Population data to use to make social services decisions.

As you continue your study of the city (county) where you live, you will want to collect information that will enable you to draw some general conclusions about the social groups that are most likely to influence the development of a child in the area. This will help you to recommend the types of social services that the city may wish to make available.

You will want to collect the following kinds of data:

Number and percent of school-age children in the population
Number and percent of children who live in single parent homes
Number and percent of adults with college educations
Number and percent of adults who work in manufacturing, service, and professional jobs
Percent of high school graduates who pursue higher education
Major racial, ethnic and religious groups
Major colleges and universities
Drug and alcohol use statistics
Crime rates
Note: U.S. census data is usually organized by county. The information may be presented in any readable form, such as a chart or table.

A major goal of sociology and developing the sociological perspective (define) is to learn about the groups you belong to and how they impact your life. But it is also important to know how your surrounding communities, groups, and social institutions impact lives. This assignment is designed to address each of the above. In completing this assignment your answers should include all of the information requested in the assignment as well as any other information that will allow the reader to understand the social groups in the learners area. The information can be presented in any readable form, such as a chart or table.
In addition to providing the statistics make sure to:
1- comment on how each statistic will impact your child (and others) life if they grow up in that area. It is often useful to compare your local data with the national average.
2- Discuss how the groups (define) you belong to and/or your child impacts their development (i.e. think of racial categories, sex categories, political groups, religious groups, etc) and how they impact the life course.
3- How the social institutions (define) in the area (examples are schools, government, the family, religion) will impact children throughout their life course.
4- Given the above analysis you should recommend a number of social services that city officials should consider making available.

See attached file for full problem description.