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HSE101 : 7-2 Final Project Submission: Agency Exploration
SNHU
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I. Human Services Profession
The specific agency that I have chosen where I would like to get employed is the
‘Portland Refugee Support Group.’ The agency has committed itself to empower refugees by
extending social support as well as education (Our mission. Portland Refugee Support Group,
2021). I have chosen the specific agency since its mission is to help its clients and service
users navigate a path to lead a successful life in the United States of America. The core values
that the agency focuses on have played an instrumental role and drawn me towards its
dedicated services. Its chief values include respect, diversity and inclusion, integrity,
compassion, trust, collaboration and community.
While making the selection of the agency, I also considered other agencies such as
Lutheran Community Services Northwest Portland and Community Pathways, Inc. (CPI).
However, I decided against choosing these agencies since I felt the scope of their services was
broad, and it could be overwhelming for me to engage with a broad range of service users
who are in a vulnerable position.
I have chosen to be employed at the ‘Portland Refugee Support Group’ agency since it has
dedicated itself to creating and offering services for people who are mostly neglected in
society. Refugees and immigrants are one of the most vulnerable groups that exist in the
community. The lack of services that are designed for them increases their desperate
situation, and they do not get an opportunity to get out of their situation. The Portland
Refugee Support Group is committed to creating a community setting where refugees can feel
safe and will be empowered to lead a life of dignity, respect and safety. By working in the
agency, I will get an opportunity to engage and interact with refugees and play an
instrumental role in offering quality social support services to them. One of the main
highlights of the agency is the integration of a diverse range of programs that intend to meet
specific needs of refugees. For example, Supplement Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP)
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offers food-purchasing assistance to no-income and low-income people in the nation.
Similarly, the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program has been designed
to offer cash assistance to low-income families with kids. By joining the agency, I will get an
opportunity to become an active part of such programs and bring about a positive change in
the lives of refugees.
The Portland Refugee Support Group is mainly responsible for offering social support
services along with educational services to refugees in the community setting. One of the
chief services revolves around building community connections where training is offered to
community members to establish a trust-based relationship among refugees. Community
wellness services involve counseling sessions for adults and children. Community education
initiatives are taken to help clients learn English and thereby take an important step towards
integration into the community. The agency also offers emergency financial assistance to its
clients so that they can lead their life on a positive path (What we do. Portland Refugee
Support Group, 2021).
In the selected agency, a diverse range of professionals exist to offer integrated
services to the service users. Volunteer coordinators play a key role in ensuring that the
volunteers get an opportunity to take part in community activities and enhance the quality of
social services that are extended to refugees. Community Health workers are responsible for
assessing the health needs of refugees and devising an effective care plan to improve their
health status. The agency also creates an opportunity for volunteers to play a proactive role in
engaging with refugees in the region and establishing trust-based relationships with them.
Professionals with diverse skills and knowledge work in the agency to offer high-quality
integrated human services to refugees.
The selection of the human service profession is a tough task as some important
responsibilities have to take by them and meet the health needs of vulnerable people. The
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selected agency, ‘Portland Refugee Support Group,’ is running with so many roles and
responsibilities to deliver better services to the refugees that have been clearly defined in the
next part.
II. Agency Description
The specific client-facing role that has been identified in the context of the Portland
Refugee Support Group (PRSG) is Community Health Worker (Who we are, 2021). By
playing the role, human services professionals within the organization are able to assess the
health needs of refugees in the community setting and offer proper health and medical
services that are aligned with their health needs. An in-depth insight has been presented into
the role and responsibilities in the PRSG agency setting.
Role – Community Health Worker
Responsibilities – The chief responsibilities that are carried out by the Community Health
Worker within the Portland Refugee Support Group are as follows:
• Facilitation of communication and engagement between refugees in the community
and healthcare organizations. g
• Ensure the facilitation of healthcare access among the vulnerable refugee groups in
the community so that their health outcomes can be positively impacted.
• The human service professional is also responsible for advocating and educate the
vulnerable group about healthy practices and behavior so that the health outcome and
quality of life can be enhanced.
• The Community Health Worker serves as the frontline public health worker who
builds effective and long-lasting relationships with the community members by
focusing on trust and respect.
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• Establish strategic partnerships with diverse stakeholders in the community setting in
order to support and strengthen the community outreach and referrals.
• Empower individual refugees in the community setting so that they can effectively
manage their own health and well-being. g g
The Community Health Worker plays an instrumental role in the context of PRSG to
minimize the vulnerability of vulnerable individuals in the society. They work along with the
refugees and focus on their health needs so that their life can be rebuilt. These human service
professionals have a close understanding of the community that they serve. They use their
position to not only identify the health needs of the vulnerable refugees but also create trust-
based relationships with them. They furthermore create an opportunity for the refugees to
form connections with other members of the community so that they can form valuable
relationships and associations with others in the society.
The professionals adopt a comprehensive approach while engaging with refugees in the
community setting. They not only focus on the health needs of the individuals and families
but also on their social needs so that their core needs can be optimally met, which can
improve their life while living as refugees in Portland. The professionals use their position
and knowledge to educate refugees about the importance of health and available healthcare
services so that a well-defined path can be navigated for the clients, which can enable them to
lead a successful life in the U.S. (Who we are, 2021).
The Community Health Workers working in the Portland Refugee Support Group take a
number of steps that contribute to the larger helping process for refugees. For example, the
human service professionals focus on community collaboration so that the health and social
needs of the refugees and their families can be met. Emphasis is laid on trust so that a sincere
and honest relationship can be established between the professionals and the clients, and
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refugees can get the opportunity to reside in a community where they have a sense of
belongingness. The professionals carry out their functions in a compassionate and empathetic
manner by promoting diversity and inclusion. Every refugee in the community is treated with
respect and dignity, regardless of their diverse attributes. The Community Health Worker
adopt a multidisciplinary approach and acts as a vital part of the support group, which helps in
creating a safe, nurturing and comfortable environment for refugees where their fundamental
health and social needs are fulfilled in an effective manner.
After understanding the specific role, responsibilities and services provided by the human
services agency, its crucial to look at its history, it can help to understand the current trends
that can be set up and provide the right solutions to the needy.
III. History and Current Trends
The chosen agency for the research is the Portland Refugee Support Group (PRSG).
This organization is considered a 501 (c)(3) non-profit organization. It was founded in 2016
and has grown by bounds and leaps. This organization was established to help refugee
families. Presently, the amazing volunteer team of Portland Refugee Support Group helps
more than 200 refugee families of 12 various ethnicities throughout Vancouver, Washington,
Portland area & Salem, and Oregon. The organization aims to provide support services to
refugees involved through resettlement agencies. It has been identified that the Portland
Refugee Support Group is dedicated to working with refugees with the aim of empowering
them to be effective members of society and become independent through psycho-social
support, education, and life skills training. The organization understands the difficulties of
refugees who are trying to acclimate to a new life. It has faith that refugees will be able to
survive on their own in their new house and will adjust faster with the right support (Who we
are, 2021).
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The mission of the Portland Refugee Support Group
Portland Refugee Support Group has a mission to help its clients and service users
navigate a path to lead a successful life in the United States of America. The organization has
some core values that focus on an instrumental role and draw attention towards its dedicated
services. Research shows that the chief values of the Portland Refugee Support Group include
respect, diversity and inclusion, trust, integrity, compassion, collaboration and community
(Our mission, 2021).
The focus of the Portland Refugee Support Group
The Portland Refugee Support Group's work focuses on some important major
components such as:
• Community education about refugees through media, lectures, panels, and others.
• Child and adult education, including assistance with school work and tutoring.
• Provide life skills training to refugees to increase their ability and confidence to care
for themselves, their houses, and their family members.
• Give psycho-social support to the refugees through social events to build social capital
and form community connections. Along with that, it also supports referrals to mental
health care and personalized counselling (Our mission, 2021).
Historical Event Relationship
The Portland Refugee Support Group has conducted many historical events in the past
with an aim to empower refugees by extending education and social support to them. In this
section, the major focus has been given to the differences and similarities between the history
of the human services field and the historical event of the Portland Refugee Support Group.
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In April 2022, the Portland Refugee Support Group organized an event on food and
supply distribution for Afghan refugees (Our mission, 2021). At this event, the organization
played an important role in supporting Afghan refugees by supplying food. Further, this event
has aimed to provide legal support, education, housing, and living supplies. Portland Refugee
Support Group is always ready to help refugees in different forms. However, the research has
identified some similarities between the history of the human services field and the historical
event of the Portland Refugee Support Group; both work for the improvement of people's life.
On the contrary, the history of the human services field and the historical event of the
Portland Refugee Support Group has some dissimilarities. Usually, the history of human
service says that they work to meet a range of human needs by implementing interdisciplinary
experiences and knowledge. While the Portland Refugee Support Group's social event on
food and supply distribution for Afghan refugees access resources to improve their
circumstances.
Overall, this research has highlighted the overview of the Portland Refugee Support
Group. Along with this, it has elaborated on the differences and similarities between the
history of the human services field and the historical event of the chosen agency. Now, it's
important to throw light on the theories, ethics and values to make a clear-cut decision in
human service.
IV. Theories, Values, and Ethics
When providing services to vulnerable people, the care provider or health service
provider must follow an important code of ethics, values and theories. A code encourages
compliance and ethics discussions and empowers staff to manage ethical dilemmas that they
face in everyday work. The code of ethics is also considered a valuable reference that helps
the organizational staff to locate reliable services, documents, and other resources associated
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with organizational ethics. The learnings about the code of ethics in the class is helpful to
understand the roles and responsibilities of the human service professionals and how it can
impact the provision of selected 'Portland Refugee Support Group' agency. It has been
identified that the ethics and integrity of the human service profession have been maintained
by the professionals and improve their professional growth by promoting the community and
clients' well-being. According to the National Organisation of Human Services, the human
services profession has fundamental values that include promoting self-determination,
respecting the people's welfare and dignity of all people, acting with objectivity, honesty,
integrity, and genuineness, and advocating for social justice (Scott, 2021). If the 'Portland
Refugee Support Group' agency is not considering the ethical-decision making processes,
then there is a chance to occur conflicts between this laws and codes, cultural practices,
workplace policies, personal beliefs, and credentialing boards. Even the code of ethics can
affect their vision and mission to provide respect, trust, integrity, compassion, diversity and
inclusion, and collaboration to vulnerable people.
Ethical Standards must be maintained among Human Service Professionals, where the
staff should maintain an appropriate and professional relationship with the clients. No biases
or personal values should be imposed on a client in one or different form. In the context of
'The Portland Refugee Support Group agency, it will be more challenging to implement
ethical standards while accommodating diversity, compliance and governance, and
empathetic decision-making. However, human services might feel less challenging to reduce
discrimination and harassment and resolve conflicting goals as it will be easy for the service
providers to deal with such issues within the organization.
While working with the clients in the 'Portland Refugee Support Group agency, I
would like to apply social learning theory because it helps to learn about further improvement
in the services by modeling their behaviors through observing others. The social learning
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theory helps to form intervention strategies, which use reinforcement and positive modeling
to create positive behavior among vulnerable people (6 important theories in Social Work.
CORP-MSW1 (OMSWP), 2022). For instance, I would apply this theory by observing the
current behavior of the refugees so that I can identify their real problem and accordingly I can
remodel their behavior with the help of human service professionals.
Overall, understanding the theories, ethics and values is essential for human service
professionals to provide the right solution to vulnerable people. Along with understanding
ethics and theories, it is crucial to understand the role of the helping process while working in
a human service agency, which can help assess the specific health needs of refugees and
provide accurate medical and health services.
V. Role in the Helping Process
The helping process is one of the important aspects while playing the role of a human
service professional. After analyzing the whole research, I came to understand that the role of
a Community Health Worker is important in human service. This role I can use this in each
stage of the helping process. At the Portland Refugee Support Group agency, I would like to
assess the specific health needs of refugees and provide accurate medical and health services
in community settings aligning with their health needs. Research shows that some specific
stages of the helping process in the human service domain include engagement, planning,
assessment, evaluation, intervention, and termination. At the first stage of engagement, I
would like to take the refugees' consent and explain setting boundaries while conducting the
session. In the second assessment stage, I would assess the client's problem by determining
the strengths and weaknesses to provide better treatment to vulnerable people. As a
Community Health Worker, I would like to set proper goals and objectives to decrease
negative thinking and cope strategies to enhance vulnerable conditions. Next, I would take
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interventions working on distorted thoughts in the community settings and take initiatives to
improve their health conditions. I would like to impose cognitive behavioral therapy to cope
with the anxiety level of vulnerable people. When I ensure that the condition of the refugees
has been improved and there is no need to give health services, then the process can be
terminated with the client’s consent. g
Based on the research, it has been identified that going through each stage of the
helping process can help improve the refugees' health conditions in community settings. As I
have chosen the role of a community health worker to play in the agency, it is crucial to
understand the further career options in this field so that I can contribute effectively to the
human service profession.
VI. Career Opportunities
While doing research on the Portland Refugee Support Group agency, I have
identified that the selected agency has more available career options that can enhance my role
to serve in the human service profession. As I am interested in pursuing my career as a
community health worker, I would like to choose an entry-level position to help me meet my
goal. Thus, I have chosen the position of an assistant community health worker who plays an
important role in minimizing the vulnerability of refugees in society. To apply for this
position, I must qualify for the position. Research shows that an assistant community health
worker or community health worker requires to get a high-school diploma, must have the
training to deal with the health needs of vulnerable people, must have completed a bachelor's
program in public health or health and wellness, and received Health Education Specialist
credential certification (Finding a job | indeed.com - indeed career guide, 2021). I feel I am
eligible for the entry-level position as I possess the qualification of a bachelor's program in
public health, have a high-school diploma, received essential training to deal with health
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needs and received a Health Education Specialist credential certification. However, I need to
gain some skills, such as resourcefulness and analysis skills, to qualify for the position.
Overall, I have learned many things from the class that can help me grow my career
opportunities and apply this knowledge in my day-to-day life.
VII. Summary of Learning
In this course, I have understood the important role of human service professionals
who are working hard to meet the health needs of vulnerable people. A deep insight into the
human services profession has been received that can help me choose a good career. I also got
to know about the human services agency and their provided services that can help vulnerable
people in community settings. This course has also taught me about the history of the human
services field and its relation to the current trends in services. Along with this, I learned about
ethics, theories, and values that are more important in serving the health needs of vulnerable
people. I have also understood each helping process step that can help make better decisions
for vulnerable people. I feel this course has more human services employment opportunities
that can uplift my career as a community health worker.
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%2C%20genuineness%20and%20objectivity.
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