Needs Assessment Report: Child Welfare League of America Program

This report presents a needs assessment of the Child Welfare League of America program, examining its mission, scope of problems, and resource limitations. It identifies the program's objective to address issues impacting children, youth, and families, such as homelessness, sickness, and abuse. The report details the need for expertise and scrutiny of the program, highlighting the importance of stakeholder analysis, including experts like pediatricians and counselors. It also explores potential resources for meeting perceived needs, emphasizing technology, social media, and transparency. The report further addresses interpersonal, political, and ethical considerations when managing stakeholders with conflicting priorities, emphasizing building trust, understanding power dynamics, and establishing ethical codes of conduct. The report concludes by underscoring the importance of ethical approaches in reconciling priorities and ensuring the program's effectiveness and sustainability in serving vulnerable populations.

Running head: NEEDS ASSESSMENT REPORT 1
Needs Assessment Report
Name
Institution Name

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Needs Assessment Report
Introduction: Identification of Service Program
The Child welfare league of America is a program that was created by the public as well
as private agencies and has worked to serve children as well as families that are vulnerable. The
expertise of the people involved in the program, the policies created as well as practices of the
welfare help in the improvement of lives for millions of children across the United States
(CWLA.org, 2018). The mission of the program is to lead and engage its network of private and
public agencies as well as partners in advancing certain policies, collaborative strategies and best
practices which lead to better outcomes for the children of America, youths and even families at
large that are vulnerable. The vulnerability could be in the form of violence done to them,
injustices or unfairness in treatment. Since such problems exist in the community, it was
necessary for the establishment of this program, to help the affect individuals.
The objective of the program is to identify issues in the community that impact children,
youth and their families negatively, and create solutions to address these problems. The task
carried out by this program is not an easy one, and therefore it is essential that the people that are
involved in the job are experts in the field. For instance, some notable individuals that are
involved in the program include pediatricians, child councilors, drug councilors as well as
doctors. Due to the demand of such highly skilled personnel, it is essential that the people that
provide services in this program are scrutinized and the program evaluated in general before
action is taken in terms of implementation of its projects. In addition, due to the limited resources
that are at the disposal of the team, there is need to scrutinize the program to ensure that there is
no wastage of resources while maximizing the provision of services with the available means and
expertise.

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Scope of Problem
Having volunteered to work for the organization a year ago, some of the tasks that were
of the most significance were in the field of ensuring better living conditions for children,
protecting the youth together with their families, ensuring healthy growth and development for
children, As a result, there was always the need for expertise in the delivery of service as well as
the use of resources that are not a budget-friendly. Since the program was created by the public
and private entities, the provision of support is meant to come from these organization to fund
the project. In some situations, resources were not enough to meet the needs, and this was a great
concern since it was established that under some mysterious circumstances, resources would not
be enough even when accounted for. Clearly. There was a problem in credibility of some people
that were engaged in the program and thus the need for scrutiny.
Some of the perceived problems that are currently experienced by the organization in the
delivery of service include limited resources, limited expertise and volunteers, and integrity
concerns of some individuals. The perceived problems are of particular interest as they help
establish the notion that people in the program and how it affects the people involved to find the
solution to the problems and ensure things run efficiently. The actual gap in service, however, is
the problems that children in the society are facing today as well as youth and their families.
Issues such as homelessness, sicknesses, abuse and detachment from school are some of the
problems that children, the youth and families face in the community which has a dramatic
impact on their lives. The Child welfare league of America is committed to ensuring the
protection of these individuals and that they get the resources that they require to thrive. The
needs of these affected individuals have not been changing a lot since more people are affected

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by different issues every day and require help from the group of experts and volunteers working
for the program.
Possible Resources for Meeting Perceived Need
The provision of resources is essential for meeting the needs required by the programs to
ensure that it meets its objectives. On looking at the issues that are affecting the vulnerable
children in the society today such as homelessness, inability to attend school and abuse from
family members or people in the community, it can be realized the impact that the program
makes in ensuring that children are not exploited but get to attend school and do other activities
that they are supposed to be doing as effectively as possible. The first perceived problem that the
program experiences is that the resources that they use are quite limited. The limitation creates
scarcity which makes the delivery of service inadequate. To ensure resources that would
facilitate their activities, the agencies that own the programs should ensure that they provide
more resources such as financial input, the use of technology and encouraging other
organizations to join in the endeavor of protecting the American Child. If more agencies could
join, more resources would be available for carrying out the task.
To ensure that the perceived need for limited expertise and volunteers is addressed, the
programs must use resources such as technology to mobilize more people to join the organization
for the better improvement of service delivery. One specific resource that it could salvage is
through the power of social media. Today, these platforms have a great deal of following, and if
the information is shared through this platform, more people could enroll and vetted to ensure the
selection of the right individuals for the task. Finally, for the issue of integrity, the best way to
deal with the vice is adopting tools and strategies such as the use of technology in enabling
transparency in what the members would be doing. These resources are essential in the meeting

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of the perceived need. The sources of obtaining information for such implementation include
engaging with stakeholders as well as decision-makers to create viable solutions.
Stakeholder to be involved in Assessment and Evaluation
Stakeholder analysis entails the identification of individuals as well as entities that
possess some form of interests or stake in the outcome of a project (Alexander, Miesing &
Parsons, 2016). The need Assessment of stakeholders is primarily done in the earliest parts of the
project to establish the people or entities that will have a stake in the outcome of the project to be
conducted. Based on the information of this report, which entails reaching out and helping the
American children, youth, and their families, some of the stakeholders that should be involved
include experts such as pediatricians, caregivers such as nurses, psychologists, and councilors.
Other minor stakeholders that could be involved in the process include parents and teachers
where applicable.
Involving these stakeholders in the assessment as subsequent evaluation is essential in
ensuring that the human need service is scrutinized as efficiently as possible before the
undertaking of a task (Alexander, Miesing & Parsons, 2016). Given the scarcity of resources
such as financial constraints, including stakeholders would be a great way of ensuring that the
right expertise is used for the task as well as to ensure that the task is not only carried out for the
purpose of completion, but it has also been handled in the right manner and utilized resources as
effectively as possible.
Interpersonal, Political and Ethical Considerations during Conflicting Priorities.
Having stakeholders with conflicting priorities could prove to be a hard task for the
consulting entity. It is not in all situation that the stakeholders might agree on everything. In

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some instances, there are those that would have conflicting opinions while other would merely
have conflicting priorities for the activities of the program. For this reason, it is essential to
analyze the political, interpersonal as well as ethical considerations in the process of interacting
with decision makers and stakeholders. Some interpersonal considerations that could be taken
into account for stakeholders and decision-makers with conflicting priorities include: building
trust, overcoming any resistances to changes and resolving any type of conflict before it spirals
into a significant problem (Semeniuk, 2010). Doing this would go a long way in managing
people with conflicting priorities and reconciling them with the endeavors of the program.
Political considerations are essential as stakeholders and decision makers have powers
that could either bring down the program or uphold it. There are different considerations to be
taken into account in analyzing the political/power of these individuals. They entail
understanding stakeholder’s potential roles in the organization, their leadership and influence
capabilities as well as their ability to establish purpose and procedure (Mayers, 2005). In any
organization, program or entity, there are different levels of power that various individuals hold.
These powers dictate the amount of influence that these individuals have. Failure to take
consideration of this factor could be detrimental because certain leaders yield so much power
such that if a person contradicts with them, they are considered harmful to the decision process
of the organization. For that reason, it is essential to understand the leaders and the position they
bare to ensure a good approach to the matter. For reconciling the priorities, it is essential to note
the role that different people play in the program and thus establishing a clear way of
approaching them and discussing matters in a tolerant manner.
The final item to take into account is the ethical consideration of stakeholders with
conflicting priorities. These include: establishing standards and codes of conduct which guide the

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ethics of the programs (Schweriner, 2007). Ethical approach is quite essential for any entity,
organization or program. Involving an ethical approach in the order of business brings back
sanity to the activities undertaken by a group. It ensure that people undertake sustainable projects
and behave in a manner that respects the business as well as ensure the provision of services is
done to the required standards. Having a clear ethical goal is an excellent way of ensuring the
reconciliation of these priorities. For instance, when there are conflicting priorities about a given
matter and various options or alternatives exists, the appropriate consideration is to establish
which alternative has the most benefit to the society and environment around the operations of
business. For this reason, ethical consideration are quite important in this regard.

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References
Alexander,, C. S., Miesing, P., & Parsons, A. L. (2016). How Important are Stakeholder
Relationships?. King’s College, 1-6. Retrieved from
https://www.albany.edu/~pm157/research/stakeholders.pdf
CWLA.org. (2018). About the Child Welfare League of America. Retrieved September 24, 2018,
from CWLA: https://www.cwla.org/about-us/
Mayers, J. (2005, March). Stakeholder Power Analysis. International Institute for Environment
and Development, 1-24. Retrieved September 24, 2018, from http://www.policy-
powertools.org/Tools/Understanding/docs/stakeholder_power_tool_english.pdf
Schweriner, J. (2007). Ethics Considerations for the Project Manager in Professional Services.
Retrieved September 24, 2018, from Project Management Institute:
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/ethics-considerations-manager-professional-
services-7398
Semeniuk, M. (2010). Techniques for Managing Conflicting Expectations. Retrieved September
24, 2018, from Project Management Institute:
https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/managing-conflicting-expectations-6893