Report on Understanding Social Needs in Practice: Organizations

This report provides an in-depth analysis of social needs in practice, focusing on the contributions of the Australian Red Cross and Homelessness Australia. It begins with an introduction to social needs and their impact on human behavior, followed by detailed descriptions of both organizations, including their missions, structures, and services. The main body of the report examines the programs offered by each organization, such as the Youth Housing and Reintegration Services and the Everybody’s Home Campaign, and analyzes their approaches to client health and well-being. A SWOT analysis is also included to assess the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats faced by both organizations, offering predictions for their future development. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and emphasizing the importance of these organizations in addressing homelessness and supporting vulnerable populations in Australia. This assignment is available on Desklib, a platform providing study tools and resources.

Understanding social
needs in practice

Contents
INTRODUCTION.....................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY.............................................................................................................................................3
Description of organizations and their functioning..................................................................................3
Analysis of their programs and approach to client health and wellbeing.................................................4
Analysis and Predictions for the future....................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION..........................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES..........................................................................................................................................7
Appendix....................................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Social needs can be referred to the needs to share relationships and are important for the
psychological development. Understanding the social needs can help in understanding what
drives the human behavior. When the social needs of a person are not met, they begin to develop
negative feelings (Hjorth and Hinton, 2019). There are many organizations in Australia that
deliver services to the homelessness support sector. The two organizations chosen for this report
are Homelessness Australia and Australian Red Cross. Both the organizations provide help to
people who suffer from homelessness. The report includes a description of both organizations as
well as their functioning. It also includes an analysis of the programs offered by them as well as
their approach to client health and wellbeing.
MAIN BODY
Description of organizations and their functioning
Australian Red Cross
The Australian Red Cross is a community services charity and humanitarian aid
organization that is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. The organization was founded by
Lady Helen Munro Ferguson in the year 1914. The primary purpose of the Australian Red Cross
is to help people and prevent human suffering as well as homelessness. The legal structure of the
organization comprises of a council and a board (Hoefer, 2019). The Australian Red Cross offers
a wide range of services as well as programs that include providing support to homes people,
migration support, emergency management and so on. The organization provides homestay in
order to support people to manage their current accommodation (Homelessness services, 2020).
It also supports people who are at risk of losing their private rental housing. The company also
offers opportunities to people to work as volunteers and support the homeless people. The
organization has presence across various social media platform including, Facebook, Instagram
and Twitter. On its Facebook page, it has a community of about 249,070 people (Australian Red
Cross, 2020).
Homelessness Australia

The organization operates on a voluntary basis and does not have any employed staff. HA
or Homelessness Australia is the highest body for homelessness in the nation and provides
systemic advocacy for this sector. It works with a large network of organizations to provide
services to homeless people. It plays an important role in helping the Australian Government on
behalf of the homelessness organizations. The main purpose of the respective organization is to
develop and promote national policy in order to reduce the people who are homeless. The
mission of Homelessness Australia is to reduce the impact of homelessness on the people living
in the country and operate effectively. The organization has a community of nearly 11,000
followers on Twitter (Homelessness Aus, 2020).
Analysis of their programs and approach to client health and wellbeing
An analysis of the different types of programs as well as their approach to client health
and well-being is explained below-
Australian Red Cross
The Australian Red Cross not only helps homeless people to find housing but also
prevents them from becoming homeless. The different homelessness programs that are offered
by the respective organization include Youth Housing and Reintegration Services (YHARS),
Assistance with Care for the Aged (ACHA). The YHARS helps young homeless people as well
as people who are at risk of becoming homeless. Under this, financial help, support as well as
access to different accommodation options is provided to them (Youth Housing and
Reintegration Services, 2020). It can help people in applying for and making accommodation
accessible to people and also, offer them support. Under this program, young people between the
age groups 15-21 years of age. On the other hand, Assistance with Care for the Aged (ACHA)
program coordinates with different types of community care services in order to help older
people who are homeless. Older people who have low incomes or are already homeless (Kim,
Kim and Kim, 2017). For example, under the Youth Housing and Reintegration Services, if
young people feel that they need support, they can apply for the same. Also, there are no charges
for the services that the Australian Red Cross offers. As per the Annual Report 2018-19 of the
Australian Red Cross, the organization had set various goals that it achieved by supporting
people (Australian Red Cross annual report 2018–19, 2020).
Homelessness Australia

Similar to Australian Red Cross, Homelessness Australia also offers different programs
to help the different homeless people. This includes Everybody’s Home Campaign, wherein
people who suffer from homelessness are provided accommodation services. With the number of
people being homeless in Australia increasing has led an increase in the need of accommodation
services. Besides this, Housing First Australia is another campaign for supporting people and
providing them long term support regarding the same. During the 8th National Homelessness
Conference in 2014, a lot of different organizations participated and explored the different
emerging trends (2014-15 Annual Report, 2015).
Both the organizations work mainly for the welfare of the people who are either homeless
or are at the risk of becoming homeless. The organizations do not contest with each other and
both of them server at a macro level. This is because the services are offered to the people who
are homeless and do not have any independence of their own. Also, homeless people face
problem with finances and both these organizations provide services to them. There are various
programs that are offered by both these organizations (Lamers, Duske and van Bets, 2018). With
the help of these programs, these organizations have been able to reduce the number of people
who are homeless in the nation. Besides providing accommodation services, the organizations
also provide support related to education and first aid skills. The services are offered at a macro
level across the whole nation in order to make sure that the people of all income levels have a
home to live and their basic finances are covered. Therefore, these are some of the programs that
are offered by both of these organizations for homeless people.
Analysis and Predictions for the future
Both Australian Red Cross as well as Homelessness Australia work towards making the
society a better place by helping homeless people find an accommodation. A SWOT analysis is a
strategic framework that can be used in order to identify strengths, weaknesses, opportunities as
well as threats that can influence an organization (McGregor, Mercer and Harris, 2018). A well-
developed SWOT analysis, that explains the strengths as well as risks for the two organizations
is explained below.
Strengths – One of the major strengths of both, The Australian Red Cross as well as
Homelessness Australia is that they are working towards helping the people who are either
homeless or are at risk of becoming homeless. Not only this, they also offer financial and

educational support to them. Various programs as well as campaigns are run that charge nothing
from the people and offer them support. Their primary focus is on the community and also, they
have a big network with other organizations that offer similar services.
Weaknesses – Besides having many strengths, one of the weaknesses of Homelessness
Australia is that it the number of practical sessions held by it are less as compared to that of
Australian Reed Cross. Also, the policies that are framed by them are not very clear.
Opportunities – There is an opportunity for both the organizations to widespread the
participation from people within the society (Sousa and et. al., 2020). This can be done by
attracting volunteers for different programs or campaigns that are held by them. Homelessness
Australia can also focus towards developing programs that are more centered not only towards
the homeless people, but older people as well.
Threats – Lack of resources as well as having an ineffective system for communication
can pose to be the major threats or risks for both the companies. Competition is another threat
that the companies can face.
It can be said that the social needs of people have evolved over the years and they mainly
look for sharing relationships with other people. Both the organizations that have been discussed,
deliver services that are mainly focused on serving these needs. They provide accommodation to
people of any age group who are homeless (Thompson, 2020). The Australian Red Cross is
positioned as being an independent organization that has no political, cultural or religious
affiliation. On the other hand, Homelessness Australia is positioned as a voluntary organization
that provides affordable housing to homeless people as well as the people who are at risk of
becoming homeless. Although, the organization should focus on providing permanent housing
solutions to people who are in need of the same.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it can be concluded that homelessness is a serious condition
prevailing in Australia. There are many non-profit as well as voluntary organizations that work
towards reducing the level of homelessness in the country. They help homeless people or the
ones that are at risk of becoming homeless. They also help them with finances and provide them

education. Various programs are also conducted by them that are mainly focused on helping the
people in need of accommodation.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Hjorth, L., & Hinton, S. (2019). Understanding social media. SAGE Publications Limited.
Hoefer, R. (2019). Advocacy practice for social justice. Oxford University Press.
Kim, J., Kim, Y., & Kim, D. (2017). Improving well-being through hedonic, eudaimonic, and
social needs fulfillment in sport media consumption. Sport Management Review. 20(3).
309-321.
Lamers, M., Duske, P., & van Bets, L. (2018). Understanding user needs: A practice-based
approach to exploring the role of weather and sea ice services in European Arctic
expedition cruising. Polar Geography. 41(4). 262-278.
McGregor, J., Mercer, S. W., & Harris, F. M. (2018). Health benefits of primary care social work
for adults with complex health and social needs: a systematic review. Health & Social
Care in the Community. 26(1). 1-13.
Sousa, C. A. and et. al., (2020). Understanding the curricular needs and practice contexts of
macro social work: A community-based process. Journal of Social Work Education.
56(3). 533-547.
Thompson, N. (2020). Understanding social work: Preparing for practice. Red Globe Press.
Online
2014-15 Annual Report. 2015. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.homelessnessaustralia.org.au/sites/homelessnessaus/files/2017-07/
AR_2014-15_booklet.pdf >.
Australian Red Cross annual report 2018–19. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.redcross.org.au/annual-reports/annual-report-2018-19>.
Australian Red Cross. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.facebook.com/AustralianRedCross/>.
Homelessness Aus. 2020. [Online]. Available through:< https://twitter.com/homelessnessaus?
lang=en>.
Homelessness services. 2020. [Online]. Available through:< https://www.redcross.org.au/get-
help/community-services/homelessness-services>.
Youth Housing and Reintegration Services. 2020. [Online]. Available through:<
https://www.qld.gov.au/youth/family-social-support/housing-accommodation/yhars-
youth-housing >.

Appendix
SWOT Analysis
Strengths
 Work towards helping homeless people
 Offer financial and educational support
to them
 Run various programs as well as
campaigns
 Have a big network with other similar
organizations
Weaknesses
 Number of practical sessions are less
 Policies framed by them are not very
clear
Opportunities
 Widespread the participation by
attracting volunteers
 Focus towards developing programs
centered towards the older people
Threats
 Lack of resources and an effective
communication system
 Competition