SOLUTION: A community outreach to provide clothing, food and Christmas gifts to children

A community outreach to provide clothing, food and Christmas gifts to children in need

Amanda Bohannon

MAT-144

July 28, 2021

Children in Drug and Alcohol Addicted Families Need Assistance with Basic Needs, Christmas Gifts

In this section, you must address the following questions:

What characterizes the group? What is their economic status? What mix of ages and genders are they? Etc.

Children ages birth to 5 with drug and alcohol addicted family members. My goal is specifically to help children, but there will also be a need for young adults, teens and adolescents. These families tend to have a focus with their money on feeding their addictions, which neglects the money needed for basic needs of their family and children.

Where do the people live? At a specific location or in various locations? In what part(s) of town? Poverty stricken, lower income. Van Buren, AR and Fort Smith, AR. In Fort Smith, we have what is referred to as North side and South Side of town. The North Side is lower income, which houses more drug addicted people and families while the South side tends to have more financially stable families with less drug and alcohol related problems

How will you decide what kind of assistance and how much assistance to provide to whom? For example, does the assistance provided change based on age, gender, family grouping, etc.? Families will provide proof of income, residency and age, and number of family members in their household. Families that fall under the local government guidelines for poverty will be served as well as families that have extenuating circumstances which be handled on a case-by-case basis. Adults will be required to show photo ID as well.

How will you approach people to offer help? I will reach out through churches, drug and alcohol programs and shelters. This is where most of the clientele will be, but also, will be visiting homeless areas of town to offer help.

How will you keep track of whom you are helping? We will keep track via an Excel spreadsheet, as well as google Docs as a back-up. Paper copies can also be kept in office.

Providing food, clothing and other basic needs, as well as Christmas gifts

In this section, you must address the following questions:

What specific assistance will you bring to the people who need it (goods, services, training, cash assistance, etc.)? (Here, a response like “cash payments of $50 per person per week” is better than “cash payments”) Food, clothing, gift cards to certain places based on the need whether it be gas, clothing or food in the amount of $50 per adult and $25 per child. Counseling will be provided for children, as well as assisting getting those children into preschools and daycares so that there is some safety and well being provided while their parents or other family members get back on their feet.

How and where will you provide the assistance? Will you maintain a location for people to come to? Will you visit people where they are? Will you provide transportation if needed (or if that’s part of your service)? Etc. At first, I imagine I will be meeting one-on-one with these families at local libraries, churches or other public places. Once I have this off the ground, a room or building rented out for the families to come to. We are blessed to have free public transportation in my area, so that will likely be the form of transportation used.

What kinds of skills are needed to provide this assistance? What special training or certification (if any) is required? I feel a kind, compassionate heart is all you need to help others, however, social worker degrees, CPR training, and training provided by the Department of Human services and Food programs of the state will be required.

How will this assistance help people in the short run? That is, how might people be better off immediately because of the assistance you provide? In the short run, the assistance will help provide basic day-to-day needs. Providing food and clothing will help those needs. The program will provide assistance on a month-to-month basis with a maximum of 1 year.

How will this assistance help people in the long run? That is, how might the assistance you provide have lasting effects, even if it is time-limited? In the long run, counseling, job assistance and preschool or daycare will help families get back on their feet. The program will provide assistance on a month-to-month basis with a maximum of 1 year. If assistance is still required after a year, we will evaluate each situation and see what we can do to help them get rid of addictions.

How will you track and document the process by which you are providing assistance? We will keep track via an Excel spreadsheet, as well as google Docs as a back-up. Paper copies can also be kept in office.

Project Management

In this section, you must address the following questions:

Where will central operations for your project be? Will you rent a location, look for a donated location, or work in a distributed way (say from people’s houses)? At first, I imagine I will be meeting one-on-one with these families at local libraries, churches or other public places. Once I have this off the ground, a room or building rented out for the families to come to. We will also be remote, so that if a family is unable to come to us, we will go to them.

What documentation will you need to generate and maintain for the project, and how will you ensure the security and confidentiality of that documentation? ? We will keep track via an Excel spreadsheet, as well as google Docs as a back-up. Paper copies can also be kept in office.

Everything will be locked up in file cabinets, as well as password protected for staff-use only. Each family will be met with in a private setting, whether that be their home, a closed room at the library or in an office.

How will you coordinate volunteer efforts, and what will volunteers do? How will you screen volunteers? How many volunteers do you expect to have? Volunteer events such as food drives will be coordinated via several social media outlets, as well as word of mouth. Volunteers can be anyone: clients, teachers at the schools or daycares, or just anyone off the street. The only screening I will do is if they are reliable enough to show up. Everyone deserves a 2nd chance and volunteering is great way to get that.

First Half of the Project

In this section, you must address the following questions:

What are the starting and ending dates of your project? (These should be 5 years in the future and run for the 12 weeks of your project.) October 5, 2026-January 1st 2027

How many weeks will you need to start up your project before beginning to provide your project assistance? What will you need to accomplish during these weeks? How would you prove to an outside person (e.g., an auditor) that everything is in place to proceed with your program? I will need approximately 3 weeks to start up my project before beginning to provide assistance. In order to accomplish this goal, I will need to have numbers of cases in my area, specific areas of the city that need help. In order to provide proof, I will have all my documentation in order in Excel or PowerPoint format.

In the remaining weeks of the first half of your project, how many people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Provide evidence that the volunteers and time available are sufficient to achieve this goal. I will need at least 10 volunteers. I expect to assist about 50 families the first half of my project. If I have 10 volunteers, I can assign Food and Clothing to 5 volunteers, and gift wish lists to the other 5. We will need to work a minimum of 8 hours a day to achieve this goal.

Second Half of the Project

In this section, you must address the following questions:

How many weeks of operations will you have before starting to wrap up your project? During this time, how many additional people do you expect to be able to assist, and in what ways? Again, provide evidence that you have enough people power to achieve your objective here. I will have about 6 weeks of operations under my belt by the beginning of the 2nd half. I expect to assist another 50 families within the closing 6 weeks with food, clothing, counseling, childcare and gifts for Christmas. At this point, I expect to have 10-20 more volunteers. The total amount of families to reach will be 100.

In the remaining weeks, what steps will you take to wrap up your project? What records will you retain, and how will you archive those? What steps are required to finalize any location-related expenses? To wrap up my project, I will provide a place for families to come “shop” for their children up to age 5 and by situation, older than 5.

In order to finalize any location-related expenses, I will make sure rent is paid up, areas are clean and keys are turned back in. Also any portions of electricity, internet, water and supplies will paid in full.

How will you conclude relationships with people you are assisting? What additional sources of support can you direct them to after your project is complete? Concluding relationships will ensure that they have a foundation to stand on, as well as referred to other long term programs that provide the same or similar types of assistance. I can direct them to The Salvation Army, Goodwill and local groups.

Project Evaluation

In this section, you must address the following questions:

If you had to determine immediately after the end of your project whether your assistance had helped, how would you do that? What kind of metric or metrics could you use to determine whether a particular individual had been helped? What questions would you need to ask to determine this? I would provide surveys at the end of each closing meeting with families, as well as volunteer and visit Salvation Army, Goodwill and local groups. I would keep in touch with said families to see if there is anything else I can do to help.

Example Questions:

How has our program helped you?

What did you find to be the most beneficial?

What can we do to better assist others that are in the same situation?

If this were a more permanent program, would you utilize all our program has to offer and why?

Similarly, how could you determine, 3 months after the end of your project, whether your project assistance was still having an effect? How would you get back in touch with people you had helped? What characteristics of their condition could you measure to determine whether any positive impact from your assistance still remained? I would volunteer and visit Salvation Army, Goodwill and local groups. I would keep in touch with said families to see if there is anything else I can do to help.

What else might you need to know before your project starts in order to evaluate success after the project ends? Are there specific needs that need to be met? What things besides food, clothing and gifts would benefit your family?

Ethics and Christian Worldview Analysis

In this section, you must address the following questions:

How does your project demonstrate the Judeo-Islamic-Christian ideal of loving your neighbor as yourself? What other religious and/or ethical principles does your project strive to exemplify or realize? Helping each other out and providing for others is extremely important. If we do not have each other, our world will fall apart. My project strives to help those that are simply going through a rough patch or have struggled with providing for their family and children because of addiction. By providing basic needs to children of addiction-ridden parents, we are breaking the cycle for them, showing them that no matter what, they can be successful in life.

How are the people you propose to help different from you, and how might you structure your project to help bridge differences and lead to increased mutual understanding and respect? The people I am assisting are different than me, simply because they are addicted to drugs or alcohol and feel they have no other outlet of “escaping” the struggles of life. I have been in situations where I’ve felt like I am at rock bottom with no where to go. I have also volunteered for a 35-year program similar to this for the past 15 years. This has opened my eyes to the needs of others.

How does your project further the goal of affording human value and dignity to all people? My project shows others that not everyone has given up on them and that someone believes in them.

Summary and Reflections

In this section, you must address the following questions:

Whom did you contact to learn about needs in your local community? What input did they provide to direct your investigation? I contacted the program I volunteer for, as well as a company I used to work for. Both provided basic needs of families that need assistance, as well as the basic things I would need to start such a project. Since I live in an area that has a great need for things my project provides, I was also able to see first hand the needs in my community.

What other local needs did you consider? What was compelling to you about the one you chose? Counseling, food pantries, clothing pantries, low income or free childcare and preschools.

For the assistance you plan to provide, what other avenues are there for people to receive that assistance? How likely is it that it will be available to them? People can contact their child’s school or even doctor’s office to get assistance. It is less likely for doctor’s offices to be able to provide the help, but they can help provide information to my project and many others.

What other factors (legal, political, social, etc.) that were not considered as a part of this presentation might you need to investigate if you were actually to implement a project such as this one? I did not consider political factors, as I do not feel like this should intertwine. However, I can see where in some areas, this may be a factor. I would need to investigate each party to see who may endorse my project and provide a bigger platform to get these things met.

References

(Malinda McSpadden, Western Arkansas Child Development, personal communication, August 13, 2021)

(Tammie Ray, Pediatrics Plus, personal communication, July 26, 2021)

(Jimmie Conduff, Lifesource International, personal communication, August 3, 2021)

The post A community outreach to provide clothing, food and Christmas gifts to children appeared first on PapersSpot.