Policy Brief Assignment

A policy brief is a written document that conveys a policy issue, background related to the issue, information pertinent to the issue (this may include current law, debate about the issue, data about the issue), recommendation, and references. Your brief, in theory, should be a document that can inform your local community, the public at-large, and be a piece for advocacy.

The overall focus of this brief is on food insecurity and health-related comorbidities, such as obesity and diabetes, among adults. For this particular policy brief you will:

• Create your own title for the brief (3 points)
• Provide an executive summary (10 points)
• Provide background on the problem (i.e. obesity and diabetes), a contributing factor to the problem (i.e. food insecurity), and the co-occurring relationship between the contribution factor and problem (15 points)
• Describe a current policy or program designed to address the contributing factor (i.e. food insecurity) and related limitations of the policy or program. NOTE: The description is about 1 policy or program, NOT multiple policies or programs. (15  points)
• Provide 3 recommendations to improve the policy or program described above. NOTE: This is NOT recommendation for an individual but recommendations for the policy or program. (15 points)
• Include the references used to create the brief. A minimum of 5 empirical articles are required in your reference page. (10 points). You may have more than 5 references, but at least 5 must be empirical articles. Please see BB as to what qualifies as an empirical article or where to find one. These points are different from the APA-style formatting points below.

 

Format of the paper using the template. (7 points total). This includes:

• Text of the brief: single-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point font, Times New Roman style font. Text should not be italicized nor bulleted (2 points).
• Reference page: double-spaced, 1-inch margins, 12-point font, Times New Roman style font (1 point).
• 2-full pages of text (i.e. cannot be less than 1.5 pages and cannot exceed 2 pages) (2 points). This page limit does not include the reference page. Your reference page should be on page 3.
• Followed the structure of the template and included the appropriate headers (2 points)
• For this assignment you should summarize and synthesize information found in empirical articles. Providing direct quotes from these articles is UNACCEPTABLE. You will receive at least a 2 point deduction for every direct quote, with greater deductions for long quotes.

 

Other important info:

• You may use the same empirical article to support multiple points if it is appropriate.
• In terms of APA-style, assignments are NOT required to have a title page, header, nor be double-spaced.

The following page includes the template for your assignment. Please use this template.

 

Executive Summary

In your summary include the following information:

• State the problem (1 point).
• State an underlying cause of the problem (1 point).
• Briefly state your recommendations. You will provide greater detail regarding your recommendations down below (2 points per recommendation; total 6 points).

The executive summary should include the same information as the information below. For example the problem in the executive summary should be the same problem described in the background. While the “Executive Summary” is the first thing that is read, it will be easier to write once you have written the entire brief.

 

This section should be 3-5 sentences (2 points) written in paragraph form, single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted. Delete the italicized instructions.

 

Background

In the background section include the following information:

• State scope and severity of the problem: Specifically, state the scope and severity of obesity (2 points) and diabetes (2 points) based on national prevalence rates. (This can be found on BB under “additional reading” for this particular assignment). In addition, state an estimate of the economic impact of obesity (2 points). (You will need to do a literature search for this one).
• State how food insecurity can be a contributing factor to the problem. Describe the following:
  • food insecurity (1 point) (See BB under “additional reading” for this particular assignment)
  • the national food insecurity prevalence rate (1 point) (See BB under “additional reading” for this particular assignment),
  • empirical research findings regarding how food insecurity may contribute directly to obesity and diabetes (3 points).
  • Other things to include may be any of the following (2 points). NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list nor does it mean that you need to address all of these suggestions
    • Empirical research findings about how food insecurity may contribute indirectly to obesity and diabetes through stress, mental health, or health behavior risk factor.
    • Empirical research findings how food insecurity may contribute to parenting, child behavior, and/or child health outcomes

 

This section should be half a page (2 points) in paragraph form, single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted. Delete the italicized instructions.

 

Current Policy or Program Information

In the current policy information section describe a current policy or program that attempts to address food insecurity. This can be a national policy that we discussed, such as SNAP or WIC, or a community-based program, such as a fruit and vegetable prescription program (e.g., Wholesome Wave – see BB under “additional reading” for this particular assignment). This section should describe the policy’s or program’s:

• target audience (1 point),
• eligibility requirements (1 point),
• benefits provided (e.g., cash benefits only; voucher; cash benefits + nutrition education) (1 points),
• what can be purchased (1 point)

 

This section should also describe 3 limitations of the current policy or program (1 point for stating the limitation + 2 points for describing the limitation = 3 points per limitation; total 9 points). For example, is the policy too narrow in who it targets? Does the program solely provide benefits but not nutrition education? These limitations are lead-ins to the next section in which you will provide recommendations on how policy and/or programs should be changed to better address food insecurity.  No recommendations should be provided in this section. For example, the answer to the question “How can nutrition education or the negative consequences of obesity and diabetes be incorporated?” would go in the next section, but the fact that a program does not incorporate nutrition education might be listed as a limitation in this section.

 

This section should be half to three-quarters a page (2 points) in paragraph form, single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted. Delete the italicized instructions.

 

Recommendations

Recommendation 1: [This should be a clear, snappy title that clearly tells your audience what should be done (2 points). Delete the brackets and the information inside the brackets]

In 3-5 sentences provide greater detail about this recommendation (Description – 2 points; 3-5 sentences in length – 1 point). This section should be single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted.

 

Recommendation 2: [This should be a clear, snappy title that clearly tells your audience what should be done (2 points). Delete the brackets and the information inside the brackets]

In 3-5 sentences provide greater detail about this recommendation. (Description – 2 points; 3-5 sentences in length – 1 point). This section should be single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted.

 

Recommendation 3: [This should be a clear, snappy title that clearly tells your audience what should be done (2 points). Delete the brackets and the information inside the brackets]

In 3-5 sentences provide greater detail about this recommendation. (Description – 2 points; 3-5 sentences in length – 1 point). This section should be single spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted.

 

Potential recommendations could address the following. NOTE: This is not an exhaustive list nor does it mean that you need to address any or all of these suggestions:

• Are there other methods of improving individuals’ diets other than providing them cash benefits?
• Are there particular food assistance programs that should be expanded to include certain populations, such as non-citizens or college students?
• Should there be restrictions on particular food items? What are those restrictions? How may this improve health?
• Should food insecurity screening be expanded? If so, what are outlets, venues, and organizations that could assist with screening? It will be important to explain how expanding screening may lead to improve health outcomes.
• Should food assistance programs work in isolation or work with other public assistance programs? If food assistance programs should be consolidated with other public assistance programs how would this would work and describe the potential benefits of consolidating assistance programs.

 

When creating the recommendations consider how the recommendation could provide health benefits not only to the adult individual, but other members of the family, such as children. Include this information in the recommendation.

 

Delete the italicized instructions.

References

A minimum of 5 empirically-based references are required in APA-style format (in-text citations and reference list). This section should be on a separate page from the text of the brief, double spaced, and not italicized nor bulleted.

 

[This is an example of an APA-style reference page. Delete the brackets, the information in the brackets, and all information below prior to typing your information.]

 

Bronte-Tinkew, J., Zaslow, M., Capps, R., Horowitz, A., & McNamara, M. (2007). Food insecurity works through depression, parenting, and infant feeding to influence overweight and health in toddlers. Journal of Nutrition, 137(9), 2160-2165.

 

Bzostek, S. H., & Beck, A. N. (2011). Familial instability and young children’s physical health. Social Science & Medicine, 73(2), 282-292. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.04.014

 

NOTE: Provide doi for articles available electronically when possible. Doi can be found on the upper right corner of the first page of an article or at the bottom of the article. Not all articles have a doi. URL is not needed when a doi can be provided. Remember, URL are only provided when the journal is online-only. Most of the journals that you will use are NOT online-only.