This practicum report documents work completed at the Anne Arundel County Community Action Agency (AACCAA), a county-level anti-poverty organization established under the 1965 Economic Opportunity Act. The report describes three core deliverables: the design of a community-based resource guide centralizing information on agency services, a program evaluation proposal assessing the Health and Wellness Program's impact on mental health among low-income residents, and a literature review examining barriers low-income families face in accessing education and childcare. The report outlines the public health problem of mental illness in Maryland, the logic model used for program evaluation, and the specific data collection methods and performance indicators employed to measure program outcomes, outputs, and long-term goals.
The report demonstrates applied program evaluation design, specifically the logic model approach. By moving from long-term goals through medium- and short-term outcomes to measurable outputs, the writer shows how public health evaluation translates community needs into structured, evidence-based assessment plans. This technique bridges theory and practice, a hallmark of graduate-level applied public health coursework.
The paper opens with an introduction describing the agency and its six programs, then states the practicum goals and three deliverables. A focused section on the public health problem establishes epidemiological context. The methods section maps each deliverable to academic competencies and explains how it was executed. The report concludes with a detailed logic model table specifying evaluation questions, data collection methods, and performance indicators for each program goal, outcome, and output.
The practicum site was the Anne Arundel County Community Action Agency (AACCAA), which is the primary anti-poverty agency in the county. Created in 1965 as a result of Congress' passage of the Economic Opportunity Act, the AACCAA is tasked with funding local communities to address disparities in healthcare, childcare, employment, and education. The agency's primary purpose is to design and implement interventions to assist low-income residents in becoming self-sufficient (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021). The AACCAA envisions becoming "the recognized leader in addressing poverty and improving the quality of life in the communities of Anne Arundel County" (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021, p. 6). The agency serves the Anne Arundel community through six programs:
Youth Development Services – serves children and young people aged between 5 and 24 through educational, preventive, and therapeutic services, workforce training, and a behavioral health program (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
Returning Citizens Program – supports formerly incarcerated individuals in becoming productive community members through workforce training, psychosocial support, and access to rehabilitation services (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
Health and Wellness Program – uses awareness and prevention initiatives to eliminate health disparities for low-income households (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
Early Head Start – offers childcare and hands-on education to toddlers aged between zero and three to foster positive development (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
Energy Assistance – serves eligible low-income households in the county by supporting them in reducing their electricity and heating bills (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
Asset-Building Initiative – empowers residents to achieve independent living through education programs covering home ownership, employment, credit repair, banking, and budgeting (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021).
The overall goal for the practicum was to design a community-based resource guide that the agency could use to communicate information on essential services and resources to the public, and which community members could access on the agency's website. The primary aim of the resource guide was to bridge the gap between community members and available services by centralizing information on available resources, leading to a healthier community.
In addition to designing the resource guide, two other deliverables were pursued. The first was developing an evaluation proposal to examine the efficacy and impact of the agency's Health and Wellness Program in reducing mental health challenges among low-income individuals. An evaluation plan would indicate which aspects of the program work, enhancing efficiency in resource allocation by allowing program managers to commit resources to effective activities (Harris, 2016). It would also enhance the quality of the evaluation process, helping to build trust among community members and funders (Harris, 2016). The second deliverable was conducting a literature review of scholarly sources on the barriers that low-income families face in accessing education and childcare. The findings of the literature review contribute toward identifying the community's unique needs and designing programs that address them. To effectively deliver on the practicum assignment, it was necessary to synthesize agency annual reports, collaborate with beneficiaries and staff, and conduct literature evaluations — all of which provided a complete picture of the agency's impact on the target community.
The public health problem that the practicum project addresses is mental health issues among low-income individuals and households in Anne Arundel County. Mental health remains a fundamental health concern in Maryland, particularly for low-income households without insurance coverage. Data from the National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) shows that 20 percent of American adults experience a mental illness every year (NAMI, 2021). 2021 data indicates that 181,000 adults and 1 in every 6 teenagers in the State of Maryland experienced a serious mental illness in that year alone (NAMI, 2021).
Unfortunately, access to mental healthcare services remains a serious challenge for the entire Maryland population. In 2021, less than 50 percent of adults suffering from mental illness in Maryland were able to access mental healthcare (NAMI, 2021). Cost was cited as the main barrier to access by 33.7 percent of adults who were unable to access mental healthcare services in the state (NAMI, 2021). The shortage of mental health professionals also limits access to care, particularly for low-income families. According to the AACCAA Needs Assessment report, Anne Arundel County had 1,180 mental health professionals in 2021 (AACCAA Needs Assessment, 2021). This translates to a patient-to-provider ratio of 490:1, which is lower than the state and national averages of 360:1 and 270:1, respectively (Brown, 2022). At the same time, the shortage of Spanish-speaking psychiatrists and counselors continues to pose access-related challenges for non-English-speaking households in the county, who make up 19 percent of the total population (Brown, 2022).
It is important to assess mental health issues because they affect individuals, communities, and families, impacting their quality of life (NAMI, 2021). Mental illness increases the risk of school non-completion, suicide, and involvement in crime (NAMI, 2021). High school students with depression are twice as likely as their peers to drop out of school, and people with a history of mental illness are three times more likely to be incarcerated than their peers (NAMI, 2021). In Maryland alone, over 180,000 adults reportedly had suicidal thoughts in 2021, and 650 lost their lives to suicide related to mental illness (NAMI, 2021).
The main topic addressed during the practicum period was the barriers that low-income families face in accessing education, healthcare, and childcare. The reviewed literature identified the main barriers to effective healthcare utilization as lack of parental education, insurance-related complications, poor relationships with healthcare providers, and distrust in the healthcare system. Lazar and Davenport (2018) found that parents with low education levels were less likely to allocate resources to meet their families' healthcare needs, particularly preventive care. DeVoe et al. (2021) also found that most low-income households faced challenges meeting the restrictive Medicaid eligibility criteria set by states, leaving many of them uninsured. Access to private insurance was further limited by high deductibles, copayments, and annual premiums, all of which make coverage unaffordable (DeVoe et al., 2021).
Sources also identified lack of trust in the healthcare system as a barrier to utilization. According to DeVoe et al. (2021), low-income individuals often do not understand standard hospital procedures and may feel intimidated, which affects their willingness to seek healthcare services. The barriers to quality education for children from low-income families included lack of parental and familial support (social academic capital), lack of financial resources to purchase academic materials, restrictive institutional policies, and inadequate teacher support (Compton-Lilly & Delbridge, 2018).
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