Unit 7 Community Resource Book Assignment: How to Complete It Correctly
A section-by-section guide to selecting your geographic area and populations, choosing and organizing resource categories, meeting the five-page minimum with professional formatting, inserting visuals that add value, and submitting a document that earns full marks on every requirement.
The Unit 7 Community Resource Book is a professional document, not a paper. That distinction matters because the skills it tests — locating real services, organizing them logically, presenting information clearly, and formatting a polished Word document — are exactly the skills a practitioner uses when building reference materials for clients. Students regularly lose marks not because they struggle to find resources, but because they choose too broad a geographic area, cover only one population instead of two, fall short of the five-page minimum, or submit a document that looks like a rough draft rather than a professional guide. This walkthrough covers every requirement from the first decision (which area to cover) to the final step (document formatting before submission).
This guide explains how to approach the assignment. It does not build the resource book for you. The resources must be real, locally relevant, and drawn from your own research — fabricated or generic entries will be immediately apparent to any instructor familiar with your region’s service landscape. Use this guide to understand the structure, the scope decisions, and the formatting standards the assignment expects.
What This Guide Covers
What the Assignment Requires
The assignment asks you to build a community resource guide — a reference document that identifies and organizes real services and programs available in a specific geographic area for specific populations. The deliverable is a professionally formatted Word document of at least five pages that covers up to two resource areas and at least two populations.
The assignment caps resource areas at two and requires at least two populations. Students who misread this produce a document covering one population across fifteen categories (too broad on categories, too narrow on populations) or three populations across one category (right population count, but not a “resource book” structure). Map your scope before you start researching: choose your geographic area, identify your two populations, and then decide which one or two resource areas you will cover for those populations.
The assignment explicitly states the document must have “professional appearance” and must include “pictures or charts, etc.” These are graded requirements, not suggestions. A document that meets the content requirements but looks like a formatted list without visual elements or consistent styling does not meet the full standard.
Choosing Your Geographic Area
The assignment gives you significant flexibility on geography: you can use a city, a county, a multi-county area (like “Wiregrass Area”), or any defined geographic region. That flexibility is not an invitation to be vague — the geographic area you choose determines the specificity and locatability of every resource in your book.
Single City
Works well for large metros where services are dense and many resources exist within city limits. For smaller towns, a city-only scope may produce too few entries to reach five professional pages.
County
The most common and reliable scope for this assignment. County-level resources are typically well-documented through county government, Area Agencies on Aging, and local nonprofit directories.
Regional Area
Multi-county or named regional areas (like “Wiregrass Area” in the instructions) allow you to draw from a broader resource pool. Useful when your county has sparse services but neighboring counties add coverage.
The most common scoping error is choosing a geographic area that is too large — an entire state, for example — which produces a document full of statewide programs that a practitioner could find in any state directory. The value of a community resource book is its local specificity. Aim for a scope where you can identify the specific organizations by name, address, phone number, and service hours — not just describe the category of service that exists somewhere in a large region.
Choose a geographic area you have personal or professional familiarity with — your hometown, your current city, or a county you have worked or volunteered in. Familiarity with the area helps you identify resources that do not appear in general online searches: faith-based organizations, community centers, neighborhood-level programs, and informal networks that serve specific populations. A resource book built from local knowledge produces more specific, more useful entries than one built entirely from Google searches.
Selecting Your Two Populations
The assignment requires at least two populations. In the context of a social work or human services course, “population” refers to a distinct group defined by shared characteristics that create specific service needs — older adults, veterans, individuals with disabilities, low-income families, individuals experiencing homelessness, children in foster care, individuals with substance use disorders, and so on.
Your two populations should share enough overlap in service needs that a single resource book serves them coherently — rather than forcing you to build two entirely separate documents in one file. The most effective pairings are populations that frequently use some of the same service systems but have distinct needs within those systems.
High-Overlap Population Pairings
- Older adults + veterans — both use Medicare, both have housing needs, veterans have additional VA-specific resources
- Older adults + individuals with disabilities — both use Medicaid, housing modifications, transportation assistance, and home health services
- Low-income families + individuals experiencing homelessness — both use food assistance, housing programs, and emergency services
- Older adults + caregivers of older adults — resource categories overlap because caregivers need to know the same services their care recipients use
Low-Overlap Pairings to Avoid
- Children + older adults — service systems are almost entirely separate; this typically produces two disconnected books rather than one coherent document
- Veterans + individuals with substance use disorders — overlap exists but is limited; the document can become unfocused without careful organization
- Any two populations whose service categories do not share at least three resource areas — you will struggle to produce a unified document that meets the five-page minimum with meaningful content
Once you select your two populations, identify them explicitly in your document — in the introduction or table of contents — so the reader understands who the book is designed to serve. A resource book without a stated audience reads as generic rather than targeted, and targeted resources are what make a community guide professionally useful.
Understanding the Resource Categories
The assignment provides a list of example categories drawn from the SARCOA model resource book. These are not required categories — they are illustrations of what types of content a community resource book might include. You choose which categories to include based on your geographic area and your two populations. The cap is two resource areas.
Example Categories From the Assignment (Illustrative, Not Required)
- Abuse, Neglect and Exploitation — Adult Protective Services, elder abuse hotlines, reporting mechanisms
- Assistance Programs — General financial assistance, emergency funds, utility assistance, rental assistance
- Food, Nutrition and Meals — Meal delivery (Meals on Wheels), food banks, SNAP, congregate dining programs
- Government Programs — Local, state, and federal programs relevant to your populations
- Veterans Programs — VA services, veterans service organizations, benefits assistance
- Housing — Subsidized housing, assisted living referrals, home modification programs, emergency shelter
- Health Care — Community health centers, free clinics, telehealth, specialist referral programs
- Transportation — Medical transportation, senior ride programs, accessible transit options
- Long-Term Care — Nursing facilities, memory care, home health agencies, adult day programs
- Senior Programs, Services and Groups — Senior centers, recreation programs, social groups, volunteer opportunities
When selecting your two resource areas, choose categories where your geographic area has real, identifiable resources. A category with only one resource in your area produces a thin section. Categories where your area has five or more programs, agencies, or services give you enough material to write substantive entries and reach your page target professionally.
How to Research Local Resources Effectively
Researching local resources is the most time-intensive part of this assignment. The quality of your research determines the depth and credibility of every entry in your book. Starting with the right sources produces results that a practitioner could actually use; starting with generic national directories produces entries that add nothing specific to a local guide.
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Start With Your Area Agency on Aging (AAA)
Every region in the United States has an Area Agency on Aging, mandated under the Older Americans Act, that maintains a local resource directory for older adults and related populations. These directories are often publicly available on the AAA’s website and contain verified, current contact information for local programs. Use eldercare.acl.gov — the federal Eldercare Locator — to find the AAA covering your selected geographic area. This is the most authoritative starting point for any resource book focused on older adults or aging services.
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Search 211 for Your Area
Dial 211 (or visit 211.org) to access the national human services database for your specific zip code or county. The 211 database is maintained by United Way affiliates and covers food, housing, healthcare, emergency services, and dozens of other categories. Many entries include addresses, phone numbers, service descriptions, eligibility criteria, and hours — exactly the information your resource entries need. It is the closest thing to a complete local services database available at no cost.
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Check County and Municipal Government Websites
County government websites — particularly departments of health, social services, and human services — maintain lists of local programs. County Departments of Human Resources often link to Medicaid offices, food assistance programs, and other government services that serve your populations. Look for a “resources” or “services” tab on your county government’s website.
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Search Nonprofit Directories
GuideStar (now Candid), VolunteerMatch, and state nonprofit association directories list nonprofit organizations by service type and geography. For health-related resources, your state’s Department of Public Health often maintains directories of community health centers, mental health providers, and substance use services. For veterans, the VA’s facility locator and your state’s Department of Veterans Affairs both provide facility and program listings.
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Contact Local Organizations Directly
For resources you identify through directory searches, a quick phone call or email to confirm current hours, eligibility criteria, and contact information produces entries that are both accurate and more detailed than directory listings alone. Programs close, move, and change eligibility requirements. A resource book built on unverified, outdated entries is professionally useless.
Organizing the Book’s Structure
A resource book is not an essay. Its organizing logic is navigational, not argumentative. A reader using the book is looking for a specific type of help for a specific population — they need to find it quickly and confidently. That means your organization should be predictable and your headings should be unambiguous.
The standard structure for a community resource guide follows a pattern the SARCOA example demonstrates: a cover page, a brief introduction identifying the geographic scope and target populations, a table of contents, and then categorized sections each covering one service area. Within each section, individual resources are listed with consistent entry formatting so a reader can scan quickly and locate the information they need.
Writing Each Resource Entry
Each individual resource entry is the core unit of the book. Every entry should contain the same set of information elements presented in the same order — this consistency is what makes the book usable as a reference tool rather than readable as an essay.
Organization Name
Address: [Street address, City, State, ZIP]
Phone: [Main contact number] | Fax: [if applicable]
Website: [URL]
Hours: [Days and hours of operation]
Populations Served: [Specify which of your two populations this resource serves — both? Only one?]
Services Provided: [2–4 sentences describing what the organization does, eligibility criteria if any, and how to access the service — appointment, walk-in, referral required?]
Note: [Any relevant detail not captured above — income limits, documentation required, wait list status, language accessibility]
The “Services Provided” field is where most students write too little. A one-sentence description — “Provides food assistance to eligible residents” — tells a practitioner almost nothing actionable. A useful entry specifies what types of food assistance (emergency pantry, monthly distribution, hot meals, SNAP application assistance), who qualifies (income threshold, residency requirement, age), and how to access the service. Two to four specific sentences is the right depth for each entry.
Copying the organization’s “About Us” page text directly into your resource entry is plagiarism and produces entries that are inconsistently formatted and written in organizational marketing language rather than practitioner-reference language. Read the organization’s website and intake documents, then write a description in your own words using the entry format above. The entry should tell a case manager what they need to know to connect a client with this resource — not reproduce what the organization says about itself.
Meeting the Visuals Requirement
The assignment explicitly requires “pictures or charts, etc.” This is a graded requirement. A resource book submitted without any visual elements does not meet the full assignment standard regardless of content quality.
In the context of a professional resource guide, visuals serve a functional purpose — they make the document easier to navigate, easier to understand, and more useful as a reference. Choose visuals that add information value, not decoration.
Maps
A map showing the geographic area you cover, or a map with pins marking the locations of key resources, is both visually effective and directly useful to practitioners navigating to service sites. Google Maps screenshots with labeled locations are easy to produce and professional when cropped and captioned correctly.
Charts and Tables
A summary table comparing services across multiple organizations — what they offer, who they serve, how to access them — turns repeated entry information into a scannable reference chart. A bar chart showing the population distribution in your area (census data) grounds the resource book in demographic context.
Logos and Organization Images
Including the logos of key organizations alongside their entries gives the book a professional appearance and makes organizations immediately recognizable to practitioners who have seen their signage or materials. Most nonprofit and government organizations have downloadable logos on their websites.
Every visual in the document should have a caption that describes what it shows and why it is relevant. An image inserted without a caption looks accidental. A captioned image — “Figure 1: Map of [County] showing locations of food assistance providers listed in this guide” — looks intentional and professional. Captions also contribute to your page count.
One of the most effective visuals for a community resource book is a population chart drawn from U.S. Census data. The U.S. Census Bureau’s data portal provides county-level data on age distribution, disability status, poverty rates, veteran status, and other demographic indicators relevant to your populations. A simple bar or pie chart showing, for example, the percentage of residents over 65 in your county, or the number of veterans in your geographic area, establishes the need for the resources you are documenting. This data is free, public, and directly relevant to a social services or gerontology course.
Reaching Five Pages Legitimately
Five pages is the minimum — not a target. Most well-executed resource books for two populations and two resource areas will run eight to twelve pages. Students who struggle to reach five pages are usually not covering enough resources per category, not writing sufficiently detailed entries, or skipping structural elements like the introduction and table of contents that legitimately contribute to page count.
| Document Section | Expected Length | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Cover Page | 1 page | Title, geographic area, populations, your name, course, date. Professional formatting with centered text or a designed layout contributes to page count and appearance. |
| Introduction | ½–1 page | Who the book serves, what area it covers, which resource areas it addresses, and how to use the guide. Do not pad — write what a user of the guide actually needs to know. |
| Table of Contents | ½–1 page | All section headings with page numbers. For a book with multiple resource categories, the TOC may span a full page. |
| Resource Section 1 | 1.5–3 pages | Section introduction (2–3 sentences), followed by individual resource entries. Aim for at least five entries per section to produce substantive coverage. |
| Resource Section 2 | 1.5–3 pages | Same structure as Section 1. Two resource sections of roughly equal depth produce a balanced document. |
| Visuals | Distributed throughout | Maps, charts, logos, and tables inserted at relevant points within sections add visual mass and professional formatting weight. |
If you are short on pages, the right response is to add more resource entries — not to increase the font size, widen margins, or add large images that pad space without adding information. Your instructor will notice formatting manipulation. Adding a third resource category, expanding your geographic scope to a neighboring county to add more programs, or deepening your entries with eligibility details and access instructions all add legitimate, substantive content.
Word Document Formatting Standards
The assignment specifies Times New Roman, Size 12 font, and “professional appearance.” These constraints are graded. Professional appearance in a Word document means consistent heading hierarchy, aligned margins, properly formatted tables, captioned visuals, and a document that opens cleanly and reads without formatting artifacts.
Font and Spacing
Body text: Times New Roman 12pt. This applies to all body paragraphs and resource entries. Headings can be slightly larger (14–16pt) in the same font family or a complementary sans-serif — but the body text specification is non-negotiable. Consistent line spacing (1.15 or 1.5 for a professional report, not double-spaced like an academic essay) improves readability without inflating page count artificially.
Heading Hierarchy
Use Word’s built-in heading styles (Heading 1, Heading 2, Heading 3) for all section and subsection titles — not manually bolded text. Built-in heading styles enable automatic table of contents generation, consistent formatting throughout the document, and professional navigation structure. Section titles (e.g., “Food Assistance Programs”) should use Heading 1 or Heading 2. Organization names within sections can use Heading 3 or bold text.
Tables for Entries
Using a two-column table for resource entries — label in the left column, information in the right — produces a clean, scannable format that looks professional and ensures consistent alignment across entries. Borderless tables (table borders set to “No Border” in Word’s table formatting) look cleaner than gridded tables for this type of content. Consistent row height and cell padding complete the professional look.
Page Margins and Numbering
Standard 1-inch margins on all sides. Page numbers in the footer — either centered or right-aligned — are a professional standard for any multi-page reference document. In Word: Insert → Page Number → Bottom of Page. The cover page should not display a page number (use “Different First Page” in the Header & Footer settings).
Image Insertion and Wrapping
Images inserted “In Line with Text” are the safest setting for a multi-page Word document — they stay anchored to their position in the text and do not jump around when you edit content. “Square” or “Through” wrapping allows text to flow around images but requires careful management. Add a caption to every image immediately after insertion using Word’s Insert Caption function, not by typing below the image manually.
Building a Table of Contents in Word
A table of contents is listed as the first item in the assignment’s example organization structure. For a professional document of five or more pages, a functional table of contents is standard. In Word, a table of contents can be generated automatically if you use the built-in heading styles for all section titles.
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Apply Heading Styles to All Section Titles
For every section heading in your document (resource categories, introduction, etc.), select the text and apply a Heading style from the Home tab → Styles panel. Use Heading 1 for major sections and Heading 2 for subsections. This must be done before you generate the TOC.
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Place Your Cursor Where the TOC Should Appear
Click at the end of your cover page or introduction — wherever you want the table of contents to appear. Press Enter to create a new blank page if needed. The TOC typically appears on its own page after the cover.
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Insert the Automatic Table of Contents
Go to References → Table of Contents → choose one of the automatic styles. Word generates the TOC from all paragraphs formatted with Heading styles, including page numbers. If the TOC is blank, it means your headings were formatted manually rather than with Word’s Heading styles — go back and apply the styles, then update the TOC.
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Update the TOC Before Final Submission
After you finish editing the document, right-click the TOC and select “Update Field” → “Update entire table.” This refreshes all page numbers to reflect any content additions or moves. An TOC with incorrect page numbers signals a document that was not reviewed before submission.
Where Most Submissions Lose Marks
Only One Population Represented
Building a thorough guide for older adults but failing to include any resources specific to veterans, caregivers, or a second population. The assignment requires at least two populations — this is not flexible.
Instead
Before building any content, list your two populations explicitly at the top of your planning document. For every resource entry you add, tag which population it serves. Review your draft before submission and confirm that both populations have substantive representation across the resource sections.
No Visual Elements
Submitting a document that is entirely text — no maps, no charts, no tables, no logos. The assignment explicitly requires pictures or charts. A document without any visual element fails a stated requirement regardless of text quality.
Instead
Plan your visuals before you start writing. Decide: one map of the geographic area, one demographic chart from Census data, and organization logos for at least the major entries. Insert them as you build each section rather than trying to add visuals at the end, when placement becomes harder to manage.
Entries Without Contact Information
Listing an organization by name with a vague description but no address, phone number, website, or hours. A resource entry without contact information is not a resource entry — it is a mention. A practitioner cannot use it to connect a client with services.
Instead
Every entry must include at minimum: organization name, physical address or service area, phone number, and website URL. Hours and eligibility criteria should be added wherever they are available. If an organization’s contact information cannot be verified, it should not appear in the book.
Statewide Programs Presented as Local Resources
Filling entries with state-level programs (SNAP, Medicaid, the VA system generally) without identifying the specific local office or access point. Every resident in every county can access SNAP — a resource book for Covington County needs to list the specific DHR office in Andalusia, not just “the SNAP program.”
Instead
For every statewide or federal program you include, identify and list the specific local office, intake point, or community access location for your geographic area. “Alabama Medicaid” is not a local resource. “Alabama Medicaid — Covington County DHR Office, [address], [phone]” is.
Unprofessional Document Appearance
Inconsistent font sizes, manually bolded headings mixed with styled headings, images floating over text, no page numbers, no cover page. The assignment grades on “professional appearance” — a document that looks like it was assembled in a hurry does not meet this criterion.
Instead
Open a clean Word document and set your styles before you start writing. Set the body font to Times New Roman 12pt. Define your Heading 1 and Heading 2 styles. Set margins to 1 inch on all sides. Add a footer with page numbers. Insert a cover page. Build the document into this structure rather than trying to format it after the content is written.
Covering More Than Two Resource Areas
Including ten categories of resources across forty pages because the assignment “says as many pages as needed.” The scope constraint is two resource areas — not two sections of unlimited subcategories. More categories do not equal better coverage; deeper, more specific coverage within two well-chosen areas is what the assignment targets.
Instead
Choose two resource areas and go deep on them. Five to ten well-documented resource entries per area, with full contact information, service descriptions, and eligibility details, produces a more useful and more professionally impressive document than twenty superficial entries across ten categories.
Learning From the SARCOA Example
The assignment references the South Alabama Regional Council on Aging (SARCOA) and its publicly available Guide to Benefits as the model for this assignment. Reading that guide — or the PDF version linked in the assignment — before you build your own document is one of the most useful preparation steps you can take.
The SARCOA guide demonstrates several professional standards that should inform your own document: the way it organizes categories alphabetically for easy navigation, the consistent entry format used across all listings, the geographic specificity of its resource information, the integration of eligibility and access information into each entry, and the professional visual design with clear section breaks and headers.
What to Notice When Reviewing the SARCOA Guide
Pay attention to the depth of each entry — SARCOA entries are not one-line mentions. They include program descriptions, eligibility language, contact details, and access instructions. Notice how the guide handles statewide programs: it lists local offices and access points, not just the program name. Notice the consistent formatting — every entry looks like every other entry, which makes the guide easy to scan. Notice the table of contents structure — broad categories contain multiple specific programs. This is the model your document should emulate, applied to your own geographic area and populations.
You are not expected to produce a document as comprehensive as a multi-year professional publication. But the SARCOA guide establishes what “professional appearance” and “useful resource content” look like in practice. A five-page resource book that follows SARCOA’s organizational logic and entry depth standards will consistently outperform a fifteen-page document full of vague descriptions and missing contact details.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why Community Resource Books Matter in Professional Practice
This assignment is not an academic exercise dressed up as a practical one — community resource guides are live professional tools used daily in social work, case management, gerontology, and human services practice. When a client calls a case manager about food insecurity, transportation to a medical appointment, or help navigating Medicare, the practitioner’s ability to immediately locate and share verified, current, locally specific resource information determines whether that client gets help or gets a list of phone numbers that go nowhere.
The Administration for Community Living — the federal agency that oversees programs for older adults and people with disabilities — maintains extensive guidance on community resource development as a core component of aging network practice. Their framework for aging and disability resource centers explicitly identifies resource guide development as a practitioner competency, not a clerical task. Building a resource book in a course setting develops the research, organizational, and information literacy skills that practitioners use to maintain and update these guides throughout their careers.
The Eldercare Locator, maintained by the U.S. Administration on Aging, is a publicly available national resource finder that connects older adults and caregivers with Area Agencies on Aging and local services by zip code. It is one of the most reliable starting points for researching aging services in any geographic area — and the underlying database it draws from is exactly the type of verified, locally specific resource information your community resource book should contain.
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