The learner will:

• identify the needs of the community.
• identify job opportunities of the community for each of the three business sectors.
• analyze whether the needs of the community are being met.

Anticipatory Set:

Have students create a list of all of the different occupations they have considered during their lifetime. Ask them to think about why they may have chosen that career and how it might be a benefit to society.

• Distribute the classified section of the papers. Have students identify job opportunities in each of the four sectors. (Household childcare or cleaning positions would be considered sector four). Using The Classifieds (Attachment One) have students list positions in each of the four sectors. Discuss what the benefits of working in the different sectors would be. What are the opportunity costs of working in each sector, that is, what are you giving up to work in each sector?
• Distribute Community Needs Survey (Attachment Two) to each student. Give the class enough time to complete their assessment of the community. Share student findings in a whole group. Create a bar graph, prioritizing community needs according to class results.
• Divide the class into teams, assigning each team one of the community needs from the bar graph. Using the information gathered in Lesson Two, have students match the needs on the graph with sectors and organizations that are helping to meet the needs.
• Using the survey, have students identify the community needs which are not being met or are under-served. What needs are not being met by the government? Are there obvious advantages of having nonprofits in the community? Break students back into their teams. Have each team choose a need they feel is the highest priority. Have them brainstorm ways of addressing the community need.
• Ask students to prepare a letter to a local public official or the local newspaper, addressing the community need and possible solutions to the problem. The letter should address their stand on the issue, correlate to a core democratic value, and include specific information collected regarding the need. (You may choose to have students complete this activity by doing peer editing and taking the letters to final draft. The teacher and students can judge the letters according to form and content and decide which merit delivery.)

Have students ask their parents what they feel the needs of the community are and whether or not they feel these needs are being met.