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  University of Idaho
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  Psychology Dept.
  University of Idaho
  Design - P&D  CTI

Exercise Two – Due 4/15/11

Read the Silver City case study.  From the information provided, determine which risk factors, protective factors/assets exist in the community.  In your opinion:

Papers should be a minimum of four pages in length, typed, double-spaced, with one-inch margins and 12-pitch font.  No references are required other than identifying and acknowledging the professionals you interview.  You may save your papers as word (doc) or rich text format (rtf) documents and send them to me attached to an e-mail, or you may copy and paste your papers into an e-mail and send them to me. 

Silver City Case Study 

          Silver City is a western community of approximately 50,000 surrounded by farms and ranches.  The downtown area was redeveloped about 10 years ago and continues to remain clean with little graffiti.  Most of the buildings in the Old Town section are brick with canvas awnings and flower boxes.  Old Town and the rest of the downtown are mainly commercial; however, there are few large businesses and no major organizations, other than United Way, which fund the community.  Two industries that hire local community members are a call-in catalog center and an airline mileage-plus program.  For the past two years, mini-buses have run between downtown and nearby residential areas.  The small number of residential units in the downtown area consists of apartment buildings and single family homes, many of which are owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). 

          Because of Silver City’s proximity to several national parks, tourism is a seasonal source of business.  To encourage visitors, Silver City sponsors a yearly rodeo, a carnival, the Tri-County Fair, a summer stock show, and a motorcycle rally, all of which typically attract up to 500,000 people. 

          One large mall, accessible by car, has 70 stores, including two anchor stores, Sears and J.C. Penney.  Silver City is large enough to support an airport, a bus depot and a train station, all of which employ community members and sponsor various community events.  There are two community colleges and one university, Mid-Western Technical University, in Silver City.  Faculty and students participate in mentoring programs within Silver City’s public school system.  Silver City Memorial Hospital serves the western half of the state and operates a major trauma center. 

          Most community members are Caucasians whose families have lived in the area for generations.  The small Native American population remains isolated from community resources, maintaining links to its heritage by returning to the reservations at various times throughout the year.  There are a small number of African Americans in the community; most of them are stationed at the nearby Air Force base.  There are a number of religious/spiritual groups in Silver City; however it is mainly the Jewish community members who are actively involved in community programs and activities.  Various groups sponsor a homeless shelter, three soup kitchens and a safe house for women and children who are victims of domestic violence. 

In a recent radio interview, the director of Silver City’s Head Start program described the local gang population as “wannabes.”  She remarked that gang members primarily walk around the downtown area in groups.  Police confirmed that gang members have been “harmless” to date; they have bee involved in a few petty thefts.