Assignment: Capstone Project Part III: Strategic Issues
alexislowe1103
WK2AssgnLoweA.docxRunning head: SOCIAL CHANGE 1
SOCIAL CHANGE
Week 2 Assignment Child Welfare Social Change
Alexis Lowe
HUMN 6660: Social Change, Leadership, and Advocacy for Human Service Professionals
June 9, 2019
Social change – child welfare
Issues to encounter in the strategic plan
Foster children who depend on the society for their living are mostly not given the care that they deserve. Foster children mostly do not grow and develop normally like children who are raised by their biological parents. They face so many problems and that is what this strategic plan wishes to address. Some of the specific issues to encounter include; child abuse, being unwanted, and generally being neglected. Most of these children face poverty, unnecessary disconnections from family and also limited access to opportunities. These children face the above problems because they do not have anyone to represent them in the political world, they have no voice therefore no one can hear them, and they are minors in the society so no one really cares about them.
The change needed to address these issues
The change needed to address the above issues to eliminate the problems and challenges faced by foster children so that they can access opportunities and create policies that will help them transition in and from foster care effectively. Annie E. Casey Foundation is an effective foundation that has helped most foster children through practice, policy and evaluation tools that seek to improve their opportunities and assets as well as help to build their personal and financial assets by engaging them in self-advocacy and leadership opportunities.
Change theory and how to apply it
Kurt Lewin change theory is applicable in this strategic plan. It is a three-step model which include unfreeze, change, and freeze. Lewin’s model ensures that there is a radical change, minimized disruption of the structure’s operations, and permanent change (Cummings et al., 2016). Unfreezing means making people unlearn their bad ways and open to change their way of doing their activities for a positive change. The second step is change. This is the implementation phase. When people have opened up their minds for a change, transition begins and it might take some time. The last step is freeze. This is cementing the change. Once a change has been made, it should be made permanent. This theory will be applied by changing the activities of foster care, policies applied in foster care and the society’s perception of foster children. It will begin with presenting the issues to be changed to the concerned parties and persuading them to open up for a change in the way foster children are handled. Secondly, once every party is open-minded about the change, then change will be implemented. For example, it is important to create jobs for foster children as they exit foster care and live by their own. Lastly, the change will be made permanent by putting it to practice.
Ethical issues
Some of ethical challenges that might me faced in implementing these changes are; every person is entitled to their opinion and no one should be forced to accept the change. It is a personal decision to make. Therefore, it is not every person that will accept the change and implement it as expected. Secondly, some changes will require some personal information of the foster children. It is ethically unaccepted to force anyone to give out personal information if that person is not comfortable about is (Hayes, 2018).
How to address the above ethical issues
Professional code of ethics advices that, it is good to persuade people by telling them the importance of a change, then leave them to make their own decision. On the second issue, no one should be forced to give out their personal information if that person chooses not to. It should be voluntary.
Opportunities and challenges in implementing the change
Some of the opportunities in implementing the change include; getting support from other child welfare organizations with a similar vision and also individuals who have passed though foster care because they understand more about the need for the change. On the other hand, the major challenge that might be experienced is unwillingness to receive the change positively. Some people may just decide not to corporate.
References
Hayes, J. (2018). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave.
