This assignment will enhance the student’s understanding of the non-profit organizations, particularly where they are completing their field placement. It engages students in data collection that includes the perspectives of agency leaders and staff, a review of agency documents, and integration of relevant professional literature. The student will synthesize this information into an agency analysis paper that will lay the groundwork for a grant proposal.
AGENCY: UCAN CHICAGO
Reading: Breaking Out of the Box: Adventure-Based Field Instruction (Third Edition)
Guidelines for Successfully Completing this Assignment / Grading Criteria:
Prepare a 4 – 5 page paper assessing a human service organization that includes the following:
Mission
What is the agency’s mission statement?
What programs and services are available? Do they align with the mission statement?
Human Resources
Attach the official organizational chart and your analysis of what the organization hierarchy really is – provide narrative to explain any differences.
What are the leadership styles within the organization? How is conflict managed?
How are staff supported, trained, and held accountable?
Programming
What are the funding sources?
How are agency resources (funds, volunteers, advertising) distributed (general fund, specific programs, etc.)?
How are decisions made re: funding and programming?
Agency Culture
Who are the clients?
How do clients access the agency? (Are there barriers to access?)
What is the relationship between the agency and the community that it serves?
What is the relationship between the agency and the community in which it is located?
To what degree does the diversity of the agency reflect its clientele?
Conclusion
Summarize your assessment of the agency’s strengths, weakness, challenges, and opportunities.
Include recommendation(s) for moving the organization forward.
Students should be sure to integrate key theories and perspectives from the readings that help to frame and support your analysis.
Students should appropriately collect and provide application of evidence to answer questions (ie: does not simply follow the “company line” but integrates data from multiple perspectives including but not limited to, at least two respondents and a recent outside publication).
