Group+Eight

WIKI #5
=Intro:=

Poverty in the United States is a growing issue. The economy is declining and placing more families into low income situations. Thus, more and more people are coming to rely on the assistance of food charities in order to have daily sustenance. Although food banks are helpful, there have been problems with the food being unsafe to eat and people are raising concerns about damaged packaging, expiration dates, and perishables. By using the structural functionalist perspective, we shall discuss some of the ways that this problem can be addressed such as the organization called City Harvest, and how we as individuals can make a difference in the world.

=Theory:= **
 * Structural Functionalism emphasizes a different part of society that works together as a whole to provide stabilization for society. When studying structural functionalism it is important to keep in mind the three main parts of the perspective. These three parts are manifest functions, latent functions, and dysfunctions. The manifest function is the desired results. The latent function is any positive or neutral effect of an establishment. Dysfunction is any unintended negative effect of an establishment (Witt, 13). Hunger is becoming increasingly problematic across the globe. According to U.S. Census Bureau, “The official poverty rate in 2008 was 13.2 percent, up from 12.5 percent in 2007. This was the first statistically significant annual increase in the poverty rate since 2004, when poverty increased to 12.7 percent from 12.5 percent in 2003” (Poverty If food production agencies and grocery stores would donate their excess food to impoverish local areas, then the percentage of people suffering from hunger will decrease drastically.

Literature Review:
 According to the American Community surveys there has been an increase in poverty in America beginning with the recession in 2007-2008. Poverty levels have increased 2% from 2007 and now the estimated poverty level is at 13.2%. The U.S. stands at 39.1 million people in poverty in the year of 2008. While this large sum of people in poverty is devastating, it varies within the states. New Hampshire has the lowest poverty percentage at 7.6% of the population, while Mississippi has the highest percentage of those in poverty at 21.2%(ACS-2009). The increasing amount of people who are in poverty find themselves turning to food banks. Food banks are a charitable organization that collects and distributes donated food to those who are in need of food. Unfortunately, concerns have been raised regarding the acceptability of the food products being donated. Some of the concerns the foods banks face are that the cans being donated are unlabeled, dented, donated beyond expiration date, and the produce being spoiled. These complaints were made in Canada, but these are standard problems for any food bank (Teron & Tarasuk). As American citizens we should care about the well being of those who are less fortunate than us and should make an effort to address the problems we encounter. An organization that solves many of these problems is City Harvest. City Harvest rescues food from stores that would otherwise be wasted and distributes the food to people who are in need. Such institutions should be applauded and assisted in their endeavors. The City Harvest website can be found at: http://www.cityharvest.org/

Solution:
Our solution is to join forces with the City Harvest organization and globalize their attempted actions to diminish hunger in the world. City Harvest is capable of helping the hungry by teaming with restaurants, cafeterias, manufacturers, and farms to deliver food free of charge to those who are in need of nutrition. By duplicating this system of support in other cities across the world, the benefits of this process would be multiplied. By providing fresh food to other food banks this would diminish the complications of food banks receiving canned goods that are damaged, unlabelled, and expired. Also, by providing fresh foods this would diversify the nutrition in-take, which would also solve another problem which food banks commonly face and are accused of lacking nutritional substance.

Annotated Bibliography: “Charitable Food Assistance: What are Food Bank Users Receiving?” AC Teron, VS Tarasuk - REVUE CANADIENNE DE SANTÉ PUBLIQUE - journal.cpha.ca Main Question: The main question in this article is what kind of foods and in what kind of condition do food banks receive the products. First and for most, what are food banks? Food banks are a charitable organization that collects and distributes donated food to those who are in need of food. In the 1980’s food banks spread rapidly, as Canadian communities came together to try to resolve problems of hunger. The demand for donating food increased, almost doubling between 1989 and 1990. The only concern with receiving the food is the condition in which it’s received. Here are the numbers and condition of cans that were termed to be unsafe to eat: damaged cans-5, unlabeled cans-8, spoiled perishable-19, dented cans-19, and past expiration date cans-33. Despite these alarming facts, food banks still remain as a necessary resource for many communities. There is a limit on how much assistance a food bank can provide, largely depending on how much food is donated by the public, producers, processors, and retailers. Why would companies be willing to donate food to food banks? There are a few common reasons for donating, such as including company pride, enhanced customer loyalty, product exposure, and cost savings on avoiding putting unsellable products in landfill sites. Industry donations occur because of manufacturing errors, damaged products while being shipped, handled, stored, and the products are perishable and not able to be sold. In Toronto, the main food coordination is done by Daily Bread Food Bank. Daily Bread supplies food to seventy different programs that then provide assistance to 135,000 people per month. In 1988 in the months of June and July, 18 programs were visited and participants were recruited on a first come, first serve basis as they came for food. A final sample of 102 consumers was achieved, which means there was an 80.3% participation rate. After completing their survey test the results were that 1/3 of participants received less than 3 days’ supply of food, with amounts ranging from 1-14 day supply. The nutritional content varied with calcium, vitamins A and D, which was limited in supply of fresh vegetables and dairy products. Some of the other nutritional content was as follows: vitamin C and B, energy, protein, folate, thiamin, riboflavin, niacin, calcium, magnesium, iron, and zinc. Over half of the households of more than 4 or more people received less than a 3 day supply. Although food banks are helpful, some reports state that the food they receive is insufficient. Also recorded was the damaged food given away. 67 of the 85 provided hampers which contained the food, had at least one damaged or outdated item. A majority of the participants seemed willing to still accept the food that was damaged or outdated, just as long as the food appeared to be safe. However, over half of the participants believed the food they received was unsafe to eat and others discarded the food, while 6 participants said they still ate the food despite safety conditions and concerns. Recently there have been concerns about food quality, which has prompted food banks to do their best in improving their food products. This task is difficult, especially for the organizations that are reliant on volunteer labor and donating facilities. However, food banks continue to be a primary resource for those who face hunger in Canadian communities. From the data recorded and received from this survey it has been concluded that neither the amount nor the quality of food assistance available to people who take advantage of food banks should be taken for granted. Relates: One of food banks common uses is for people who need assistance in getting food is to keep themselves and possibly their families nourished. There are downsides to food banks, including damages to the food, unlabeled food cans, and past product sell dates. If we teamed up with City Harvest and possibly helped reduce the damaged products, perhaps food banks could improve what they give to those who are in need of nourishment, which would allow those who skeptical of food banks or even cautious of taking food over due to not be as worried about the sell dates.

Alemayehu Bishaw and Trudi J. Renwick “Poverty: 2007 and 2008 American Community Surveys” //American Community Survey Reports //  (2009) Main question: This article addresses the poverty levels in America over the years 2007 and 2008 when the resection started. How this relates: Poverty in the world is a real problem, the American Community Survey (ACS) provides communities will timely demographic, social, economic, and housing data every year nationally. Throughout the United States there are varying poverty levels, some states have greater poverty levels than others do. According to the 2008 ACS there was an estimated 13.2 percent of the population on the U.S. to be under the poverty line. This was an increase of two percent from the year before in 2007. Approximating the amount of people in poverty the levels increased form 2007’s 1.2 million to 39.1 million in 2008, this increase in poverty should increases the involvement people have in helping these unfortunate people. The percent of poverty in the different states has a significant range with a low 7.6 percent in New Hampshire to a high 21.2 percent in Mississippi. California, Connecticut, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Oregon, and Pennsylvania all raised the percentage of those in poverty from 2007-20008. There was a decline in the poverty rates of Louisiana and Texas within the same time. Three states, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina the amount people in poverty increased but statistically the rate was not affected. America needs to address the rising poverty levels and find a way to diminish them.

 = =

Intro:
Throughout history inequality has prevailed due to class, race, gender, and other circumstances. It has been around as long as humans have been around. America however, boasts of the American Dream, and that every person has the an equal opportunity to be successful in life. If the situation of the common American citizen is studied though, it is found that this statement may not be altogether true. The poverty and unemployment rates are high, and increasing with time, and the majority of the wealth is possessed by a very elite few. By looking through the lens of the Structural Functionalist Perspective, let us as the question whether the American Dream is in fact equally available to all American citizens.

Theory:
The Structural Functionalist Perspective views society as containing numerous interwoven parts, each which works to uphold the society as a whole. These parts are institutions such as the family, educational system, and business. The structural functionalist perspective studies any of the three functions of any given institution. These three functions are the manifest function, which is the outcome that the institution wanted to perform, the latent function, which is any favorable or neutral outcome that was not planned by the institution yet arose anyway, and dysfunctions, which are unfavorable results that occurred (class notes, 2010). One factor of life that can be looked into is race which would be the independent variable. The dependent variable would be unemployment. By studying the effect that race has on the unemployment rates we can come to a better understanding of whether or not the American dream is available to everyone.

Literature Review:
Inequality has been around for thousands of years. Inequality is experienced when a person we know has fewer opportunities then we do and when others have more. Inequality refers to systematic distinctions that are able to be ranked and center on what concerns the valued qualities such as wealth, prestige, education, and security (Inequalities, Jackson). Many people are treated worse or better then those around them. There will always be those people within our society of whom we envy or pity. Each individual within a society has a different way of interpreting inequality. One way of interpretation would be how inequality involves powerful ideologies of equal rights. This reflects the social theorist’s efforts to solve the problem of inequality and confront the issues, tensions, and the adaptations of which it produces. Depending on how the individual views inequality varies on their status in society. The impoverish are aware that the wealthy live better and have more, but they do not know what it feels like to have the same sense of freedom, privilege, and superiority that the upper class experiences day to day. For the wealthy upper class, they assume that it is difficult to be poor, but they do not understand what it feels like to not be able to provide for their families or know that certain things will never be possible. The degree of status inequality between people reflects the differences in opportunities that are available to the groups they belong to. The individual’s status is influenced by many factors that are many times out of one’s control. It is influenced by race, gender, the parent’s status, occupation, wealth, education, and many other characteristics. Positional inequality is different than personal characteristics. Positional inequality is the unequal control over resources such as the inequality of the owner of a factory and the line workers. There is also economic inequality. Economic inequality is transmitted from one generation to the next throughout one’s family line. Many factors including the parent’s income, occupation, and residency affects a child’s place in the economic hierarchy. Children that grow up in a more privileged environment will have more advantages and greater opportunities later on in life (Inequality, Jackson). Inequality provides tension between those on top and those on the bottom of the class system. Although there is tension and disadvantages that goes along with the class system, according to Kingsley Davis and Wilbert Moore, inequality is needed to keep things going in society. Although this is a valid theory, it neglects to discuss such things including the power of rewards, jobs, and authority (Inequality, Jackson). Inequality is still a major issue in America today. It causes tension between groups of people and in many cases it may even causes poverty. America’s view on poverty is different than many other places such as Canada and Europe. Americans view poverty as an issue of the individual instead of the government or the United States as a whole. An emphasis is put on the individual’s lack of work ethic and motivation to work hard and provide for their family. According to the Census Bureau, “over the past three decades, between 11 and 15 percent of Americans have lived below the poverty line in any given year” (Apple Pie, Rank). This goes to show how big of a problem poverty is in America today. Many people would view poverty as outside the social norm, when in reality it very much apart of the norms of America. Although studies show that many people are only poor for a short amount of time, those people will often end up falling back into an impoverish state due to the loss of a job, its pay, and changes in families including divorce or death. Tom Hirschl and Mark R. Rank constructed “life tables” which followed families for over 25 years. These “life tables” estimated the percentage of the American population that will experience poverty at some point during their adulthood and how many people will use a social safety net program. A social safety net program is considered to be food stamps or Aid to Families with Dependent Children services. It was calculated that by the age of 30, 27 percent Americans will have experienced poverty for at least on year and 34 percent of people will have fallen below the near-poverty line. Also, by the age of 50, the percentages will have risen to 42 and 50 percent. By the time Americans reach the age of 65, approximately two-thirds will have, as adults, received assistance for about a year. 40 percent of people will have used a welfare program such as food stamps in at least five separate years of their lives (Apple Pie, Rank). Many people wonder why the risk of poverty is so high in America. One reason is because of time. Across a person’s lifetime, individuals face many obstacles and unanticipated events, which may cause financial burdens or emergencies in which the family can simply not afford to take on. Some of these financial emergencies may include a family member become extremely ill, a divorce, or the loss of a job. Another reason is a safety net. The government provides little support to those who are struggling financially. The little aid that the government does provide often does not save the family from becoming impoverished. European countries provide a much wider range of social and insurance programs that keep families from falling into poverty. European countries provide substantial cash payments to families with children, unemployment assistance, and universal health coverage, which have considerable support for child care (Apple Pie, Rank). While these things decrease the poverty rates in Europe significantly, America is having difficulty providing enough high paying jobs to keep individuals afloat. If America could figure out a way to provide enough supplemental support to individuals and families sinking into poverty and create a better job system, perhaps our poverty rates will decrease. There are many models from Europe that we could follow to decrease the poverty rates, it is simply a matter of organizing and finding the means to do so. America needs to begin to look at poverty from another level; seeing it as a problem of the whole nation instead of the problem of the individual.

**Methods: **
Hypothesis: Because of race and discrimination within the work force, the American dream is not equally available to all American citizens. The Independent variable is race and the dependent variable is unemployment. Unemployment has become a growing issue in the the United states since 1970. Race has often been a factor throughout the years, so we researched the direct effect race may have on unemployment rates in America. We looked at charts concerning different races and the current rates of unemployment for each separate race. The races that effect unemployment the most are African Americans, Hispanics, Caucasians, and Asians. We also examined the changes in overall unemployment from 1970 to 2010.

Results:
We found that in 1970 4.9 percent of the labor force was unemployed. By 1980 7.1 percent of the labor force was unemployed and in 1990 the unemployment rate had gone down to 5.6 percent. In 2000 the unemployment rate 4.0 percent and by 2010 the unemployment rate is currently at 9.7 percent ("The Mark of A Criminal Record", Pager). By analyzing the current data for 2010 in the charts involving unemployment and race we found that African American males have an unemployment rate of 20.1 percent and African American females have the unemployment rate of 12.7 percent. Hispanic or Latino males have the unemployment rate of 14.4. percent and for women it is 12 percent. White males have the unemployment rate of 11.3 percent and the females have an unemployment rate of 7.8 percent. Asians males unemployment rate is 9.6 percent and for females is is 6.9 percent (Coy's Unemployment Graph from Wiki Worksheet). According to the information from Devah Pager, it has been concluded that a Caucasian male with a criminal record is more likely to receive a job than an African American with no felonies or charges on his permanent records when going up against the same job ("The Mark of A Criminal Record", Pager). This goes to prove that there is discrimination within the workforce and in most aspects of the American Culture and way of life. According to our findings and research, race does indeed effect the unemployment rate, therefore the American dream is not equally accessible to all.

Annotated Bibliography:
Jackson, Robert Max. (2007). “Keyword: Inequalities” Contexts. American Sociological Association Main Question: This article is about the reality of inequality in the modern society. We commonly experience inequality when we know a person has fewer opportunities than we do and when others have more. Some are treated worse and others are treated better, while others have lives we pity. However, we also find people in our lives we envy. We all have different way of interpreting inequality; one way of interpretation is how inequality involves powerful ideologies of equal rights which reflect the social theorist’s efforts to solve the problem of inequality and confront the issues, tensions, and adaptations it produces. A society that harbors inequality will produce the idea of inequality. When did social equality become an interest to modern thinkers? Social inequality wasn’t shown much attention until the 17th and 18th centuries as some of the thinkers such as Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and Jean-Jacques Rousseau starting producing ideas of natural order based on the new idea of equality. In applying the Enlightenment ideas people blamed inequality on specific social institutions and groups. This difference in thinking allowed a shift in thinking which then helped with inspiring the social sciences, while also motivating utopian efforts to imagine a world without inequality. We live in a world where inequality surrounds us; for example, in our daily relationships and our interactions with others. Depending on how we experience inequality varies on our status; the poor know the wealthy live better and have more, but what they don’t know is what it feels like to have that freedom and sense of privilege and superiority. For those who are wealthy, they know it’s hard and difficult to be poor, but they don’t know how it feels to know the good things in life will never be possible. An example of this would be the feeling of knowing you can’t give you child a second chance at a good life, like with schooling or a job opportunity. People who have similar social statuses have more contact, interact as equals, share experiences and histories, see each other as understandable and accessible, and they reinforce each other’s perceptions. They also share common economic statuses such as neighborhoods, schools, college, religion, and recreational places of enjoyment. It’s commonly known with people who share a common location in their status hierarchies usually marry each other. Another interesting fact is that women feel more comfortable around women and the same goes for men. Eventually, inequality divides us into separate nations or communities, which we accept as boundaries marked as simple, obvious, and unchangeable.

Inequality refers to systematic distinctions that are able to be ranked and center around what concerns the valued qualities such as wealth, prestige, education, and security. The degree of status inequality between people reflects the differences in opportunities that are available to the groups they belong to. A person’s status influences the following: race, gender, parent’s status, occupation, wealth, education, and other characteristics. However racial or gender inequality may contribute to economic inequality. For example, the relationship with positions represents a system in which people move from position to position. Whoever has a position gets the status, authority, and privileges. Once the position is lost, these positions are given up. Positional inequalities are different from personal characteristics such as skin or gender.

Positional inequality involves unequal control over resources. An example of positional inequality is in a factory there’s inequality in between owners, managers, foremen, and line workers. This inequality exists even if the people’s race, sex, and age have no effect on their treatment. However, if all workers have the same authority and salary, they can’t keep inequality within the workplace based on race or sex because there’s nothing for a group to withhold from the other. Status inequalities involve access to desirable and undesirable positions in the system of positional inequality. Societies that are made up of gathering and hunting lack economic or political inequalities, which also brings up the point that there is little gender inequality.

Economic inequalities are transmitted from one generation to the next through the family. It’s a well known fact that a parent’s choice in income, wealth, education, occupation, and residency affects the child’s place in the economic hierarchy. Privileged children have more opportunity towards a positive development experience, while unprivileged children have a greater tendency to have negative experiences. How people experience and respond to inequality depends on what they believe cause it, avoidance, and unfairness.

Every system of inequality experiences tensions between those on top and those below. This is a common occurrence because those who have less try to get more or by those under authority avoid its rule. In order to create an organized struggle, the disadvantaged must possess resources, freedom, and organization, embrace an ideology which declares inequality unnecessary and unjust, accept a common identity, and finally must believe in the idea that a collective struggle is more promising than person improvement. This kind of occurrence is very rare.

Inequality is needed to keep things going, which is what sociologists Kingsley David and Wilbert Moore agreed upon in the 1940’s. There is a weakness to their theory however; their theory neglects the influence of power on rewards, doesn’t explain how jobs become important, ignores organizations authority, and neglects to identify mechanisms which would give us functional outcomes.

Inequality is one form that is particularity hard to summarize, primarily because it’s underestimated just how much inequality matters in the society and within institutions. Inequalities are present in our relationships with others, and our families. We want the promised rewards and we turn away from the harsh limits without really realizing what we are seeing and experiencing.

Relates: This article relates to the structural functionalist theory because the main focus is on inequality in the workplace, which goes back to society as a whole. Many people experience this in their daily lives and it’s a challenge to overcome inequality and rise above it. There’s not a reasonable way to avoid inequality in our society and within institutions, because there will always be inequality between certain social groups based on race, gender, and economic disparity. Inequality has always been a part of society; eliminating inequality would be difficult to accomplish.

Annotated Bibliography for “As American as Apple Pie: Poverty and Welfare Rank, Mark R. (2003). “As American as Apple Pie: Poverty and Welfare.” Contexts. American Sociological Association For many Americans today, the words “poverty” and “welfare” create an image of a stereotyped group of people. When people hear those two words people imagine, unwed mothers with several children, inner city black men, dropouts, homeless, etc. Being poor and living within the lines of poverty is not seen as being a part of the American norms even though most Americans will indeed experience poverty at least at one point during their lifetime. In America, poverty is seen as being an issue of the individual versus being the problem of America itself. According to the surveys conducted by the Census Bureau, over the past three decades, between 11 and 15 percent of Americans have lived below the poverty line at some point in any given year. There are several studies that that follow families over a period of time including the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), the National Longitudinal Survey (NLS), and the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP). These studies show that most people are only poor for a short period of time and then manage to get above the poverty line, and then become poor once again after an event triggering poverty. Tom Hirshl and Mark R. Rank constructed “life tables” that were constructed from data following families for over 25 years. These life tables are used as a technique to count how often specific events occur in specific periods of time, and are frequently used by demographers and medical researchers to assess risks. The life tables allowed the researchers to estimate the approximate percentage of the American population that will experience poverty at some point during adulthood. The percentage of the population that will use a social safety net program such as food stamps or Aid to Families with Dependent Children at some point during their adulthood was also calculated using the life tables. The life tables show that by the age of 30, 27% of Americans will have experienced at least one year in poverty and 34 percent will have fallen below the near-poverty line. It also shows that by the age of 50, the percentages will have risen to about 42 and 50 percent. By the time Americans have reached the age of 75, 59 percent will have spent at least a year below the poverty line during their adulthood, while 68% will have faced at least a year in near poverty. The second life table shows the proportion of people between the ages of 20 and 65 who will use one of the major need-based welfare programs in the United States, including food stamps, Medicaid, AFDC, Supplemental Security Income, and other cash subsidies. By the age of 65, about two-thirds of adults will have received assistance for at least a year, while about 40 percent will have used a welfare program in at least five separate years. Americans with certain disadvantages such as being single parents or are high school drop out are more likely to experience poverty and use welfare. The life tables that were presented by Tom Hirschl and Mark R. Rank assess the risk of poverty across a lifetime, more than 50 years. Over that many years, individuals may face many unplanned events that may become financial emergencies. It is estimated that families with average incomes only have enough assets to maintain their original standards of living for a little over one month. Another reason that poverty rates are so high is because the government does little to help households during trying financial times even though many Americans will, at some point, rely on government aid to help them out of poverty. The United States does very little and devotes fewer resources to those that are economically vulnerable. America does very little compared to most European countries of who provide a wide range of social and insurance programs that keep families from falling into poverty. European countries provide their citizens with substantial cash payments to families with and unemployment is far more generous then in America. Universal health coverage is also provided along with considerable support for childcare. According to the economist Rebecca Blank, she says that because the United States chooses not provide a generous amount of transfers to low-income families; this causes higher relative poverty rates within the country. Even though many families within the United States work more than people in many other countries, they are not able to up for the lower governmental income support relative to all the European Countries. According to the Finnish social scientist Veli-Matti Ritakallio has examined the extent to which cash assistance reduces poverty across eight European countries, Canada, and the United States. The European and Canadian programs reduce rates of poverty by an average of 79% from what they would have been absent the assistance. Finland reduced the percentage of its residents who would have been poor from 33 percent down to 4 percent whereas the United States was only able to reduce its percentage in poverty at any given time from 29% to 18% and because of this, the poverty rates in the U.S. are the highest among the industrialized world. Another reason the American Poverty rate is so high is because of the failure of the labor market to provide enough jobs that pay well enough for American families to live off of and provide for their families. During the past 30 years, the United States economy has produced and increasing amount of low-paying jobs, part-time jobs, and many of those jobs come without benefits. The Census Bureau estimated that the earnings of workers who were paid hourly wages in 2000 was $9.91 while approximately 3 million Americans were working part-time jobs due to the shortage of full-time jobs. Even during the 1990’s when the economy was strong, between 5 and 9 million more jobs were needed in order to meet the needs of the poor. Between 9 and 33 percent of American household heads were either in nonliving-wage jobs or looking for work. The American economy simply did and still does not have enough high paying jobs to support the amount of working people in America. The research done on poverty shows that poverty impairs the nations health, the quality of its workforce, race relations, and its future generations. This is because America puts an emphasis on the fact that poverty is due to the individual’s lack of motivation and work ethic instead of decrease of high paying jobs and the government’s subsidies. The fact that America has the highest poverty rate in the Western industrialized world and that Americans will experience poverty during their lifetimes has barely anything to do with the individual’s motivation, morals, or work ethic. It has to do with the labor market failing to produce enough decent paying jobs and the government not having sufficient social policies that can keep families out of poverty. The United States has the ability and the means to get rid of poverty it is just a matter of the government changing their policies to make this alleviation possible. _ =Wiki #2 = =<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Intro: Crisis pregnancy centers are institutions that provide support for women who are faced with difficult and unexpected pregnancies. Many of these centers are small, Christian, organizations that are run mostly by volunteers. They provide support and services such as material help and counseling, as well as promote life and sexual abstinence. These institutions encounter obstacles such as a lack of volunteers and the behaviors and attitudes endorsed by the mass media. This article will discuss the best practices for crisis pregnancy centers located in rural communities through the viewpoint of the Symbolic Interactionist Perspective. =
 * Main Question**: This article focuses on the percent of adults that will experience poverty during their lifetimes. It also goes on to discuss America’s view on the reason behind poverty.
 * How this relates**: This article relates to Structural Functionalism because it discusses how the individual is not to blame for the high rates of poverty, but the government and America as a whole. It discusses how institutions need to provide and give more to impoverish individuals and keep them above the poverty lines instead of blaming the individual for having no motivation.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Theory: The Symbolic Interactionist Perspective deals with small groups and the way the people within the groups interact everyday and how that shapes the world. This perspective focuses on the meaning of status and how people interact between different statuses within society. Socialization plays a big role in the symbolic Interactionist Perspective. Peer pressure and family values/beliefs play an important role in today’s society. Family, friends, and significant others act as social agents. Families, friends, and the significant other can encourage the woman to receive any needed help from a nearby crisis pregnancy center. Crisis pregnancy centers act as strong social agents because they educate women in the importance of strong values concerning the dignity of life. The people volunteering at the crisis pregnancy centers in a rural area are often members of the community and can help encourage the women to continue on with her unintended pregnancy and seek guidance, support, and information from the crisis pregnancy centers (Class Notes 2010). =

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif;">Literature Review: <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal;">There have been many surveys in the past few decades that try to discover the percentage of women that have unintended pregnancies and which women are most likely to carry their child full term or to terminate their pregnancy. The National Survey of Family Growth is one institution that collected data and used to estimate the 1994 rates and percentages of unintended birth and pregnancy and the proportion of women who have experienced an unintended birth, an abortion or both (Henshaw). All of these results excluded miscarriages and 49% of the pregnancies concluding in 1994 were unintended and 54% of those ended in abortion. According to the 1994 rates, women can expect to have 1.42 unintended pregnancies by the time they are forty five. According to the 1992 rates, 43% or women will have had an abortion. The unintended pregnancy rate was highest among women who were between the ages of 18-24, unmarried, low-income, black or Hispanic (Henshaw). According to Stanley K. Henshaw, unplanned pregnancies can be reduced by decreasing risky behavior, promoting the use of effective contraceptive methods and improving the effectiveness with which all methods are used. Crisis pregnancy centers strive to save unborn babies and their mothers. These centers both strive to give women the options they have in this undesired situation, as well as help them get started in their new life. Crisis pregnancy centers raise awareness of the different options unmarried women have and they often promote adoptions in to a two-parent households. These centers also help women and their infants receive welfare and housing to start their new life. =

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 150%; letter-spacing: 0px;">**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Methods: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%; letter-spacing: 0px;"> From the article “Conducting Best and Current Practices Research: a Starter Kit” by Ophelia Eglene, we learned how to research our topic of crisis pregnancy centers. The first step is to formulate a specific question to narrow our search. The second step is gathering preliminary information such as the articles in the literature review. The third step is to interview select people in depth. While completing the third step several groups of college students interviewed individuals from various pregnancy centers in the Mid-West. Each group was given the same questionnaire that included questions about the goals of crisis pregnancy centers and what practices they implement to achieve their goals. Next the students analyzed the interviews as a whole to observed how they were similar or dissimilar and whether there were common themes throughout. From these the students drew conclusions about what the best practices exist for crisis pregnancy centers. Since we are looking at pregnancy centers through the symbolic interactionist perspective, some of the variables to pay attention to would be the values that these organizations promote and how they affect their clients.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 160%; letter-spacing: 0px;">**<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; letter-spacing: 0px;">Results: ** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 140%; letter-spacing: 0px;"> According to Eglene’s article the best practice is analyzing the characteristics that lead you to success. Now, crisis pregnancy centers are socializing agents and they affect their clients by the values that they try to instill. From the information gathered from the interviews, many pregnancy centers are Christian and pro-life. It is not their primary goal to instill new values in their clients, but they inform the women of what they believe and hope that the women will in turn make better choices in their lives. It appears that many of these women have indeed internalized these different values and were extremely pleased with their treatment and the center. Often times they will spread the word about their experience to their friends. The people that were interviewed from these organizations have said that word of mouth has proven to be one of the greatest ways of advertisement. The values that the organizations instill in their clients eventually result in bringing more women in need to the center by means of word of mouth. Thus one of the best practices for a crisis pregnancy center is informing women about better values and options while dealing with their pregnancy.

=<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-weight: normal; line-height: normal;">**Annotated Bibliography:** = <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Eglene, Ophelia “Conducting Best and Current Practices Research: A Starter Kit” 2000 Main Question: This article focus is on how to conduct proper research

Current practice is a way of organizing in an attempt to learn from the experience of others by asking what characteristics lead them to their success, talking to those who help you gain knowledge in understanding the causes, strategies of change, and problems that may occur in the process. The next step in the process of researching is called “best” practices which is analyzing the characteristics that lead you to success. Also keep in mind the stories that weren’t as successful; the outcomes from those stories can provide a person with a favorable outcome. Now we will look at ways in which you can conduct best and current research. In your beginning process of research you will want to formulate a clear question while thinking about the problem or goal you are facing in your research; write down words which will describe the topics you have in hopes of coming up with more ideas. Next you should scope out your topic and find issues that are associated with your topic and then know the issues that are not a part of your research goals.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">1. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Formulate the question

While gathering your information think of people who would have insight or information concerning the questions you are researching on. Also consider organizations who conduct best practices. The internet also provides a way of conducting research in a very broad way; when researching on the internet use different key words in order to come up with different types of information. Even try expanding on your topic key words in order to broaden your search. The internet provides a way to find other organizations that have possibly solved similar problems like yours. Also, you can try a literature search in your local library by looking at online and traditional researchers which will guide you to topics of interest. Once you’ve found the articles, examine them and pinpoint your research. A good article can be a building block of information, leading you to more facts.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">2. **<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Gather Preliminary Information

3. Interview selected people in-depth <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> The research you have begun on is incomplete unless it doesn’t include interviewing people who have an inside view. The person you interview should be willing to share their knowledge openly with you and feel comfortable doing so. Finding someone who is a public manager may be more willing to give you information, than a person who is a private manager. However the effort you put into contacting a private manager is well worth your time. If you are the person who is conducting the current research project you need to have good research skills and interviewing skills. Sometimes a person delays the interview in order to better understand the topic. This delay is unnecessary and will further delay the research project. It’s also noted that you ask an expert on what they know, than you trying to label yourself as the expert. As the interviewer, you should feel comfortable talking with others and asking for advice, be able to describe your project, identify the right person to talk to, ask targeted questions like: what do you know about, who in your organization knows about, and can you let me know more about how you. As the interviewer you need to know how and when to ask difficult questions and have a customary method for the interview set up.

Efficient Internet Search Engines By using a search engine and typing in keywords which are run through a database you acquire the most knowledgeable and unique sites. By using different search engines your results may vary considerably. Some search engines that are efficient are: Northern Light, Alta Vista, Yahoo, Google, and Hotbot.

MetaSearch Engines MetaSearch engines are a more extensive coverage of searching larger engines. The Meta search engine can be used to find whatever is available on the Web concerning a particular subject. Some of the MetaSearch engines include Debriefing, Dogpile, Profusion, and Ask Jeeves.

Specialized Subject Search Engines Specialized Subject Search engines act as guides by subject on resources to particular topics. Some of the Specialized Subject Search Engines are: The Argus Clearinghouse and WWW Virtual Library.

Tips for an Efficient Search In order to get accurate results on your search you can use these next examples: quotation marks, (+) sign, (-) sign, (*), and, or, and combination of all of these examples to extend your searching process.

Doing a Literature Search When doing a literature search you can use one of the following examples: Library Database, JSTOR, EBSCO, UnCover Reveal, Public Affairs Information Service Bulletin, Article 1st, and Contents 1st.

Access Online to Published Literature The following websites act as “digital libraries” as no fee: Wiley InerScience and Educational Resources Information Center/IT Clearinghouse. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Useful Bookmarks Useful Bookmarks cite practices and programs and are a good starting point. If you are reaseraching Government Solutions/Innovations here are some example sites: Best of Practice Government Solutions, National Center for Public Productivity, Alliance for Redesigning Government, Council of State Governments, Innovations in American Government, National Governors Association, National Association of State Chief Information Officers, International City/ County Management Association, and Public Technology, INC. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Information Technology Solutions If you are looking for a solution to a Technology problem these websites are a good start in helping you solve your problem: PlanetIT, ISWorld, Association for Computing Machinery, Institute for Operations Research, and Management Services <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> Publications to Browse Publications to Browse provide sources of information to all kind of technologies and practices. These publications will give you the most current developments. Academic journals offer more thoroughly tested conclusions. Here are some examples for you to use: <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Government/Public Administration Civic.com: http://www.fcw.com/geb/ Government Technology: http://www.govtech.net Governing: http://www.governing.com Public Administration Review Public Productivity Management Review Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory CIO Magazine: http://www.cio.com Public Administration and Management: []

Technology Related DBMS: http://www.dbmsmag.com/index.shtml DB2: http://www.db2mag.com/ ACM: http://info.acm.org MIS Quarterly: http://misq.org DM Review: http://www.dmreview.com ZD Net: http://www.zdnet.com Decision Sciences Journal: []

Management Related Academy of Management Journal: http://aom.pace.edu/amjnew/ Academy of Management Review: http://www.aom.pace.edu/amr/ Harvard Business Review: http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/b02/en/hbr/hbr_home.jhtml;jsessionid=CDEHDTZ14J0TICTEQENSELQ?_Journal of Management: []

Professional Associations You Can Contact Public Administration American Society for Public Administration: http://www.aspanet.org International City/County Management Association: http://www.icma.org National Association of Counties: http://www.naco.org National Governors Association: http://www.nga.org National Conference of State Legislatures: http://www.ncsl.org National Association of Government Archives and Records Administrators: []

Results: The best way to do re-search is to plan it out in a format that allows for success. If the process of doing re-search isn’t thought out, planned, and structured in the right way the results won't be correct or accurate. The best practices in this article is steps in which best and current research can be conducted and how to use the correct search engines and databases to build on the information which has already been collected. From using the steps in this article a person could conduct research and interview Crisis Pregnancy Centers in rural communities and find the ways in which they succeed in keeping their business open to women. .

=United Pregnancy in the United States= Henshaw, Stankley K. "Unintended Pregnancy in the United States." //Family Planning Perspectives//. 30.1 (1998): Print. Data from the 1982, 1988, and 1995 cycles of the National Survey of Family Growth, supplemented by data from other various sources, were used to estimate the 1994 rates and percentages of unintended birth and pregnancy and the proportion of women who have experienced an unintended birth, an abortion or both. Estimates were made of the proportion of women who will have had an abortion by age 45. Not including miscarriages, about 49% of the pregnancies in 1994 were unintended. According to the 1994 rates, women can expect to have 1.42 unintended pregnancies by the time they are 45, and the 1992 rates, 43% or women will have an abortion. Between 1987 and 1994, the unintended pregnancy rate declined by 16%, from 54 to 45 per 1,000 women of reproductive age. The unintended pregnancy rate was highest among women who were aged 18-24, unmarried, low-income, black or Hispanic. Rates of unintended pregnancy have declined, most likely due to higher contraceptive prevalence and use of more effective methods of birth control. In order to further decrease the unintended pregnancy rates, there should be a focus on reducing risky behavior, promoting the use of effective contraceptive methods, and improving the effectiveness with which all methods are used. The Institute of medicine recommends that improved fertility control would allow women and couples to have children when they feel best prepared socially and financially to assume the responsibilities of parenting. Based on the National Surveys of Family Growth (NSFG), in 1988 it was estimated that about 57% of pregnancies in 1987 (excluding miscarriages) were unintended which means they ended in induced abortion. Following the NSFG definition of birth, births are categorized as unplanned if the woman had been practicing contraception when she became pregnant, if she had not wanted to become pregnant until a later time or if she had wanted no more children ever. A pregnancy is considered intended if the woman had not been practicing contraception and reported that she had not cared whether she became pregnant or not. In calculating the number of unintended pregnancies, it was assumed that all pregnancies ending in abortion were unwanted, although a small proportion of abortions may have occurred among initially wanted pregnancies. For 1987, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) took the distribution of abortions by marital status from a similar survey of 9,480 abortion patients in that year. Abortions are underreported in population surveys. The CDC used micro data tapes compiled by the NCHS for 1980, 1983, 1985, 1986, and 1988-1992. Each taped contained data on more than 280,000 abortions in 12 or more states. The results of the NSFG tabulations indicate that the proportion or women who have had an unintended birth and also reported having had an abortion ranged from 9% among women aged 15-19 to 28% among women aged 30-34. Miscarriages were excluded from all calculations of the number of pregnancies and of pregnancy rates. With miscarriages being omitted, the proportion of unintended pregnancies that ended in abortion reflects actual decisions to terminate or continue pregnancies. Approximately 3.95 million births and 1.43 million abortions occurred in 1994 for a total of 5.38 million pregnancies, not including miscarriages. The largest number of pregnancies occurred among women between the ages of 20-29, among currently married women, among those with an income 200% or more of the federal poverty level, and among white and non-Hispanic women. Of all the pregnancies in 1994, not including miscarriages, 23% ended in unintended births and 27% ended in abortions. Therefore, among women who experienced an unintended pregnancy in 1994, 54% had and abortion and 46% carried the pregnancy full term. 48% of women who had an unplanned birth had been using a contraceptive method during them month they had become pregnant, as had 58% of those who had abortions. Of the women using contraceptives, 58% ended their pregnancies by abortion, compared with the 49% of nonusers who had accidental pregnancies. The proportion of all pregnancies that were unintended varied by age, with teenagers younger then 18 having the highest percentage of 82-83%. The proportion decreased with rising age, dropping to 33% among women aged 30-34, and then increased again, reaching 51% among women aged 40 and older. 44% of teenagers aged 15-17 ended their unintended pregnancies by abortion, the lowest proportion in any age group. The unintended pregnancy rate shows that for every 1,000 women aged 15-44 about 45 had an accidental pregnancy during 1994. Among women between the ages of 15-17, the rate was similar to that for all women. It peaked at 105 per 1,000 among women aged 18-19 and then dropped drastically with age. At these rates, a group of 100 women will have experienced 142 unintended pregnancies, or about 1.42 per woman, by the time they are 45. Intended pregnancy was much higher than unintended pregnancy among women aged 25-39 and much lower than unintended pregnancy among teenagers. Each year, 1% of all women aged 15-17 had an intended pregnancy. Women’s poverty status, which is defined as the ratio of family income to the federal definition of poverty, was strongly associated with the unintended pregnancy rate, but only weakly associated with the rate of intended pregnancy. Among women in poverty, pregnancies were more likely than among higher income women to be unintended and to end in unplanned births, and were slightly more likely to end in abortions. Black women had a higher pregnancy rate. The higher pregnancy rate for black women resulted from an unintended pregnancy rate that was almost three times that of white women. Rates of both unintended births and abortions fell between 1987 and 1994, but the drop was greater for unintended births (6 per 1,000) than for abortions (3 per 1,000). Consequently, the proportion of unintended pregnancies ended by abortion increased from 50% to 54%. Between 1981 and 1987, the unintended pregnancy rate and birthrate changed little among teenagers but increased among all women aged 20 and older, except among women aged 30-34. From 1987 to 1994, the rate of unintended pregnancy fell among all age groups, although the change was small among women aged 35 and older. Among teenagers, the drop in unintended pregnancy affected only the abortion rate, which fell by 24% while the rate of unintended births actually increased slightly. In 1994, teenage women were less likely than women in any other age group to end in unintended pregnancy by abortion, whereas in earlier periods teenagers have been similar to other women. Never-married women reported an increase in unintended births that was approximately equal to the decrease in abortions in this group, and the proportion of unintended pregnancies that ended in abortions declined. There was a decrease in the proportion of pregnancies that were unintended in all income groups. Of the women aged 15-44 who were surveyed in the 1995 NSFG, 28% indicated that they had had one or more unplanned births, and based on national abortion statistics, 30% of women had had one or more abortions. Overall, 11% of all women had had both at least one unplanned birth and at least one abortion. Among women in their 30’s, this statistic is 15%. About 48% of all women aged 15-44 had ever had an unintended pregnancy. 14% or women can expect to have had an abortion before the age of 20. 37% of women can expect to have an abortion before the age of 30 and 43% of women by the age of 45. Half of all pregnancies are unintended. 28% of women aged 15-44 have had an unplanned birth and 30% have had an abortion. 60% of women in their 30’s have had an unplanned birth or an abortion and according to the 1992 rtes, 43% or women will have had an abortion by age 45. Only about half of unintended pregnancies are terminated by abortion. Between 1987 and 1994, the rate of unintended pregnancy fell from 54 pregnancies per 1,000 women of reproductive age to 45 per 1,000. This is a decrease of 16%, which is most likely due to an increase in widespread and effective contraceptive use. Another possible reason for the decline is the availability of two new highly effective contraceptives, the implant and the injectable. Among unmarried women, 60-65% resolved unintended pregnancies by abortion, compared with 37% among married women. Of women between the ages of 25-29, the proportion who were currently married and living with their husband fell from 59% in 1987 to 53% in 1994. Even within the married group, however, more women ended their unintended pregnancies by abortion in 1994 than did so in 1987. Among women aged 15-19 who had an unwanted pregnancy, the proportion who ended these pregnancies by abortion fell from 53% to 45%. The abortion rate declined 24%, while the rate of unplanned birth did not decline at all and may have increased slightly. Reduction of unplanned pregnancy can be only achieved by decreasing risky behavior, promoting the use of effective contraceptive methods and improving the effectiveness with which all methods are used. In order to reduce the amount of unplanned pregnancies for women, pregnancy centers and other organizations need to inform people about decreasing risky behavior. They also need to promote the use of effective contraceptive methods and how to improve the effectiveness with which all methods are used. Crisis pregnancy centers need to advertise that they are there to help women in need and that they can give the women the information she needs during an unintended pregnancy.
 * Main question:** This Article focuses on the statistics and data collected by the National Survey of Family Growth regarding abortion, unintended pregnancy and birth, and intended pregnancy/birth. Which age group and which social class has had or will have the most unintended pregnancies and which ones will end in abortion or be carried full term?
 * How this relates to: What are the best practices for crisis pregnancies located in a rural community?**

Frederica Mathewes-Green. “Pro- Life Dilemma” //Policy Review// (1996) Main Question __The problems pregnancy center face in their mission to save unborn babies and their mothers. And how they strive to assist the mothers and babies start a new life best suited for them.__ Relates -__ What are the best practices for crisis pregnancy centers located in rural communities? Crisis pregnancy centers raise awareness of the different options un married women have, they often p romote adoptions in to a two-parent households. These centers also help women and their infants receive welfare and housing to start their new life. Women who go to Crisis Pregnancy Centers start on a long hard journey. After a woman has her child she must find housing and a job to support both herself and the child. Women are put on the list for public housing but often this accommodations are in unsafe neighborhoods. Yet if the Mother passes on the housing she could be put back to the bottom of the list or taken off it completely. A mother would get around $225 dollars a month from welfare, WIC( a program for Women, Infants, and Children), she would get medical assistance, and food stamps. Nevertheless most women do not find jobs that pay well enough to support themselves. Hope Pregnancy Center, assists around 1,200 women a year, they are able to help some women with housing for a year after birth, but cannot offer them permanent housing. Lifer for women after they have had a child get very difficult. The pregnancy centers in America numbering in the 3,000s have been saving women and their unborn children. These Centers are offering thousands of women the material and emotional support they need to have their babies. Eventually 80-90% of crisis pregnancy centers’ clients, which is about 200,000 a year, are set up in single parent homes. This often leads to poverty, low academic achievement, and a tendency to crime. For pregnancy- counseling centers to help the children in the long run should look beyond birth and try to find two parent homes for these children. While pregnancy center find welfare to be necessary to the women that come to them, they also realize that they are creating more single parent homes reliant upon welfare. Yet they hold that the life they are saving is worth it. But they must all so recognize that this causes more crisis pregnancies. Without a father figure growing up girls are more than twice as likely to have a baby out of wedlock. The Pregnancy movement has been expanding it’s focus from how to save babies, to supplying the mother with support so that she may save her own child. The pregnancy centers look at both what is best for the Mother and the Baby. In 1995 a poll was taken by Family Research Council, they gave four action plains for an unwed pregnant teen. The results showed that 29% thought the child should be adopted, 24% thought she should marry the father, 11% though that being a single parent would be best, and 8 % though she should have an abortion. However, in 1991 numbers of what actually was happening were dramatically different! The percent of unwed girls who had abortions was 46%. Most of the remaining 44% were carried to tem, the miscarriages makes up the different. Only 2% of those moms placed their children up for adoption. The rest of them kept their babies. Pregnancy centers strive to show women how adoption may be a great gift to their baby, this gift enables the infant to grow in a stable two-parent home, preparing them for a brighter future. One study on the options counselors were sharing with their clients brought light to the fact that many women, about 40 % of the study, were not told about adoption. The National Council for Adoption conduced a study on ways to increase the likely hood of a unmarried teens giving their children up for adoption. Those who discussed this option to every client were seven times as likely to select it. When the teen’s parents were present, the choose of adoption was six times greater. Similarly, teens who were instructed to compare the child’s life in a two parent home vers a single parent were also six times greater. While in many situations, adoption may be best for the child and mother pregnancy center must be careful. Some women return saying that they felt forced to place the child in a different home. Also the government may threaten centers because they may not be a licensed adoption agency. This causes pregnancy center to not hold an official opinion on whether they think the child would do better being adopted or in the single parent care of the mother. Thus no one can say that the pregnancy center is forcing a decision on the women. Another challenge for pregnancy center are one-visit clients. These women come and receive a free pregnancy test, and when the result is positive, they do not come back. Many pregnancy center still try to do all they can for this women in hopes that there one stop will put all the options in her head and that she can make an educated decision. Counseling women through their crisis pregnancy is difficult, some fall in to the thinking that there are only two options for the women, to have the baby or to abort it. Thus, they focuses on the fact that they are the baby’s mother and thus she makes am emotional decision. Other counselors focuses on what the woman sees as her parenting goals, in this manner they can discuss adoption into a loving two parent home, without the mother feeling that she is abandoning her child. It is vital that the mother see that she is giving the baby the gift of a family, that she is preparing for their future and not abandoning them. Counselors have a very important role, they must be able to give the practical advice needed as well as the love and caring that the clients need. The counselors are instructed in what material to give and how to bring it up and present it. They try to show the realistic view of being a single parent both the financial and emotional cost. Even with the knowledge of the hard road ahead the thought of snuggling will a baby is appealing. There is a technology that lets teens take a test drive with being a parent. It is a special baby doll that acts like an infant, the girl would need to care for it just as a real one. The doll would record how well the expecting mother is caring for it. Some pregnancy center’s adoptions rates our higher than others this can be due to what crowd they are focusing on. Women who are considering abortion are more likely to be able to let their baby go into a new home through adoption. When a woman is considering adoption they go through a 20 week class. The program covers everything they need to know, such as the legal issues, handling grief, deciding whether or not to stay in contact with the child. Often after the mother has her baby she re-things giving him up. Then the question is posed whether the changing decision was with reason or emotion, and whether the reasons for your first decision are still valid. Crisis pregnancy center continually help unwed mothers with their pregnancy, but once the baby is born they believe that the child deserves a two parent home, and the better chance of not winding up were there mother was years down the road.
 * Pro- Life Dilemma**

<span style="font-family: arial,helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px;">**Wiki #1** =Intro: To the horror and dismay of the citizens of the United States of America, obesity rates have been skyrocketing since the 1980’s. The number of obese persons in the United States has doubled since that time and at present two thirds of the population fall under this category. This article will introduce the sociological method known as the Structural-Functionalist perspective, provide research for the problem of obesity, and then by using this method, present an alternative to decrease these rates. The focus of this article is to study ways to lower the obesity rates in Atchison, Kansas. =

**Theory: Structural Functionalism is a perspective that emphasizes a different part of society that works together as a whole to maintain stability. Society can be compared to a living organism, each individual part relies on each other to be able to function correctly. When studying the structural functionalism, it is important to keep in mind the three man parts: manifest functions, latent functions, and dysfunctions. The manifest function is the desired and deliberate end product that results from any given establishment. The latent function is any positive or neutral effect of an establishment. Dysfunction is any unintended negative effect of an establishment. (Witt, 13) In our society today, the low priced fast food industry is becoming increasingly accessible. Because these institutions are cheap and convenient, they are becoming a staple among the population in the United States. As a result of the mass consumption of fattening unhealthy foods, the obesity rates are rising rapidly. This is a dysfunction of the fast food industry. ** In order to address this obesity dysfunction in Atchison, Kansas, a group of young sociologists have chosen to study the affect a community garden would have on the obesity rates.

=Lit. Review: Research shows that there has been a rapid rise in obesity in the U. S. since the 1980’s. According to the article “Economic Causes and Consequences of Obesity” obesity now counts for 400,000 deaths per year. Some of the diseases caused by obesity are heart disease, diabetes, cancer, respiratory problems, hypertension, and strokes (Center for Disease Control and Prevention). In 1960 the obesity rates were 14.3% and by 2002 it was up to 30.4% (Wang and Beydoun). That means that two thirds of the entire population of the United States is obese. Some of the causes of the increasing rates are due to advancements in technology and our growing dependency upon it. Because of technology, there has been a reduction of manual labor, more convenient and less strenuous transportation, and television and computer entertainment (Finkelstein, Ruhm, Kosa). All of these are contributing factors towards the rise in obesity. On television, commercials promote unhealthy lifestyles such as fast food restaurants. The consumption of fast food has also increased due to the fast paced lifestyle that most Americans are living, the convenience, and the low prices. Because of the low prices of unhealthy foods, low income communities are more widely affected (Khan). In order to add balance to a community's lifestyle, steps should be taken to provide greater access to healthier foods, as well as physical exercise. =

=Methods: Hypothesis- Growing a community garden in Atchison will increase the healthy lifestyles of its population by providing exercise and healthy foods. By creating a community garden in Atchison, Kansas, it provides a way of physical activity for those working within the garden. The garden would also provide job opportunities for those who are needing either a job to begin with or perhaps even a second job opportunity. The community garden would provide those newly employed people with money to afford a healthier lifestyle and in turn, their work would be providing others with healthier foods as well. More job opportunities would cause a boost in economy and access to more fruits and vegetables. The independent variable will be the community garden, and the dependent variable will be the obesity rate in Atchison. In order to conduct this experiment, we would need to research the population of Atchison and its current obesity rate. We would also need to look into available plots of land, cost of materials, able bodied persons, and time requirement. The data we would gather consists of the production of the garden, the amount of work being put into it by individuals, and how it affects the obesity rates over a period of time. =

=Annotated Bibliography:=

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt;">**Finkelstein, Eric A, Christopher J. Ruhm, and Katherine M. Kosa. "Economic Causes and Consequences of Obesity. Annual Review of Public Health." (2005): 239-57.**


 * <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Main Question **<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">: This Article was about the main causes of obesity in the United States.

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">There has been a rapid rise of obesity in the U.S. in the 1980’s. In the past 25 years the rates have doubled. Obesity now accounts for approximately 400,000 deaths per year. Causes of Obesity: Some of the causes of obesity are: Technological Change, the decrease of unhealthy food prices, and the increase of healthy food prices. Advancements in workplace technology may have been responsible for a portion of the increase in obesity in the 1980s. Snacking has become more prevelant. Nielson and Poplan showed 76% of calorie-intake growth from 1977-1996 was from snacking. It reduced the amount of labor and encouraged laziness from advertisements and games. Commercials promoted unhealthy lifestyles and encouraged to eat unhealthy foods. The availability of unhealthy foods has increased significantly. The cost of medical bills because of obesity, because people go in and to get fat removed. Due to peoples obesity sometimes cause them to get diseases, cancer, and making them diabetic. Due to the lack of exercise, people don’t burn off the carbohydrates and fats that they had eaten. If they keep eating amounts of large fatty foods will just result in obesity.

===Relates: A possible solution to some of the causes of obesity would be programs to encourage and inform people of the community about how they can change their unhealthy lifestyle to a more productive and fulfilling life. A community garden would get people out of their houses and away from technology causing more physical activity for all and therefore a healthier lifestyle. ===

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;">**Wang, Youfa, and May A. Beydoun. “The Obesity Epidemic in the United States—Gender, Age, Socioeconomic, Racial/Ethinic, and Geographic Characteristic: A Systematic Review and Meta-Regression Analysis”. //Epidemiciologic Reviews//. (2007).**

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-size: 12pt;"> The obesity rates in 1960 were 14.3% by 2002 they went up to 30.4%. In 1970 the obesity of men was 25.3% and by 2000 it was up to 27.6%. For women the obesity in 1970 was 24.4% and by 2000 were about 28.2. Overall among men the rate of increase of obesity was study across all age groups and among women the rate was fastest from ages 20-34. Obesity could have a affect on people’s opportunities for education, occupation, and probably marriage. Southeastern states have a higher prevalence for obesity than West Coast, Midwest, and Northeast. Racial minority groups were affected more than non-Hispanic whites.
 * Main Question**: The main question of this article was who is affected by the rise of obesity.

===Relates: Everyone is being affected by the increasing rates of obesity. By creating a community garden it would give a variety of people the opportunity to work. Students would be able to volunteer, the elderly would be able to participate in a community activities, and the population in general would have more opportunities to work and stay active. This would help in the decline of obesity rates in Atchison, Kansas. ===

<span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt;">**Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "Obesity: Halting the Epidemic by Making Healthy Eating Easier."** (** 2009.) **

Since 1980, obesity rates for adults have doubled and rates for children have tripled. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">Obesity causes many health diseases such as: coronary heart disease, type2 diabetes, cancer, respiratory problems, hypertension, and strokes. In the year 2000, obesity-related health care cost the American population a total of $117 billion. The American society soon became “obesogenic”. This promoted an increase of food intake of non-healthful foods, and physical inactivity. Twenty-three states are now funded through CDC’s Nutrition and Physical Activity and Obesity Cooperative Agreement Program to address the rising problem of obesity in the United States. The United States is trying to focus on policy and environmental changes to decrease the rising rates of obesity.
 * Main Question**: The main question in this article was what are the main causes of the obesity epidemic.

Relates:
The US is on the right track in desiring an environmental change to decrease obesity. A plan of action for communities would be to join together and cultivate a community garden. By working together in the community gardens citizens would be producing vegetables as well as an increase in exercise; the anticipated result being a decrease in obesity. When the decrease in obesity occurs, ideally, the related health problems and health care expenses would diminish as well.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 9.5pt;">**Khan, Laura Kettle, et al. "Recommended Community Strategies and Measures to Prevent Obesity in the United States." //Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report// 58: RR-7** (2009).

<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif';">**Main Question:** <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; font-weight: normal;">The main question is how to prevent obesity in the United States.

In the last thirty years obesity has become epidemic in the United States. Even though diet and exercise are important factors of weight, there are also many environmental factors beyond an individual’s control. Some of these factors include: a lack of access to full service grocery stores, high cost of healthy foods, and lack of access to safe places for people to exercise and play. Obesity is specially affecting low income communities. There are five recommended strategies to prevent obesity in low income areas. They are: an increase of availability of food and beverage choices in public service venues, communities should improve geographic availability of super markets, communities should provide incentives to locate and offer healthier food and beverage choices, communities should improve availability of mechanisms for purchasing foods from farms, and communities should provide incentives for the production, distribution, and procurement of food from local farms. These are just some several ways that the United States has come up with to stop the spread of the obesity epidemic.

===Relates: By creating a community garden, citizens would be provided with more accessible healthy foods, a mode of exercise, as well as a safer environment for physical activity or interaction for all ages. This program would allow low income families to provide and afford healthy food versus the unhealthy fast food chains. By creating these gardens, healthy foods would be accessible to citizens nationwide. With the new access to healthier fruits and vegetables there would be a decline in obesity rates. ===