Howard University Policy DHS 36 for CCS Adults and Children Essay

AGENCY: LA CAUSA, INC in Milwaukee, WI; website LINK: 

https://www.lacausa.org

POLICY DHS 36 for CCS Adults and/or childen: 

https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/code/admin_code/d…

1. Complete an Executive Summary (approximately one page)

2. Complete an Introduction (1-2 paragraphs): Should indicate the purpose of the assignment and an understanding of macro practice, the nonprofit sector, and how the organizational, policy and social justice sections interact.

3. Organizational analysis (3-4 pages): Students will demonstrate an understanding of a human services organization. This should be an organization (either public or private sector) that the student has personal familiarity with, like an employer or an internship location. If a student does not have personal access to the necessary information about an organization, it is optional to interview a friend/colleague about their organization.

Students should:

• Identify the organization’s mission and vision.
• Identify the population the organization serves.
• Describe the organization’s structure and design.
• Assess the organization’s partners, funding sources, referral sources and community linkages.
• Consider how services are mediated by policy and its implementation at federal, state, and local levels [Competency Va.]
• Describe how the agency evaluates the impact/effectiveness of its programs and services. Consider how the agency could strengthen the evaluation process. 
• Identify the organization’s competition for funding.
• Assess the organization’s strategic planning process.
• Describe the organization’s culture and working environment.
• If possible, assess the organization’s budget or finances. If not possible, explain the student’s efforts to collect information regarding the budget/finances.
• Describe how the organization is functioning in the current economic and social environment. Use an eco-map to represent this along with a narrative.
• Include a SWOT analysis of the organization.

4. Policy Analysis (4 pages): Students will identify one policy that directly impacts clients and/or the organization’s ability to respond to their clients and conduct a policy analysis. The policy could be local, state-level, or national.

• Students should: 
• Introduce the policy you are analyzing. Clearly explain how this policy is relevant to your client population and/or the organization. 
• Define the problem. What problem does the policy attempt to address? Discuss the prevalence of the problem. Consider different potential explanations in terms of causes of the problem. 
• Define the policy and alternatives. Summarize the basic tenets of the policy. How is the policy expected to help address the problem (i.e., what cause does it seek to address)? What alternative policies were considered, or could have been considered? 
• Describe the historical, social, cultural, economic, organizational, environmental, and global influences that inform this policy [Competency Vc] 
• Describe policy implementation. How was the policy formulated? [Competency Vb] Who is in charge of implementation? How is the process working? Have there been problems in implementation? Is a monitoring and evaluation system in place for the implementation? Describe it. 
• Evaluate the policy. Has the policy achieved what it intended? What were the costs and consequences of the policy? Overall, was the policy a “success” or a “failure”? [Competency Vb] 
• Make a recommendation. Recommend a policy action, based on your analysis of the set of alternatives and your evaluation of the current policy. Articulate reasons, supported by facts and evidence, why the policy proposal you have chosen would be the best avenue for addressing the issue in question. 

5. Social Justice Analysis (3-4 pages): Students will demonstrate an understanding of how oppression, structural violence, human rights violations, and/or historical trauma impact clients; also, students will discuss community organizing/advocacy strategies to bring about broad-based social change.

• Describe the nature of the social injustice within the context of what you consider to be fundamental human rights [Competency IIIa]. Choose among concepts of oppression, structural violence, human rights, and/or historical trauma and explain how it impacts the client population (or a segment of the client population) that your organization serves. Explicitly state the nature of social injustice, informed by theories of human need [Competency IIIb] and how it negatively impacts the clients’ social, emotional, vocational, mental, and/or physical development. Consider the global interconnections of oppression and human rights violations
• Propose social action strategies. Describe one specific strategy that can be implemented to address the problem you describe. Define the strategy (the WHO, WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, WHY, and HOW). Draw from outside literature to support your use of these strategies and you should be explicit about your Theory of Change [Competency IIIc].
• Describe challenges that may be encountered in trying to advocate for social change and how to problem-solve those challenges.
• Describe the process for evaluating the implementation of this strategy.