Professional Humanitarian Agency - Thesis Proposal Example

The Humanitarian Agency: Professional Proposal Grade (April 27, Professional Humanitarian Agency Proposal 1. Mission, Vision and Value Statement of the Humanitarian Agency Mission Statement To provide opportunities for all Philadelphia poor families to unburden, relieve and cast away their mental, emotional and psychological burdens, through the facilitation of reunification and resettlement of foster care children back to their families. The Humanitarian Agency is guided by the need to give support, strengthen and empower the poor families who might have been denied opportunities to live with their children, due to lack of financial and material capacity to provide a safe home environment for children, without due regard to their background, age, race, sex, religion, culture or sexual orientation. We at Humanitarian Agency value human dignity and acknowledge the right of every human to live a dignified life, without being deterred by social or economic circumstances, that all humans may realize their destiny. Vision Statement The Humanitarian Agency will be the most accommodative, welcoming and friendly human services agency of our time, which will facilitate reunification and resettlement of Philadelphia foster care children back to their families indiscriminately. Value Statement This agency recognizes that achieving dignity for all humans requires embracing diversity; that all children may have an opportunity to live and grow with their families themselves to the fullest, without being hindered by the socioeconomic and material status of their families. The needs of the Philadelphia foster care children and their families with dignity, respect and compassion. 2. Ethical Statement The safety, privacy and dignity of the Philadelphia foster care children and their families stand as the basis of our interaction. Economic inadequacy shall never stand in our way to offering the reunification and resettlement facilitation to the Philadelphia foster care children back to their families, without discrimination on whatever basis. The privacy and confidentiality of all the children and their families shall be observed at all times, while seeking informed consent from them before engagement in facilitating the reunification (NOHS, 2015). Therefore, this agency commits to respecting the rights of the clients to engage and disengage with the agency at any stage, and at will. Human service practitioners should recognize the vulnerability of clients in need for emotional, psychological or mental interventions, and desist from taking advantage of such vulnerabilities (Manning, 2003). Thus, the Humanitarian Agency commits to treat every client with dignity, while desisting from engaging in any act that may cause or increase harm to the clients or exploit their vulnerable situation. Further, the Humanitarian Agency recognizes that human services practitioners should not impose their values, beliefs or social biases on their clients (Hugman, 2012). Thus, this agency commits to respect and honor the points of differences. Driven by the need see all children and their families living a productive life together, the Humanitarian Agency seeks to offer support, strengthen and empower the Philadelphia foster care children and their families to make a positive stride towards living a respectable life, without feeling sorry due to their poverty. 3. How Humanitarian Agency will address the foster care children reunification issue To address the need for reunification and resettlement of the foster care children in Philadelphia back to their families, the Humanitarian Agency will partner and collaboration Philadelphia Department of Human Services (DHS). Different foster care agencies in Philadelphia will refer their cases for children resettlement and reunification needs to The Humanitarian Agency. The Humanitarian Agency will assess the reunification and resettlement needs of the referred cases, based on the referred children and their respective family needs. The agency will then seek for funding from the DHS’s Emergency Placement Prevention and Family Reunification Fund. Through this funding, the Humanitarian Agency will facilitate the DHS’s foster care children reunification with their families through investigating the home conditions of the families to be reunited with their families, and then supporting the acquisition, renting and improvement of the home conditions to the required standards of reunification and settlement. Once the home conditions have been improved to the desired standards, the Humanitarian Agency will reunify and resettle the foster care children back to their families. The agency seeks to increase the number of foster care children reunified and settled into their families each year. 4. Recapitulation of the demographics and the services to be provided to the demographics Racial imbalance in the placement of children in foster care has been a major problem in both in the USA and in Philadelphia. Recent research has indicated that African American children placement in foster care in Philadelphia is disproportionately high. African American children constitute 50.3% of the total children population in Philadelphia, yet 73% of the total children population in the foster care in Philadelphia is constituted of black children (DAlmeida, 2013). The major problem associated with this problem is poverty. The percentage of the population living in poverty in Philadelphia has increased from 23% in 2000 to 27% in 2010 (Ingram, 2014). The African Americans are the worst hit by poverty in Philadelphia, where 31% of the African American population was living in poverty by 2010, compared to 29% in 2000 (Ingram, 2014). Income disparity is high in Philadelphia, with the whites earning much more than the African Americans. The median income of African American families in Philadelphia in 2010 was $26,728, which is almost 25% less of the median household income for whites in Philadelphia, which is ($42,425) (Ingram, 2014). The National Bureau of Statistics has shown that the African Americans families in the USA are disproportionally poor. According to the 1999 statistics, African Americans form 12.9% of the total USA population, but the percentage of the African American families that are poor is 23.6% (McRoy, 2005). 22.9% of the population in Philadelphia lives in poverty, with 18.4% of all families in Philadelphia living under the poverty line, and most concerning, 31.3% of population under the age of 18 years in Philadelphia living in poverty (United States Census Bureau, 2010). Most families in Philadelphia are separated from their children, mostly due to the inability of the families to provide their children with a better home environment that would foster healthy children growth (United States Census Bureau, 2010). Consequently, a total of 81.54 of the African American youths were placed under delinquent placement in 2006, compared to only 8.1% of the whites (Ingram, 2014). Additionally, the population of African American children in foster care in Philadelphia was 86.0% compared to only 8.0% of the white children population in foster care in Philadelphia in 2006 (Ingram, 2014). Thus, The Humanitarian Agency seeks to support the poor families whose children have been placed in foster care in Philadelphia due to lack of suitable and safe home conditions, as a way of facilitating the reunification of the children with their families. Children would have a better chance of realizing their destiny if they are reunited back and grow together with their families. Thus, The Humanitarian Agency seeks to serve this community needs through: i) Offering support and community services to poverty stricken families in Philadelphia to be able to keep their children safely at home. ii) Facilitate the reunification of children and their families through supporting home renting, mortgaging, acquisition repairs or renovations of homes by underprivileged families in Philadelphia, to create a favorable environment for their children to live in. 5. The Humanitarian Agency Funding Proposal The Humanitarian Agency was established in January 2015, as a nonprofit organization seeking to oversee the reunification of children in Philadelphia foster care back to their families. There lacks proportionality between the placement of the African American children and children from other races in foster care, mostly due to the high poverty levels among the African American families. Therefore, the Humanitarian Agency will seek funding from the Emergency Placement Prevention and Family Reunification Fund of the Philadelphia Department of Human services. The total financial requirement for the Humanitarian Agency’s operation throughout the year 2015 has been estimated at $5,220,840. This budget is based on every aspect of the reunification and resettlement of at least one hundred (100) children back to their families in the course of the year. The budget has covered all the expenses of the agency including the salaries for the agency staff, the travel expenses, and the expenditure for home assessment, renting, mortgaging, acquisition repairs or renovations of homes for underprivileged families in Philadelphia, to create a favorable environment for their children to live in. The budget also covers expenses such as clothes and beddings for children to be reunited back to their families. The entire expenditure and budget is formulated as shown below: BUDGET Operational Expenses Rent/long-term lease, Mortgage Arrears, Repairs and Renovations @ $25,000 per family for 100 families $2,500,000 Utility deposits/arrears @ $15000 for 100 families $1,500,000 short term therapeutic supports@ $700 for 100 families $70,000 Clothing expenditures @1000 for 100 families $100,000 Development/Production of Home Assessment Materials $39,000 Beds ($250 Maximum per bed) for 100 families $25,000 Emergency Expenses $45,000 Personnel Expenses Salaries for 20 Full time Employees @ $23, 140 per years $462,800 10 Part-time Employees @ $23, 140 per years $230,140 Project Director Annual salary $127,000 Annual Travel Expenses $68,500 Rent & Other occupancy costs Annual Rent $24,600 Supplies $13,000 Telephone $6,900 Utilities $7,200 Other Expenses $12,500 Total Budget $5,220,840 6. Community Partnership The Humanitarian Agency recognizes that the success of reunification and resettlement of foster care children back to their families require strong local area partnership and collaboration. Thus, to facilitate the effective identification of needs, improvement of home conditions for safe children keeping and reintegration of the foster care children back to their families, The Humanitarian Agency will partner with: Department of Human Services-Source of funding Foster Care Homes in Philadelphia-Source of foster care children referrals Faith-based organizations-Family and children needs identification agents Community-based organizations-Family and children needs identification agents Local government Child Welfare authorities-Legal authorizer of agency operations 7. Working with a Board of Directors The Humanitarian Agency will have a total of nine (9) members of the Board of Directors. The members of the Board of Directors are selected based on both knowledge of operations in the foster care children reunification and resettlement, as well as demonstrated interest in facilitating and being part of process of reunifying the children back to their families. Thus, the Board of Directors of the Humanitarian Agency will be constituted by: 2 Executive Directors: CEO of Humanitarian Agency The CEO of the of Humanitarian Agency is an important member of the Board of Directors, because the CEO is responsible for overseeing the whole operations of the agency, thus is suitably placed to report on every aspect of the agency operations to the Board of Directors. Project Director of Humanitarian Agency The Project Director of the Humanitarian Agency is an important member of the Board of Directors of the agency, since the project director is the person directly tasked with implementing the reunification and resettlement of the foster care children back to their families. Therefore, the project director is fully knowledgeable and responsible for reporting back to the board on all the requirements, challenges and improvement needs of the project. 1 Representative from the Philadelphia Department of Human Services The representative from the Philadelphia DHS is required in the Humanitarian Agency Board of Directors, since the DHS is the funding agency, and thus the representative from the agency can represent the financial interests and requirements of the agency to the DHS better, while working as an insider within the agency. 2 Representatives from Foster Care Homes in Philadelphia The representatives from the foster care homes in Philadelphia are necessary in the Humanitarian Agency Board of Directors, because they will be representing the needs of the foster care children within the foster homes that require to be resettled back to their families. 1 Representative from Faith-based organizations The representative from the faith-based organizations will be required an important addition to Board of Directors of the Agency, since such a representative can offer spiritual guidance on the needs of both the children and the families involved in the process of reunification and resettlement of the foster care children. 1 representative from Community-based organizations The representative from the community-based organization will be necessary in the Board of Directors of the agency, since such a representative understands well the needs of both the children and the poor families in the Philadelphia area, and thus will be helpful in the process of needs assessment. 1 Representative from Local government Child Welfare authorities The representative from the local government department of Child Welfare will be important as a member of the Board of directors of the Agency, to give the legal and regulatory requirements, framework and guidelines associated with the reunification and resettlement of the foster care children back to their families. 1 Counseling/Psychiatry Professional The counseling/psychiatry professional will be a useful addition to the Board of Directors of the Humanitarian Agency, to help define the counseling needs and offer psychological counseling to both the foster care children and the families being reunified with their children. 8. Staffing plan The Humanitarian Agency will comprise of a total of thirty-two (32) employees, performing different duties and responsibilities of the agency, to facilitate the unification and resettlement of foster care children in Philadelphia back to their homes. Staff Plan Staff Job Description Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Overseeing the entire operations of the agency -liaising with the relevant government authorities for requisite authorization of th agency operations -Liaising and negotiating with the funding agency for funding of the agency operations. -Liaising with the foster care home for referral of children to be resettled back to their families. -Representing different interest of the agency in different forums. Project Director Liasing with the foster care homes to identifying the children to be resettled Overseeing the assessment and all acquisition and improvement of the homes for the poor families to be reunified with their children. Overseeing the actual reunification of the foster care children with their families 4 Supervisors Overseeing the process of home visits and assessment Supervising the process of home assessment and needs identification Overseeing the identification of the suitable home for renting, mortgaging or acquisition for the poor families to be resettled with their children. Overseeing the preparation and presentation a needs assessment report to the Project Director 15 Home and Family Needs Assessors Assessing the home conditions of the poor families to be reunified with their families Determining the renting, mortgage, home acquisition, repairs and renovations needed to achieve the required conditions of homes for foster care children resettlement. Identifying the homes for renting, mortgaging or acquisition for the poor families to be reunited with their children Reporting all the needs of the families to the project director 3 Children Needs Assessors Liaising with the foster care homes to identify the needs of the foster care children to be resettled back to their families Determining all the children needs Reporting all the children needs to the Project Director 4 Drivers To transport the Agency staff through to different areas of foster children resettlement tasks. 2 Office Administrator Taking care of all the office work of the agency Procurement of all the office materials required by the agency staff 2 Accountants Financial recording keeping for the agency Planning and processing all the financial requirements for foster care children resettlement Processing all staff salaries Processing and preparing the annual financial reports of the agency 9. Agency Benchmarks The agency seeks to increase the number of foster care children reunified and settled into their families each year. Therefore, the target goal for the Humanitarian Agency to have at least one hundred (100) foster care children within Philadelphia foster homes reunited with their children every year. Therefore, the impact of the agency will be determined by the number of foster care children that the agency has facilitated in resettling each year. 10. Legal and Regulatory Issues The Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) is a law that can affect the effectiveness of the Humanitarian Agency foster care children resettlement back to their families. This is because; the ASFA provides that if a child has remained in foster care custody within 15 months of the last 22 months, the Depart of Human services must file to terminate parental right, to allow the child to be adopted (ASFA, 1997). This provision means that it can make it difficult to reunite foster care children with their parents, once they have been in the foster homes for over 15 months, and the parental rights of their parents over the children have already been terminated. The Foster Care and Adoption Licensing Requirements regulation can also affect the effectiveness of the Humanitarian Agency success in its objective of resettling and reunifying the foster care children back to their families. This regulation requires that a comprehensive family profile check is undertaken before children are resettled with families in Philadelphia, including criminal background and child abuses checks and clearances for the family members living in the home (AdoptUsKids.org, 2015). The regulation also requires checking safety conditions of the home, including physical and other health risks such as tuberculosis. A child abuse clearance is also required from any State that the family has resided in the last five years according to this regulation (AdoptUsKids.org, 2015). All these requirements can delay the process of getting clearances to resettle the foster care children back to their homes, and thus make it difficult for the Humanitarian Agency to achieve its target of resettling at least 100 children back to their families every year. References Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) [1997] Public Law 105-89. AdoptUsKids.org. (2015). Pennsylvania Foster Care and Adoption Guidelines. Retrieved from http://www.adoptuskids.org/for-families/state-adoption-and-foster-care-information/pennsylvania#requirements DAlmeida, K. (December 06, 2013). When Families Fear “Human Services”. Inter Press Service. Available at: http://www.globalissues.org/news/2013/12/06/17920 Hugman, R. (2012). Culture, Values and Ethics in Social Work: Embracing Diversity. Routledge. Ingram, C. D. (2014). The State of Black Philadelphia Report. Urban League of Philadelphia. Manning, S. S. (2003). Ethical leadership in human services: A multi-dimensional approach. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. McRoy, R. (2005). Expedited Permanency: Implications for African-American Children and Families. Virginia Journal of Social Policy and the Law 475, 477-481. National Organization for Human Services (NOHS) (2015). Ethical Standards for Human Service Professionals. Available at: http://www.nationalhumanservices.org/ethical-standards-for-hs-professionals Shireman, J. F. (2003). Critical issues in child welfare. New York: Columbia University Press. United States Census Bureau. (2010). Profile of General Population and Housing Characteristics: 2010 Demographic Profile Data - Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania. Retrieved from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/42/42101.html Read More