Imagine that you have recently been hired as a health promotion  specialist at a large company to coordinate their worksite wellness  program. You are the first person ever hired by this company in this  capacity. This position was created by the president of the company  because she recently read an article in a magazine that said worksite  wellness programs can boost profits. The company is doing well overall  financially, but the president has concerns that worker absenteeism,  health insurance costs, and employee morale are affecting profits. She  thinks a company wellness program can help address these issues. Your  supervisor is the director of human resources. He does not have a  background in health promotion and education or worksite wellness and is  relying on you to create their program from the ground up.
On  your first day of work, your supervisor asks, “so, what are you going to  do?” He would like an email from you by Thursday that outlines your  plan to get the program going. You know that the first thing to do is  create a needs assessment to determine where you should focus your time  and budget. You are worried that your supervisor might not support doing  a needs assessment first because he wants to see things move forward  quickly to get results. You decide to write him an email advocating that  you begin by conducting a needs assessment and outlining your plan for  conducting a needs assessment with employees.
For your post,  craft an email to your supervisor describing your strategy for how you  will do a needs assessment in the next six weeks. Your post should be  written as a formal email that you would actually send to a supervisor.  In your email you should:

• Examine what a needs assessment is and why this is significant to the health promotion and program planning process.
• Select at least two of the needs assessment methods outlined in  chapter 4 of our textbook and explain how they would be used in the  needs assessment process.
• Summarize the advantages of using these methods and address any  potential disadvantages or concerns of such methods that your supervisor  might raise.
• Outline what data you intend to have at the end of the needs  assessment process and how you will use it to determine your program  goals.

1. Supreme Court Justice Henry Blackmun said, “To get beyond racism we must first take account of race. There is no other way.” Some contextual information: Blackmun was arguing against a colorblind approach. A colorblind approach is one that assumes that the best way to end discrimination is by treating individuals “blindly” without regard to race, culture, or ethnicity. When Blackmun stated that we must “take account of race” he meant that in order to mitigate or end racism we must first “see” or “recognize” or “pay attention to” race and its effects in our society. Thereafter, in Blackmun’s view, we would need to create policies founded on equity (not equality), which would attempt to level the playing field by giving a helping hand to the disadvantaged. Now, in your role as an educated member of society, respond to this statement. Make use of any combination of 157SL materials (readings, documentaries, discussions, etc.) to explain and support your position, but be sure to put everything in your own words (no quotations). Note that you can take any position you want. Regardless of what your position is, you will be graded on the quality of your argument, including how effectively you explain and support your position using 157SL materials.
2. Now consider the following argument: “[B]uilding a democratic and just society requires critical understandings of unequal social structures and engaging in emancipatory political struggles. Citizenship as agency, then, has to do with the willingness to ask difficult questions, with the confidence that one’s agency can influence changes (political efficacy) and with the collective capacity to address injustices and build a better society.” (Schugurensky, 2010) Reflect on Schugurensky’s argument. How do you feel that you are developing understanding of critical social issues through your participation in 157SL? How do you feel that you are developing a willingness to ask and/or reflect on difficult questions (about in/equality, and/or other subjects) through your participation in 157SL? How do you feel that you/we have the capacity to build a better society? Refer to 157SL materials and/or experiences, but don’t quote. Rather, put everything into your own words.

(350-400 words – state your word count on top of your answer.) Finally, respond substantially and thoughtfully to two of your classmates’ discussion posts.  This is a small group discussion. You have to post first before seeing your group members’ responses.