Assignment 2: Needs Assessment

Running Head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT ASSIGNMENT

NEEDS ASSESSMENT ASSIGNMENT

Needs Assessment Assignment

Name: Gabrielle McNeely

Institutional Affiliation: Strayer University

Needs Assessment Assignment

Title: Needs Assessment

Specific Purpose:

To notify diverse organizations, regarding the aspect of needs assessment and human service leadership.

General Purpose:

The main goal of this research is looking at economic changes in human service which are the leadership crisis, which explains the decrees of experienced leaders wanting to work in a nonprofit organization setting. Research has discovered that the workers in human services do not want to transition into upper management positions (Watson &Hoefer, 2014). Other economic changes in human services depend on leaders being diverse and relatable to all races, genders, and ages in the workplace.

Thesis Statement:

According to our (Lu, 2013), research reveals political and pragmatic forces outweigh economic rationality in human service contracting decisions. Government contracted human service programs can pose a threat to government employees by causing job loss and wage reductions.

Introduction

Government contracting is heavily influenced by different groups of actors within the government such as public employees, who can influence the government contracting decisions. Nonprofit organizations can serve local communities better than government agencies. Also, at times, the demand for human services outweighs what the government contract provisions for, and the government cannot satisfy or meet the needs of everyone. Lu also revealed that states with stronger non-profit advocacy are more likely to contract out their human service production.

A more open-ended approach is to use the Internet so that people can describe what they like if they are current consumers or what services they would like if they were to use your program in the future. Provide an easily accessible part of the website for people to request more information or for making suggestions about your services. Also, make sure that someone responds on a daily basis. A word of caution: do not over-rely on the Internet to obtain feedback on your services. Not all of your consumers can access the Internet, and be mindful that overusing Internet surveys can be perceived as pestering.

Attention Getter:

Did you know that in the human services field, the person or entity paying for the service is usually not the consumer of the service (except in those few instances where clients pay full fee)?

Body

Because many organizations experience more demand for their service than what their resources will allow, because dissatisfied clients who leave the agency can be replaced by someone else on a waiting list, and because funding limitations force agencies to reduce services, agency staff may tend to treat their consumers with less care and consideration (Hasenfeld, 2015). The term customer is used as a metaphorical expression to convey the importance of treating people with care and dignity. One should be cautious, however, about applying too literally the language of business in designing human service programs. Asking staff, for example, to refer to their homeless clients, or adolescent delinquents, or substance-abusing service consumers as “customers” could feel awkward and insincere.

A common form of governance for human services organizations is a Board of Directors/Board of Trustees. Their primary function is to protect the organization. According to (Hoefer& Watson, 2014), there are four ways the board of trustees governs human service organizations: facilitating that the government attains the expected legal obligations, while in operation as per its vision and mission as well as shielding the assets of the business, ensuring the organization is operating efficiently and ensuring that the perspectives and viewpoints of the members are represented. The responsibilities of the board fall into four major categories:

i. Legal and fiduciary,

ii. Oversight,

iii. Fundraising, and

iv. Representation of constituencies and viewpoints.

Common funding practices for human services, programs include fundraising programs, donor pyramids, annual campaigns raise funds, direct mail/solicitation for money, special events, and government contracts.

Since there is greater competition for resources it affects human services because non-profit superintendents tend to function in a field that has rare properties as well as augmented rivalry for those resources. Funding from the government at local, state, and federal levels are strained as a result of political burden in a bid to reduce the rates of taxes. Contracted payments to nonprofit organizations are often delayed for months, causing non-profits to face financial problems (Watson &Hoefer, 2014). In human services, the number of skills being required are greater now for human service agencies because the range of skills needed to cope in a difficult environment is greater now than before.  Administrators need to be knowledgeable in budgeting, supervision, and human resources, advocacy, community collaboration, and fundraising. The need for evidence-based practices is important because in order to receive funding and resources the organizations must become more effective in how they serve the needs of clients and how it can be measured which is why their use of technology is important and has been incorporated in organizations.

If the client continues, an intervention plan involving the achievement of specific objectives gets agreed upon mutually between the agency and the client.

· Is there only one pathway, or are there multiple pathways through the system?

· After going through the intake, if the client is referred to a specialist, the client must return to a central point before going on to a second specialist, or can the first specialist make a direct referral?

· Can a client go directly to a specialist, thus bypassing a central intake?

· How permeable are the agency’s boundaries to admitting people (e.g., eligibility requirements, waiting lists, and bureaucratic “red tape”)?

· What alternative pathways are open to clients if their conditions change or their objectives are not met?

· If certain objectives are met, but others are not, what does the agency do?

· Can clients who prematurely discontinue be recycled back into the agency’s program at a later point?

References

Hasenfeld, Y. (2015). What exactly is human services management?.

Lu, J. (2013). How political are government contracting decisions? An examination of human service contracting determinants. Public Administration Quarterly, 37(2), 182–207.

Watson, L. D., &Hoefer, R. A. (2014).Developing nonprofit and human service leaders: Essential knowledge and skills. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.

Assignment 2 - Submit Here

Gabrielle McNeely on Fri, Feb 07 2020, 2:50 PM

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Submission ID: ef38dfc5-d8a1-4759-8e65-1295b80eacce

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2/19/20 12:27 AM

This paper do not address the requirements of your assignment Gabrielle. Please review the assignment criteria and redo.