Stakeholders
Stakeholders are the people involved in a company or agency that are there to make sure the agency succeeds in their goals that have been set. The current stakeholders in the agency I am choosing to evaluate would be all the social workers and administrators. The agency is very large which is why I am choosing just one unit to investigate. The social workers in each unit are broken down to Family Service Specialist one through four and Human Service Assistants like me. There is a supervisor for each unit and an assistant director over them. One director is over everyone in the agency, benefits and services. She is an amazing director and advocates the dangers of being a social worker to the state. Clients could also be considered stakeholders as they receive services and benefits from the agency. Whether it is food stamps, insurance, referrals for clinical services, etc. many of these things could not be obtained without social service’s workers. All these people will play a large part in my evaluation. If the client’s needs are not being met by the social workers that will show in my evaluation. I will not have any bias towards this as I have never worked in this unit before, and their setup is made for longer terms with in-home intervention than in Child Protectives Services investigations unit.
Evaluation
Question 1: How can a worker better work with a client who is apprehensive about services in their home?
Question 2: In what way are services offered to a client when they come in strictly off a referral and not a CPS case?
Question 1: What I am evaluating in this question is regarding the access to training and protection that social workers must use to safely handle situations like these. Many times, social workers feel their life could possibly be in danger just because of the word choice used by clients. This happens regularly and if a worker does not know how to handle these conditions their mind is not on the case at hand. They forget to ask questions about important details and are hastily trying to leave the situation while trying to maintain the child’s safety. If I can see the workers have the training and support needed for their jobs, then I am likely to see clients are receiving their services as expected. Of course, this does not mean clients are cooperating with DSS but there are only so much the workers could do for the clients. If the services are offered to the family and they choose not to comply, that is when the case is taken before a judge. Services could potentially be mandated, with the possibility of jail time and fines if clients are not compliant. Typically, workers try to avoid having to take a case this far but sometimes it is inevitable.
Question 2: The reason I am asking this question in my evaluation is to better understand the process of clients whose referrals do not qualify to become a Child Protective Services case. Many times, this will be because it is child on child crimes, not enough information, or it does not meet criteria for abuse or neglect. When these referrals come in through CPS intake and are labeled by these categories, then another referral is made. This referral is sent to the in-home prevention services unit. I want to know how these situations are typically handled and what it looks like when approaching this family that has not previously worked with Child Protective Services. For the in- home prevention cases services are offered voluntarily. Prevention cases are put in place to prevent the family from progressing to a Child Protective Services Family Assessment or Investigation. This unit oversees offering services and extra support to the families in need. I would like to know what it looks like when the families are in the first stages of the case and how the workers are educated to find the problem, then offer multiple solutions to help solve their problems.
The one group method aligns with my questions because of the pre-test and post-test that’s included in this evaluation. The tests tell me how the workers feel about support, training, and effectiveness of their work. When a person generally has a good feeling about their job, they are likely to thrive in their position. This means that clients are also receiving the benefits of their satisfied worker. It is like when you come to work you are almost excited to be there and do not mind this is where you will spend eight of hours of the day. You can make clear and stable decisions that, based on the training, will in the end help a family maintain a safe/stable environment. The test will show the concerns of the workers and what possibly could be addressed with the supervisor or, if it is something they cannot handle, the administrators. The post-test will show if there has been any change within the unit and how they feel they serve the community. This will tell me if the workers feel they are in a supportive environment. People thrive when they are happy, when miserable or even scared people tend to make hasty decisions that could potentially cause harm to the situations they handle. By doing this evaluation I hope to better advocate for workers which will allow them to better serve the community.
Data collection methods
There must be several different sources for an evaluation to be fully effective. Some of these sources could be anywhere from interviews and questionnaires to direct investigation. For me to receive sensitive information from the organization, I would need them to sign a release of information to keep both myself and the organization safe. For me to conduct a proper evaluation, I would use some sources like surveys and talking with the participants. Doing these things will help me understand how the organization is doing and what they could potentially improve on. Using more than one source will make my evaluation more affective and will help me to try and help the organization understand their strengths and weaknesses. Knowing what your weaknesses are within an organization and working towards fixing them is what makes for a very successful organization. I would like to do more than one evaluation utilizing all the different sources, both individual evaluations and group evaluations, to see the difference in the answers. Information you could receive from this would show how the organization treats their clients and how effective their services are.
Research method
The evaluation type that I feel would be the most suitable for my evaluation would be the one group method. This is great for my agency because it offers a pre-test and a post-test. This will help determine if there are any departments within the agency that are struggling and give me information on how they are within the departments. I feel this type of method is best for my evaluation because it will give the agency an incentive to want to better themselves and achieve success. Giving the agency a pre-test would allow them to understand what exactly I’m evaluating. With the results of the pre-test the agency will see where their strong points are and what points they are struggling with. The focus with my evaluation is the correlation between the workers feeling safe and comfortable in their workplace so that clients can receive the best help. Many do not understand that there is a relationship with these 2 variables. If I feel threatened or in danger in my environment, I am least likely to provide the best care to the clients and am instead focused on getting out. This can make or break a relationship with the client thus increasing their resistance to assistance. If I am comfortable and able to build a relationship it will be easier for me to offer my clients services since I am not too worried about my safety at that time. With a positive relationship between social worker and client, I believe workers will be better motivated to go beyond their job requirements and avoid burn out better than others
Resources
Linfield, K. J., Posavac, E. J., & Posavac, E. J. (2019). Chapter 4. In Program evaluation:
Methods and case studies. essay, Routledge.