Responsibilities of a Community Services Team Leader
- Background/Overview
As a community services team leader or manager, you will be required to develop a good understanding of the needs of the clients you work with and the community in which they live.
Your role will often be responsible for analysing those needs, and then developing programs designed to meet those needs. Through engaging and consulting with all stakeholders, you will be able to analyse the social and cultural factors that impact on clients and ensure that service delivery and programs take these into account.
Analysing needs enables you to make justifiable decisions about the prioritisation and delivery of services. Once a program is implemented and developed, it is essential to monitor and evaluate it by determining the outcomes and success of meeting the need.
- Brief
The tasks in this assessment include:
- Analysing statistical information to inform program development
- Identifying the factors, effects, consequences and experiences of different client groups
- Developing a stakeholder engagement plan to analyse service needs
- Investigating the needs and issues of individuals
- Developing a program plan to address the identified need
- Identifying implementing, monitoring and evaluating strategies
- Evaluating program objectives and program satisfaction
1.Write your name and student ID at the top of this page.
2.Read the Background/ Overview and Brief sections of this document.
3.For each question, read the scenario before attempting to answer the question(s) relating to it.
4.Complete each question by answering in the spaces provided.
5.Make sure you follow the instructions regarding the required number of words (where indicated)
6.Save the Word document using the naming convention: your student number_assessment number.doc. For example: “12345678_31135_01.doc.”
7.Upload your document in Open Space using the relevant Assessment Upload link in this Module.
- Questions/Task
1.Visit the website for the Australian Bureau of Statistics and browse their statistics tab. Carefully select 1 of the sub-categories within the health, people or labour statistics. Take the time to review the various categories and choose a group of statistics that interest you. From these you will be required to determine a need and use it as the basis of your program planning.
Reference the selected group of statistics and provide an overview of the key findings of the statistics (100 words).
Example: The diverse cultures in a particular local government area where English is a second language signify a need to develop culturally appropriate services for those communities.
The sub-categories selected within the labor, people or health statistics is homelessness of Australian citizens. According to the fourth General Social Survey that was conducted in 2014 that included Australians aged years and above. It also facilitates monitirong and reporting regarding opportunity of the people to take part in the society. Several factors that influence the social inclusion of the individual have been taken into consideration in the GSS survey.
Analyzing Needs to Develop Programs
According to GSS survey, homelessness had a major impact on families, individuals and communities. People experiencing homelessness are facing or have faced fewer opportunities to communicate with other groups, individuals and participate in community services like education and employment. The state of homelessness especially aged people above 65 years requires the need to develop appropriate community services for the aged persons.
In circumstances of homelessness, 68 percent of people had resided with relative, 52 percent with a friend whereas 13 percent had to sleep in any abandoned buildings and 7.7 percent had to seek refuge. The most common reason resultimg in experiencing homelessness include friend, relationship problems, tight housing, financial problems or rental markets.
2.When planning and providing community programs, consideration must be given to the broad social and cultural context in which our work is planned and practiced in industry. By better understanding client groups and the issues that impact on their lives service provision can be adapted to meet their individual needs.
Complete the table by identifying the factors, effects, consequences and experiences different client groups may present with. You are required to put at least one point in each of the rows and columns. An example has been provided.
Client social and cultural considerations for service planning
Client Contributing factors
(role of social institutions in policy decisions)
Impacts and effects
(health and well-being)
Consequences of conditions
(what issues are being faced now)
Experiences of inequality
(personal role and role in society)
Homeless person Shortage of available housing; the most common reasons for which people faced homelessness has been stated to be relationship problems,lack of affection towards home, friends, etc
Lack of employment opportunities caused most of the people spend their nights on the streets, sleepless and starving;They were deprived of any form of assistance;
Unable to afford food due to unemployment and inability to purchase food; the tight financial problem, rental markets or housing are also certain factors that led to the state of homelessness;
Unable to gain and maintain employment; The unemployment phase disabled the homeless persons to keep up with teh tight finanacial market and obtain shelter for themselves;
Person with disability Lack of medical and health care; Failure to obtain appointments with respect to healthcare services due to their high costs which makes it yet more difficult for the disabled persons to access medical services;
Lack of accessibility to employment services or schools; Due to their disability, they are often denied admissions in employment sectors and schools or universities; Unable to afford the expenses asscociated with healthcare services, which deprives them from being subjected to treatment. Consequently, they are unable to take part in sports, recreational activities;
Using Australian Bureau of Statistics to Determine a Need
Unable to participate in social or community activities;
Experience discrimination and fee they are not trustworthy; they lack confidence and reduce their meetings with friends or families living outside their house;
Long-term unemployed Lack of employment for more than 52 weeks and includes mature aged, disabled persons, indigenous persons.
Majority of the unemployed persons are less educated and are likely to receive less jobs as compared to those who have not completed to 12 standard. Some locations provide higher rate of long-term unemployment as compared to other locations. Consequently, the health, social and infrastructure disadvantages that requires appropriate measures;
Long-term unemployment is associated with poor mental and physical health, poverty and social islolation; the workers remaining outside workforce often find is inconvenience to obtain jobs and exhibit skills, thus, losing currency;
Mental health consumer The mental health issues and needs undergoes changes at various stages of our lives. The contributing factors include personal attitudes, eating healty foods, financial welfare, physical, intellectual and emotional wellness and health;
The non-fulfilment of physical requirements of mayaffect the health of the consumers; lack of connection or affection with the family and friends may have adverse ipact onthe mental health of the consumers.
Such non-fulfilment of physical needs and lack of connection with family and friends often leads to excessive anxiety or worrying, memory problems and isolation; lack of engagement with friends, family or community;
The aged consumers,in particular, experience bullying either by their own family members or other seniors living in retirement houses; Their lack of confidence and ability to defend themselves often result in isolation, mental anxiety, etc.
Elderly person Their attitudes may influence the lives of the elder persons and affect their physical as well as the mental health of such elder persons; The elderly persons form one of the significant part of the population.
Lack of employment scopes owing to their old age and loss of energy and capability to deal with modern technology and procedures. This may affect their confidence There inability to deal with moden technology is often te result of their unwillingness or reluctancy to learn and adapt to new methods;
Their incapability or unwillingness to learn about teh new technology often results in bullying by others who are fluent with teh new methods and often by their family members.
Carers The carers play an important role in taking care care o people with disability within Ausralia; their engagement with disabled persons enables them to have access to various services and systems,that they otherwise could not have access to, especially, their ability to exercise legal capacity;
Program Planning for Homelessness, Disability, Long-term Unemployed, Mental Health, Elderly, and Carers
The carers of the disbled persons face certain challenges such as access to services and suppots, obstacles to take part in education, training and other activities. The most significant hindrance that arises from caring a disabled person is the emotional as well as social difficulties;
Although at Commonwealth level ther are legal frameworks like Carer Recogition Act 2010 (Cth) and the National Carer Strategy but due to challenges faced to have access to such adequate information and relevant services and systems, the careres have to undergo several challenges.
Since the carers are responsible for taking care of the disabled persons, they face several challenges and are often bullied to or are prevented to take part in activities that otherwise they could have participatd in, if they did not have to take care of the disabled person;
3.When determining the types of programs that will support the community an analysis of need is an essential first step.
Complete the table to develop a Stakeholder Engagement Plan that provides a framework for engaging stakeholders in participating in services and having input into their service needs. You are required to put at least one point in each of the rows and columns.
Effective Research and examination of the client are essential to dvelop strategies for engagement; successful strategies for engagement include delivery structure and worker capacity and techniques of each clients as well;
The distribution of pamphlets, brochures regarding the various community programs and services is one mode of communicationg to the clients; Personally contacting or regular contact with them through telephone is another communication mode;
The various collaboration methods include conduting home visits, follow up phone calls tp address any issues and conducting meetings with other c ommunity organisations that have successfully implemented the community services;
Client participation enhances when all the stakeholders working with clients are effectively communicating with each other to ensure seamless service; clients mjust be ensured taht their participation in community services is valued;
Miscommunication, lack of trust and lack of clarification about their roles while participating in community servces and that of the staffs working with them in accomplishing the community services; Effective communication with the clients and clarification of the respective roles while carrying out the community services and ensuring responsiveness to the questions and needs of teh client, thus, reinstating trust amongst them ;
Effective communication can be perceived as one of teh most essential feature in facilitating collaboration with various responsbiolities and roles to take part in community services; The human resources includes staffs that have previous experience in such service;
Factors Affecting Service Planning
Financial services include inlcentives for food, social outings, vouchers, etc
Physical resources include utilising existing relationships to develop ‘warm introductions’, flexible working hours etc Spending adequate time to understand the client and his perspective
Encouraging the clients to participate in te community services providing adequate time to understand the services;
It includes professionals who represent service systems and services to build personal relationships with community groups and members on the basis of respect and trust;
It includes regular meeting with professionals and effective communication who represent the service system to comprehend the perspective of community members which is achieved thorugh regular meetings;
The collaboration methods include establishing relationship, building of trusts, work with the informal and formal leadership and look for commitment from the community organisation; In order to provide opportunities for integrated participation, it is necessary to associate with teh community for developing change and improve health; identify and respect the divdersity of teh community and be aware of teh several community cultures;
Lack of clarity with respect to the goal and purpose of the engagement; lack of understanding or insufficient knowledge could amount to significant hindrance to participation; To overcome the barriers, it is important to mobilise and identify teh assets and strengths of the community by developing the capacity and resources of the community for undertaking actions and while making decisions. An enduring commitment on part of the organisation and the partners are considered essential to develop and retain partnerships; It is equally important to ensure the goals and purpose of the company are clear and specific;
The human resources required is the participation of groups, professionals to carry out community engagement initiatives; ‘financial resources includes adequate funds for the organisation communities to carry out community services; Physical resource include meetings, designing, planning new community initiatives; It is important to provide teh community groups and organisations to understand and gain knwldge about the culture, social and economi conditions, political and power before engaging it in several programs;
Other Services and Networks
Other group and networks include advisory groups, government, residents, etc who plays a significant role by participating in the community services Advisory groups, government may use local print, radio, television, internet, radio and other internet or media sources as an effective communication mode;
The varuous collaboration methods include ensuring all people to take part in the community services and use both electronic and non-electronic media for ensuring participation in community services; The opportunities to ensure participation include engagement activities promoted through local and community radio networks; the accessibility of the venues wherein the community services were held;
Client Social and Cultural Considerations
Lack of accessibility to the venue of the engagement activities and lack of sufficient and proper information and data gathered through the engagement activities within teh community; To ensure that the other networks have access to media and non-media; to make sure that the information or data collected is authentic and appropriate for enabling participation in community services; The accurate recording of priorities, views, aspirations, visions ; teh fulfilment of the legislative Council’s requirements are essential to successfully implement the various community services; Financial resources include adequate funding for carrying out the community services;
Human capital resources include participation of the stakeholders in the community services or activities;
The stakeholders must take part in every stages of the community development and give them adequate time to understand the nature of the community services
The strategies include employee performance, continuous improvement, accomplishment, and persisting improvement all over the year Colleagues bonding and support acts as essential strategies for participation in community services;
Causal conversation, communication through occasional non-work are some of the most common methods used to communicate amoung teh colleagues about the significance of community participation;
The collaboratipn methods include socil gatherings, social media, free time, after work group meetings are some of teh ways which might enable colleagues to communicate with each other; An active participation of all the co-workers in the community related activities is an effective way to take part in the community services and other community related programs; If the colleague engagement is not based on employee –welfare approach it may result in non-participation; lack of effective communication and clarity about the goals and measurements also results in non-participation; In order to overcome such hindrances, it is important to ensure that there is an effective communication method and clarity about te roles and purpose of such participation;
The goals of the business must be aligned with the objectives and goals of the workers of the organisation to ensure that they participate within the community organosation; Financial resources include effective reward and incentives for actions worth of recognition;
Human resources include feedback from co-workers about their participation in the community services;
Physical resources include physical awards for accomplishing company goals and successfully participating in community services;
Exhibiting genuine interests in the co-workers and spensing time in comprehending their needs and desires to succeed or any issues that is required to be resolved
4.For each of the 4 stakeholders create:
- 2 questions each for clients and the community to clarify their health and well-being
- 2 questions each for other services and networks and work colleagues to identify clients’ diverse and multi-faceted needs and issues.
Contributing Factors, Impacts and Effects, Consequences of Conditions, Experiences of Inequality
Stakeholder
- Do they have access to proper health and medicare services?
- Is the community services adequate to ensure well-being of the clients ?
- Does the participation ensure good health of community groups and organisations ?
2.Does the community activities ensure wellbeing of teh community?
1.Are the above services and networks competent to fulfil the diverse needs of the clients?
2.Are the above services and networks competent to resolve the diverse issues of the clients
Work Colleagues 1.Are the colleagues competent to ensure that the diverse needs of the client are fulfilled?
2.Are the colleagues capable of resolving the issues of the clients?
1.Analyse the statistics of your selected Australia Bureau of Statistics (ABS) health, people or labour subtopic. Using this information determine an individual, group or community need.
Provide a justification (based on your statistical analysis) of why you have determined this need (100 words).
As per the GSS survey, approximately 1.4 million of the homeless persons have experienced homelessness out of which 351,000 had experienced homelessness in the past 12 months. The most common reasons for homelessness is relationship problems and lack of affection towards their family. This implies that the development program is not effective enough to ensure arrangement for the homeless persons.
Hence, there is a need to formulate a development program that makes it certain that the health and well being of the homeless persons are not prejudiced. The development program shall also strive to resolve the underlying issues associated with their housing or financial problems.
2.Plan the development of a program to address the need. Give the program a name, describe the program, and develop three (3) program objectives. Complete the whole table on the next page to develop a project plan.
- Mental health promotion
- Playgroup for young parents
- Recreational activities for people with disability
- Weekly luncheons for homeless people
- Recognising the role of carers
- Lobbying for a skate park
- Job seeking skills for long term unemployed
Program name: Weekly luncheons for homeless people
Program description: To ensure homeless people do not starve
It aims at providing opportunities for people to develop a sense of community and belonging;Volunteering activities are designed to meet the needs of the clients; Financial resources include funds to arrange accomodation or resolve financing issues;
The NPAH (National Partnership Agreement on Homelessness funds 180 services for the homeless persons; By making an application suggesting reforms The government is responsible for the development of the policies
The primary tasks is to assess the main reasons for the inclining rate of homelessness and resolve the same The Housing Assistance Act 1996 (Cth) aimining at providing assistance to homeless persons
The program shall arrange for safe and suitable accommodation for the clients; Physical resources include services and information enabling them with stable accomodation; This orgnaisation have supported 80,000 vunerable Australians Thorugh local prints and media demonstrate the uncertainty of homeless persons; the community groups are also responsible for developing the policies as they deal with the homeless persons themselves The Community groups should ensure that the homeless persons are extended support with respect to their housing arrangements and thye receive finanacial and any other necessary assistance Supported Accommodation Assistance Act 1994 (Cth) providing services to people who are homeless.
Complete the Table by Identifying Factors, Effects, Consequences, and Experiences for Different Client Groups
The Bill was introduced for addressing challenges and the reasons associated with Homeless persons that has been significant in increasing the rate of homelessness.
It ensures that homeless people are associated with other Mission services
The programs also enable to resolve the issues taht contribure to their housing problems;
Human resources include mentors and Personal helpers who support people who are homeless in Queensland The agreement ensures that certainty while territory and state governments persist to work together regarding long-term homelessness reformsBy establishing that any delay in services rendered may result in inconveniences of te homeless persons;
They must ensure good health and well-being of the homeless personsThe homeless persons should be provided with adequate food, and housing arrangements; The NPAH (National Partnership Agreement The aim of the Australian government is to reduce overall homelessness by 2020 and offer supported accommodation to rough sleepers who are in need by 2020;
3.Based on the program plan you have developed in question 6 above, give consideration as to how it will be implemented, monitored and evaluated. Complete the table by providing two strategies to assist with each of the following:
- support requirements
- objective monitoring
- risk and sustainability monitoring
- resource monitoring
- feedback monitoring
- evaluation measures
How are you going to communicate program information and determine training needs for program implementation
How are you going to check the program is achieving objectives?
How are you going to identify and address issues and maintain service delivery?
How are you going to check the use of financial, human and physical resources against what was planned?
How are you going to seek feedback from all stakeholders?
How are you going to determine and measure the success of the program?
By evaluating whether such objective to ensure accommodation for homeless persons is achieved The risk of suffering from ill-health; The data base of teh funding information should be observed; Feedback from persons who were accommodated C onsidering the past data of accommodation arrangement made for homeless
By conducting surveyThe risk of unhygienic living conditions and deprivation of basic needs of survivalThe effeicency of human and physical resources should be monitoredFeedback from persons who were not accomodated Feedback from persons who were accommodated
4.Programs may need to be modified because of social and cultural factors impacting on clients, continuous improvement, changing policy and budgetary framework, a change in legislation, change in government, loss of project funding, poor participation etc. Identify a potential contingency and describe how you would modify your project as a result of the contingency .
Potential contingency: Reforms to be made regarding uncertainty about arrangements made for homeless persons Modifications to program:
The program provides for mentor program and other volunteer services including weekly luncheon for the homeless persons. The development program ensures that the homeless persons are assisted with tenancy problems or to resolve issues associated with the financial and housing problems. Thus, it is important that the development program undergoes refoms to meet the needs of homelessness sectors and affordable housing.
5.Develop an evaluation survey (containing at least 5 questions) that could be completed by clients to assist you in evaluating the success of the program objectives
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