Scenario:

A social service agency has tasked you with developing a project plan that allows them to collect effective data from their clients to meet governmental guidelines within their grants. The process must be free from ambiguity, vagueness, and bias. Based on the scenario below and the assigned reading develop a project plan that will meet the needs of the agency.

Drug Counselling Program

A social service agency applied for and received funding for a special project to counsel male drug addicts between 18 and 24 years of age, and to secure full-time employment for each client (or part-time employment for clients who were still in school). To qualify for the program, the addicts must have been arrested for a crime, but not be classified as “repeat offenders.” Further, the addict must be living with at least one member of his family who is a parent or guardian. Among other conditions placed on the grant, the agency was asked to develop a measure of effectiveness for the counseling program that was acceptable to the funding agency.

The primary measure of effectiveness adopted by most drug programs is “rate of recidivism.” A recidivistic incident is de?ned as any re-arrest for a drug-related crime, or any behavior that resulted in the individual re-entering the social service system after completing the program and being discharged.

While a “re-arrest” is most surely recidivistic, there were several cases in which former clients contacted the agency and asked to be re-admitted to the program. These voluntary re-admissions resulted when a former client either began to use drugs again or was fearful that he would begin again. It seemed to the agency professionals that voluntary re-admissions were successes, not failures. (Meredith & Mantel, 2012, p. 445)

Your project report should include the following sections:

Timeline

Outlines the project

Defines a project start and end date

Defines when each element will be implemented and assessed

Data Collection Method

Details how unbiased information will be collected and used

Budget

Identifies the necessary project resources (people and products)

Quantifies how much identified resources would cost

Project Management Methods

Describes project methods that you used to address the problem

Your project plan should address the SMART (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timely) criteria. This assignment should be created in Microsoft Word, exclusively. Your report will include a well-written 6- to 10-page paper (not including title and reference pages) addressing your rationale and your methods for collecting the necessary data. Your plan must be supported by at least five scholarly sources in addition to the textbook.

Reference:

Meredith, J. R., & Mantel Jr., S. J. (2012). Project Management A Managerial Approach. Danvers, MA: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.