reading or analyzing the data. Being
able to see what is being served to the members of the community and ow
much help was given per category is extremely beneficial for the
organization, however being able to identify a possible cause or barrier
can potentially reduce the number of individuals in need and increase
their access in receiving help to be able to transition off services.
