Week 8: Survey Results

This week, I began to collect a significant amount of responses for my survey. The majority of the responses were for the GED program, although I was able to get a few from the ESL students. I have posted the results below. So far, the responses have been overwhelmingly positive. That said, that may be due to the fact that all of the respondents are regular users of these services, with the vast majority using them at least once a week. Also, the percentage of respondents who are not American citizens is nearly the same as the percentage of those for whom Spanish is the primary language spoken in the household.

Now this is not all of my survey results: I still need to hear back from the ESL and youth program respondents.

Week 7: The Beginning of the End

This marks the 7th week of my internship, meaning I am beginning the final phase of my research. I began administering my survey to DCC's clients. I expect to get the results of my research collected in a couple weeks and see how DCC's community value their services, but I wanted to examine the value of DCC's services from a different perspective; their monetary value. Originally, I planned to do this on my survey, by asking what monetary value the participants would assign to the surveys they use at DCC. However, after discussion with my onsite advisor, I decided to eliminate that question for several reasons, including the fact that the question could potentially be construed as demeaning. Instead, I decided research private companies that offered similar services and compared their rates to that of DCC's.

In my research, I decided to focus on four of DCC's services: GED Tutoring, ESL Classes, youth program(specifically their after school and summer programs), and Citizenship Classes. DCC charges a very low rate for all these services. oftentimes a single payment to cover the costs of registration. The youth program is a little different and is payed regularly. GED and ESL classes were easy to research, as they were offered by local community colleges which also charged a single price to cover the cost of registration. Citizenship classes and youth programs were a little more difficult; citizenship classes are not that widely offered and most childcare centers do not list their prices on their websites. Furthermore, it would likely be very difficult for me to observe their programs to see how they compare to DCC. Instead, I research the average cost of childcare for school age children in Arizona according to a study done by a child advocacy group, Child Care Aware, which they calculated to be $6,198.00. In coming weeks, I plan on breaking down the value of the services offered within the youth program, such as the complementary lunch.

This week, I also began drafting a rough draft of a grant proposal for the SRP Health and Human Services Grant, with the hope of receiving a Grant to help fund the GED program. My main focus is on developing a compelling narrative of what DCC does for the community of El Mirage and the West Valley. It will be interesting to see where the application takes me.