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Reflection Paper
Part 1: Insights from experience and learning
I had been part of a group which uses to organize charity events for the unprivileged people of our community. At the start, our group comprised of people who were some high school students or some college entrants. At this very stage, we used to collect small donations, buy things of daily usage and use to donate them to unprivileged people by arranging a small event. Such people use to come in larger numbers and every time we tried to compensate each family. This helped in building a sense of gratitude among us and after some passage of time our charity activities started expanding.
There was no dearth of funds to us since we used to remain in regular contact with our donors and at times we arrange dinner or lunch for all of them. That’s how we expanded our network and kept in helping the unprivileged classes of our society. With time our group mates became busy with their personal and official routines and it became difficult for us to continue with such efforts, but on other hands, we were receiving the funds from our donors as they had built their trust upon us. In order to keep this charity system running, we decided to outsource this cycle to Action on Poverty, which is a human service organization (HSO), running mainly on their own sources and is working for the betterment of the poor classes.
Last year, it was my turn to visit the office. I left for University early in the morning and managed to get to their office around one in the noon. I saw people coming there and getting customized kind of help they required. For a little while, I was not able to understand how exactly this HSO work. Prior to reaching there, I thought they might have a system of inviting people and distributing what they had in their possession like we as a group use to do. However, after spending some time, I recognize that this HSO provides every type of facility which a family might require in meeting both ends meet. We have never been aware of the difficulties what a family might face other than the financial difficulties. For example, I saw people seeking legal help from the lawyers there, I saw people seeking medical help and I experienced people feeling a self of satisfaction while being a part of this HSO. In short, my experience of collaborating with Action on Poverty- Australia had to remain impactful and positive.
Part 2: Learning for Indigenous community contexts
As mentioned before, I had the experience of working as a group member for the betterment of some indigenous communities, living close to us. What I have experienced is that we never were able to understand what specifically these people require. This is the reason why my experience at the office of Action on Poverty was different and a kind of surprising too. There are many different kinds of problems what an indigenous community faces. For example, we cannot provide some food to a mentally abnormal person and claim that we have helped him in the true sense. As Baskin suggests that a tailored approach for individuals in indigenous communities is workable ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"7g1pRtNV","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Baskin 2016)","plainCitation":"(Baskin 2016)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":886,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/Q63NTXH2"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/Q63NTXH2"],"itemData":{"id":886,"type":"book","title":"Strong helpers' teachings: The value of Indigenous knowledges in the helping professions","publisher":"Canadian Scholars’ Press","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Strong helpers' teachings","author":[{"family":"Baskin","given":"Cyndy"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2016"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Baskin 2016). In working efficiently for the indigenous communities, one might need to understand what exactly the issues are to be addressed.
HSO is the best resources to help indigenous communities. They have a specific way of helping the needy among them. Since many HSO provides tailored support to the indigenous people, therefore people tend to go towards them. Bunker and Wijnberg mention that since many HSO has a network of donors and they work as according to how their research results suggest, therefore these HSOs might be consulted when it comes to helping the indigenous communities ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"d4dreXmg","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Bunker and Wijnberg 1988)","plainCitation":"(Bunker and Wijnberg 1988)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":888,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/EHLC7987"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/EHLC7987"],"itemData":{"id":888,"type":"book","title":"Supervision and performance: Managing professional work in human service organizations.","publisher":"Jossey-Bass","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Supervision and performance","author":[{"family":"Bunker","given":"Douglas R."},{"family":"Wijnberg","given":"Marion H."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["1988"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Bunker and Wijnberg 1988). Also in the context of helping the indigenous communities, one might need to understand that it all requires ample resources to cater to their requirements. I observed that it normally becomes difficult for some people to work on much larger scale. Some readings also suggest that getting to the needy among some indigenous community might not be possible without strong goodwill ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"QxH2pNfZ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Noe et al. 2017)","plainCitation":"(Noe et al. 2017)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":890,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/RHQCK3WT"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/RHQCK3WT"],"itemData":{"id":890,"type":"book","title":"Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage","publisher":"McGraw-Hill Education New York, NY","source":"Google Scholar","title-short":"Human resource management","author":[{"family":"Noe","given":"Raymond A."},{"family":"Hollenbeck","given":"John R."},{"family":"Gerhart","given":"Barry"},{"family":"Wright","given":"Patrick M."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2017"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Noe et al. 2017).
I have learned that getting close to the indigenous communities might be a competitive, as at present there are many HSOs that are specifically working on providing helps to these communities. In getting sorted the issues of the indigenous communities, at present HSOs use different sources first to get close to them, then to have a thorough understanding of what their problems are and finally addressing their concerns. Parallel to all this process, these HSOs maintain databases that in future help them in sorting their problems. In each case, the HSOs might not get an oily branch. They had to face many challenges such as the remoteness of the area, addressing their concerns with regard to their cultural values and considering their religious norms and traditions. This is why the indigenous community remains a complex sort of case study to work on.
Part 3: Learning for a regional, rural, remote or metropolitan context
For working in such areas, one might have to keep in mind that rural or metropolitan settings might be much more difficult compared to working for the indigenous communities. Since I have mentioned before that indigenous communities have a peculiar kind of culture and they tend to absorb things that somehow relate to their culture, but in the cases of cities and rural settings, it is difficult. Especially in a rural setting, there is some rigid kind of norms which keeps the people away from getting any help from some unknown source. Normally I have observed by reading some policy analysis papers of Action on Poverty that such working areas are difficult when it comes to getting the attention of the poor masses.
Gibelman suggests that if the task in hand is to engage some people from the regional settings, the HSOs might also have to employ state resources for getting the task in hand completed ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"xz31IxSa","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Gibelman and Furman 2008)","plainCitation":"(Gibelman and Furman 2008)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":891,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TDLAJ6H9"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/TDLAJ6H9"],"itemData":{"id":891,"type":"book","title":"Navigating human service organizations","publisher":"Lyceum Books","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Gibelman","given":"Margaret"},{"family":"Furman","given":"Rich"}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2008"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Gibelman and Furman 2008). The reason why this task is difficult to complete is because there is dynamism. I take this dynamism as the confluence of many different kinds of people in one place. I have also noticed that in such settings there are many different facets of a single problem. This view has also been shared by Mary, which opines that dealing the same problem while not being able to identify it, some time is the real challenge in hand ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"MesX3ZuC","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(Mary 2005)","plainCitation":"(Mary 2005)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":893,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/XJBJQ2N4"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/s8f0QVnP/items/XJBJQ2N4"],"itemData":{"id":893,"type":"article-journal","title":"Transformational leadership in human service organizations","container-title":"Administration in social work","page":"105–118","volume":"29","issue":"2","source":"Google Scholar","author":[{"family":"Mary","given":"Nancy L."}],"issued":{"date-parts":[["2005"]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (Mary 2005).
For working with increased efficiency and skills in such an environment, I have noticed that the HSOs employees trained staff. They recruit them, train them specific to their tasks and then make them leave the office to get the desired results. In doing so, their staff reaches an accurate person among many it needs. The final thing which got my attention in such settings was the instability factor. The instability, in this case, is kind of political, religious or sort of that. If there is not a kind of permanent environment, the tasks in the hands of the HSOs workers will become difficult and complex. There are many studies which suggest that countries which have employed some non- governmental organizations to meet the requirements of the people have faced such challenges like instability and volatility. I opine that in such cases the instability persists because of the involvement of state actors which are its primary initiators.
References:
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Baskin, Cyndy. 2016. Strong Helpers’ Teachings: The Value of Indigenous Knowledges in the Helping Professions. Canadian Scholars’ Press.
Bunker, Douglas R., and Marion H. Wijnberg. 1988. Supervision and Performance: Managing Professional Work in Human Service Organizations. Jossey-Bass.
Gibelman, Margaret, and Rich Furman. 2008. Navigating Human Service Organizations. Lyceum Books.
Mary, Nancy L. 2005. “Transformational Leadership in Human Service Organizations.” Administration in social work 29(2): 105–118.
Noe, Raymond A., John R. Hollenbeck, Barry Gerhart, and Patrick M. Wright. 2017. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. McGraw-Hill Education New York, NY.
