Comm 303: Communicating to Stakeholders

Approach and write this white paper as one that identifies an issue and provides potential solutions for the non-profit Southern Environmental Law Center. The general audience should be other professionals in your organization and discipline. Your white paper needs to be informative, educating the leadership about the topic and issue, providing them with key points of information to share with others, and providing them with at least one potential solution. You are presenting your organization with a decision, and sharing research to support that decision. 

For example, perhaps you are an intern for the Clean Water Campaign for Michigan. You might research a white paper that details the impacts of lead contamination in Flint, MI, and how those impacts have disproportionately affected low income communities, particularly communities of color. You therefore show intersections of both class and race. Your research might also share a potential solution, such as investment in sustainable public water infrastructure can both increase local job opportunities and attract additional small businesses to the area, while improving health outcomes for residents. 

You should treat your paper as the combination “backgrounder + problem/solution” that the FAQ describes. Focus primarily on identifying the topic, telling the story about how a specific issue (race, gender, or class) is affected by, or affects, this topic; the solution you provide should be preliminary. It should be a suggestion of what the non-profit organization could do to help address the issue in this one topic. The issues you will be discussing are systemic and deeply entrenched. Your recommendation should benefit the local community in measurable ways, but you are not expected to come up with solutions for racism, sexism, or classism.

Info: The text of the report should be no fewer than 5 pages and no more than 7 pages , double-spaced, in line with APA guidelines for format and documentation, which means that with your title and reference page the whole project should be 7-9 pages . You should have a minimum of 5 sources for your research. The sources should provide:

background information and research on the topic, 

background information and research on the systemic issue influencing or influenced by, the topic, 

information about potential solutions. 

Sources primarily should be peer-reviewed journal articles. Remember your audience is experts in the field. A maximum of one source may be a non-profit website, a maximum of one source may be a governmental organization website, and a maximum of one source may be a long form article (5000 words or more) from a popular source like The Atlantic, Mother Jones, New Republic, The New Yorker , special reporting from The Washington Post , etc. Therefore, a minimum of two of your sources must be peer-reviewed journal articles.

• Required elements of the assignment: 
• BRIEF relevant background information – about the non-profit organization, what issues it typically addresses, who it typically serves, etc.; 
• a clear articulation of how race, gender, or class effect the topic / non-profit, and the audiences affected by this; 

use of storytelling elements to illustrate the issue – a case study or local person or community impacted by the issue helps apply the data to human experience;

your recommendations and the reasons for them; 

evidence supporting your reasons and conclusions; 

a list of references