Featured Post
Analysis of a Copper Sulfate Sample Essay
The reason for this investigation is to locate the experimental equation of a hydrous copper sulfate test and the measure of water in the ex...
Monday, December 30, 2019
The Foster Care System And Impacting Legislation Like The...
Most people are familiar with the foster care system and impacting legislation like the Social Security Act. This policy was created and reformed in part by the United States Childrenââ¬â¢s Bureau. The Childrenââ¬â¢s Bureau is a United States government agency created to serve the needs of families, women and children who are underprivileged. The United States Childrenââ¬â¢s Bureau was signed into law by President William Taft on April 9, 1912. The agency was built on traditional values. Men were to bring home the money to provide for their families, while the women would focus on being the caretaker for the children and family. This proved to be an obstacle sometimes because people who were not in line with the Bureauââ¬â¢s ââ¬Ëtraditional valuesââ¬â¢ wereâ⬠¦show more contentâ⬠¦They also drafted other forms of legislation to induce change which will be discussed later. Since the formation of the Childrenââ¬â¢s Bureau, there has been much improvement in the social issues they have addressed. Julia Lathrop is a well-known contributor to the creation of the childrenââ¬â¢s bureau. Her journey with social justice started with the Hull House. Paul Theerman (2010) stated that Lathropââ¬â¢s journey began in 1890 with Jane Addams. The two worked together to improve the conditions that the underprivileged had to live in (para.2). After Lathrop worked with Hull House, she was elected to the Illinois State Board of Charities in 1892 (Theerman). Jane Addams states in her bibliography that during Juliaââ¬â¢s time serving on the board, she reviewed one-hundred-two state institutions that housed elderly, disabled, and mentally ill patients. She would evaluate them and their ability to operate effectively, and focused on implementing change on the institutions that needed it (1935 p. xiii). The Childrenââ¬â¢s Bureau has worked hard over the years to instill change in the way people can receive assistance and which individuals qualify to receive assistance. It has also impacted various legislations that have been put into place. Some of the better known pieces of legislation that the Childrenââ¬â¢s
Sunday, December 22, 2019
Jacob Lawrence s Influence On African American History
Society seems to change and advance so rapidly throughout the years but there has always seemed to be a history, present, and future when it comes to the struggles of the African Americans. The hatred of a skin tone has caused people to act in violent and horrifying ways including police brutality, riots, mass incarcerations, and many more. There are three movements the renaissance, civil rights, and the black lives matter movements that we have focused on. Our artist come from different eras but have at least one similarity which is the attention on black art. Jacob Lawrence he might be one of the most influential African American artist. Jacob Lawrence focused on illustrating African American history through his colorful narrative paintings, therefore making him an artist and also a storyteller. Affected by the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, he was introduced to art. His art is a day by day explanation of the struggles African Americans had to live through and what they had to endure every day for years. He knew that this would continue throughout history; The violence, the hate and the way people treated African Americans. Although it is more discreet than before, when he first became an artist, he wanted to unveil the truth, through his own form of ââ¬Å"dynamic cubismâ⬠, intensified color schemes, and tempera paintings. Jacob painted what he witnessed, what he even went through personally, and turned it into a story. He made 319 artworks in his lifetime, theShow MoreRelatedComparing Zora Neale Hurston And Jacob Lawre nce1809 Words à |à 8 PagesA Comparison of Zora Neale Hurston and Jacob Lawrence The Harlem Renaissance was a period most notably known for music and art regarding racial divides. Stemming from this broad observation, though, is a series of ideas, motifs, and influences that would construct the central theme of the era, making the period iconic for the development of African American culture. As this time was one of communication and collaboration, these themes readily overlapped between works. Zora Neale Hurston, in herRead MoreHarlem Renaissance Essay1069 Words à |à 5 PagesHARLEM RENAISSANCE Throughout the history of African Americans, there have been important historical figures as well as times. Revered and inspirational leaders and eras like, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, Nat Turner and the slave revolt, or Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party. One such period that will always remain a significant part of black art and culture is the Harlem Renaissance. It changed the meaning of art and poetry, as it was known then. Furthermore, theRead More The Harlem Renaissance Essay1031 Words à |à 5 PagesHARLEM RENAISSANCE Throughout the history of African Americans, there have been important historical figures as well as times. Revered and inspirational leaders and eras like, Martin Luther King and the Civil Rights Movement, Nat Turner and the slave revolt, or Huey Newton and the Black Panther Party. One such period that will always remain a significant part of black art and culture is the Harlem Renaissance. It changed the meaning of art and poetry, as it was known then. Furthermore, theRead MoreHistory Of Harlem s The Slums Of New York 1436 Words à |à 6 Pagesleadership the next. Therefore, I could consider how a different selection of picturesmight have dramatically altered the narrative presented. And every audience can perceive differently with different knowledge and an event. Knowledge also influences our perceptions, communication, and decision making. I didnââ¬â¢t have any clue about Harlem life. When I think about Harlem, I can think immediately guns, fighting , murder, and all kinds of crimes. But when I saw pictures, I could see happinessRead MoreThe Harlem Renaissance and Its Effect on African American Literature3258 Words à |à 14 PagesThe Harlem Renaissance and its Effect on African American Literature Thesis: The literary movement during the Harlem Renaissance was a raging fire that brought about new life for the African American writer; its flame still burns today through the writings of contemporary African American writers. I. The Harlem Renaissance- Its Beginning and Development II. The Major Writers A. Claude McKay B. Jean Toomer C. Countee Cullen D. Langston Hughes E. Zora Neale Hurston IIIRead MoreBibliographic Essay on African American History6221 Words à |à 25 PagesBibliographic Essay on African American History Introduction In the essay ââ¬Å"On the Evolution of Scholarship in Afro- American Historyâ⬠the eminent historian John Hope Franklin declared ââ¬Å"Every generation has the opportunity to write its own history, and indeed it is obliged to do so.â⬠1 The social and political revolutions of 1960s have made fulfilling such a responsibility less daunting than ever. Invaluable references, including Darlene Clark Hine, ed. Black Women inRead MoreDifferences Between Hip Hop And Pop Hop3082 Words à |à 13 Pagesprimarily from urban African American communities (Blake 1993). In 1999, it was dubbed ââ¬Å"the most important musical genre in Americaâ⬠by the New York Times (Strauss 1999: 28), and has debatably been one of the foremost youth cultures in the United States since the early 1990s. Despite the multi-ethnic nature of the founding community of hip hop, young African American working-class, urban males emerged as the artââ¬â¢s central representatives. However, the centrality of African Americans in articulationsRead MoreSocial Housing s Design Approach And Its Associated Urban Planning2536 Words à |à 11 Pagesplanning, as well as the increasing preference of suburban lifestyle from the rising mid class. These problems reflected evidently in some stereotypes of social housing communities built in the modern era such as Pruitt-Igoe, sunny side Gardens, Paul Lawrence Dumbar and Ville Contemporaine. The reason behind evolution of social housing typology became the impetus in its innovation as the initial attempts of government involvement (regulations) failed to resolve problems. Due to cheaperRead MoreAn Analysis Of Helen Keller And Woodrow Wilson4117 Words à |à 17 PagesWilliam Kotlinski APUSH Mr. Jacobs Lies My Teachers Told Me Summaries and Reflection Chapter One Throughout history, people have been made into heroes. These heroes are portrayed as perfect or without mistakes. Helen Keller and Woodrow Wilson are two of the heroes who are discussed in the chapter. Helen Keller is famous for being the deaf-blind girl who learned how to read, write, and speak; but not much is known by the public about her political views. LoewenRead MoreLangston Hughes Research Paper25309 Words à |à 102 Pagesto avoid segregation and racial injustice in the United States. As the manager of an electric company and owner of a ranch and mines, Jim expressed contempt for black Americans who continued to submit to segregation and live in poverty. Langston Hughes, 1933 (Library of Congress) Langston was not ashamed of being a black American. He had already written poems celebrating his heritage. He felt connected to the oppressed brown people of the world and hated his father for mistreating his Mexican
Saturday, December 14, 2019
Strategic Management Project Coffee Corner Plc Free Essays
Introduction: Strategic Management is related to the planning of business and its decision making on improvement of overall performance of the organization. It deals with the improvement and restructuring its business process of organizations operating structure. ââ¬ËThe systematic analysis of the factors associated with customers and competitors (the external environment) and the organization itself (the internal environment) to provide the basis for maintaining optimum management practices. We will write a custom essay sample on Strategic Management Project: Coffee Corner Plc or any similar topic only for you Order Now The objective of strategic management is to achieve better alignment of corporate policies and strategic prioritiesââ¬â¢.(business Directory, 2011) This research project seeks to investigate the Strategic performance management of Coffee Corner Plc. Specially on its operations of its store. Coffee Corner plc has been introduced to some remote places in United Kingdom by a couple in the year 2005. It has currently 3 operating branches around Scotland. The aimed customers are the people living around the surrounding area to come and socialise. As these places have many houses but not much community gathering place. It is a vastly growing cafe, but due to some strategic operations problem it is lacking its smoothness of running and effecting profitability. To ensure a good practice and resolve the un-dealt problems, the company needs to look into some ignored fields of itââ¬â¢s operations strategy and also needs to come up with some sorts of innovations to overcome the situation. The situations that has occurred on these branches, which is making the owners change their mind to expand the business any further and might result to shut down some of the stores if its not resolved consequently. Objectives: To identify core strategies such as; supply chain management, process layout of the stores operations management by using the process analysis models. To recommend the solutions for the above mentioned problems. To ensure maximum profitability and customer satisfaction by providing best available service. To see the overall service assortment and to recommend accordingly the solutions. And also to do the cost analysis to see how cost can be reduced for more profitability. The Current Operations Strategy of Coffee Corner: The current operations strategy has been developed during its early years, when they had only 1 shop to deal with, but over the ears the business has expanded, but the operations strategy and the suppliers has remained the same. The Operations strategy is shown below on a tabular format: Figure: Coffee Corner plc Operations System to be reviewed At the moment Coffee Corner plc is dealing with inventory management by ordering the stock from 3 different suppliers: 1. Sandwiches, paniniââ¬â¢s and cakes 2. Milk and beverages Cleaning products and snacks and takeaway cups and lids. The orders need to be made to these 3 different suppliers in two different ways, by telephone and by internet. The customer service is provided by all the workers to the customers by making the coffee and heating up or toasting the sandwiches and paniniââ¬â¢s and moreover to clean the tables as soon as a customer left the table and also to clean everything end of the day. The manager is responsible for the end of the day cash up and also the inventory. In some of the branches, the capacity is becoming an issue as Coffee Corner has monopoly market on the places it opened its branch in; the locals are spending most of their time of the day in there doing socialising. Projects Operations Strategy Analysis (Explanatory Research): Cause- and- Effect Diagram: This is an important aspect of a process analysis that relates the key performance problem to its potential causes. In Coffee Corner Plc there is a lot of time complains about delaying their service and mainly the service is not smooth. The reason for such a problem has bin identified by using the ââ¬Ëfish-bone diagramââ¬â¢ the factors that lead to the identified problem. The step which needs to be followed to get a perfect cause-and-effect diagram, are: 1.Identify the problem: In this situation, the identified main problem is that the service is not running smooth as it should be for any service based business. 2. Work out the major problem involved: The major problem is that the whole process layout is in a chaotic situation, that leads the staff to reduce their efficiency and also the problem to provide their full attention when the customers order. 3. Identify possible causes; The possible causes are the complex layout of the service unit which is not aligned properly with the needed materials; also the problem lays training by the manager and the supervisor which provides inefficient training of the person to be around the till. The other problem is that the built in Speakers are near the till where the staff needs to hear what the customer wants clearly, but they can hear more music, instead of the customers, resulting to present wrong product. Such as instead of Bar of chocolate they sometimes provide hot chocolate, that causes wastage as well. So it is causing problem for their attention. And if the music is put down, the customers all the time asks the staff to put the volume up as they love the buzz in the quiet place where they are from for a change. The coffee machine sometimes breaks down because of the over pressure, so the owner was not sure about the capacity or demand of amount of coffee or hot beverages that leads the machine to break down ve ry often. Also the space in the cafe is not enough, for the stock they need which causes chaos during delivery of the product, which is during the busy hour of business. 4. Analyse your diagram: The diagram is below and it has on the fish bone head its main problem which is ââ¬ËNo smooth running Serviceââ¬â¢. The fish bones are separated in few major elements such as the machine, staff, process and the inventory and also the weather sometimes causes problem for the process to be slow. As the out side sitting arrangement is done with some chairs with cushions, so whenever it rains, the cushions needs to be brought in no matter how busy the staff are, this also created delay to the service. Figure: Cause-and Effect Diagram (fish-bone Diagram) Supply Chain management: Supply chain management is the management of relationships and flows between operations and processes. Technically, it is different from supply network management, which looks at all the operations or processes in a network. Supply chain management refers to a string of operations or processes. However, the two terms are often used interchangeably. Many of the principles of managing external supply chains (flow between operations) are also applicable to internal supply chains (flow between processes). (Slack et al, 2006). The supply chain management produces internal relationship between the process as well as the external relationships of the operations. It is concerned with the flow of the information as well as the flow of the products and the services, the some work it relates to is shown below as a list: â⬠¢ Long-term plans and requirements â⬠¢ Market research information â⬠¢ Individual orders â⬠¢ Payments types â⬠¢ Potential new products and services â⬠¢ Overall products and services â⬠¢ New products and services â⬠¢ Delivery information â⬠¢ Payment request/Credit (Slack et al, 2006) Supply Chain Management for Coffee Corner Plc: The supply chain management of Coffee Corner Plc is done according to the planning of the owners from the year they started. The supply comes from 3 different suppliers. First, they have to place the order as they forecast the requirements. It is done by seven days of the week. The supple is done 6 days a week, apart from Monday. The orders are made by the store managers every 6 days a week in the morning and to do the order has to be done to 3 different suppliers. Only one supplier takes the orders by the internet and the rest of the three suppliers take the orders by the phone. Then the orders are delivered to the each of the stores an hour before the closing times and they are counted and sorted by the manager or in his absence by the supervisor of the store. Delivery charges are separate as the suppliers are separate, so 3 different delivery charges are needed to be paid from petty cash. The orders which are made by phone, needs to be done by using the unique codes of each of the products and also the quantity. The internet order is reasonably easier to make. The stock room is on the top floor of the store and then the milk, cake, take away cups and the cleaning products are first taken up to the stock room for the stock count and then it is brought down to the store after the delivery check. The stock check is done on every Monday evening and the total stock is counted apart from the same day delivered stocks. Then a note is made and it is filed for the record, also the missing amount of stock is recorded for further investigation on it. The store also pays a huge amount of insurance for all the three different suppliers that bring in the products. It was done for the safety of the product to be supplied as if there is any accident or emergency of the product not arriving; the supplier has to deliver it on any other means. It was done to make the business unharmed in case of an accident and emergency issues. Process Design: Process design is concerned with conceiving the overall shape of processes and their detailed workings. The first of these tasks (conceiving the overall shape or nature of the process) can be approached by positioning the process in terms of its volume and variety characteristics. The second task (conceiving the detailed workings of the process) is more concerned with the detailed analysis of the objectives, capacity and variability of the process. (Slack et al, 2006) There are different ways in which the different resources within a process (people and technology) can be arranged relative to each other. But however this is done, it should reflect the processââ¬â¢s volumeââ¬âvariety position. Again, there are pure ââ¬Ëtypesââ¬â¢ of layout that correspond with the different volumeââ¬âvariety positions. These are fixed position layout, functional layout, cell layout and product layout. Many layouts are hybrids of these pure types, but the type chosen is influenced by the volume and variety characteristics of the process. (Slack et al, 2006) Process layout for Coffee Corner PLC: The layout of the workstation of Coffee Corner is not sequenced with the job design. Figure: Coffee Corner current workstation service layout The layout of the whole workstation is very much chaotic. The coffee machine and the coffee and milk in the fridge are far apart from the coffee machine. The Ice machine for the cold drinks is not by the cold drink blender. The till is by the coffee machine, and it helps the person who makes coffee to know straight away what coffee the customer wants straight away. But the Coffee and milk is not located near the coffee machine, so it is a bit time consuming for a busy coffee shop like Coffee Corner deals with such a non practical lay out of the work station. Especially when there is 3 people during the busy time to work and 2 person is responsible to open and close together for the security. The owners planned the lay out by them selves as they have some previous experience of building before coming to this Coffee shop business. The Identified Problems of the Organization: The problems have been identified in the cafe are mainly 2 different ones: The supply chain Management system The Service layout The Supply Chain Management Problem: The supply chain is a big problem in this service. Suppliers: Specially the three different suppliers and for this is the delivery charges are 3 times more and also the 3 different insurances. The suppliers are more laid back and demanding for their service they provide. The quantity of the products is for all the 5 branches and all these suppliersââ¬â¢ needs to supply them on basis of the first order first delivery provided. Delivery Charge: Delivery charges are different for each of the suppliers and the money going out is three times from the each shop for the deliveries. Though the delivery charges are fixed as the amount ordered are as not big for each of the branches, but very costly. Insurance: Insurance needs to be paid to all the 3 different suppliers and the rate of insurance are very high. Ordering Process: Ordering process are different for each of the suppliers. Two of the suppliers still prefer Telephone orders and by the product code and quantity not the product name, this tends to be a real waste of time. Stock Taking: The stock is taken in to the upstairs on the arrival and then counted there before bringing them down to the store. So it also takes time. Stock Counting: Stock counting is done by a very old fashioned way even it is very time consuming for the Managers and the business as it takes time to do them manually. 2. The service Layout Problem: The service lay out is causing a big chaos for the workers and it is causing a huge disruption from a smooth process to carry out the service. The whole machinery and service facilities are layered on a very chaotic order that reflects the unprofessional system to the business. Because of this the whole quality to the service is being affected and also the time is being wasted. It was not a big problem before, but as it is a sole coffee shop in these remote areas the locals are buzzing in more and more and the layout that causing a huge disruption to the overall service quality and time is reflecting brightly. This is also affecting the outside tables and chars where the chairs are cushioned and needs to be removed during rain and that is quiet common work for the workers in there to remove them. Even when its busy and people are queuing up. The cushions are not needed nowadays as the business has already made a booming profit despite of the problems. But if the outside sitting arrangement is done in more practical way, then the whole business will be more efficient when it comes to provide a service. The staffs work in the cafe without any proper job description apart from the managers. So they are sometimes clueless on what their duty is. Specially recently some old workers left so the new people have not been trained on basis of what they should do on the busy period. This is due to the training problem and also the workers gets only 10% off the food price and they canââ¬â¢t effort to buy it always as it is a bit costly and also there are not many shops around the place they opened each of the branches, so if the workers do not bring their own food, thy have to pay a lot of money compared to their wages. (Apart from the Manager as he gets commission for the rise of the sales) Conclusion: Innovative Recommendations: Corporations must be able to adapt and evolve if they wish to survive. Businesses operate with the knowledge that their competitors will inevitably come to the market with a product that changes the basis of competition. The ability to change and adapt is essential to survival. Today, the idea of innovation is widely accepted. It has become part of our culture ââ¬â so much so that it verges on becoming a cliche. For example, in 1994 and 1995, 275 books published in the United States had the word ââ¬Ëinnovationââ¬â¢ in their title. (Trott, Paul 2005) Here the company is doing okay to survive its position in the market because of their location and the monopoly market they are having, but it needs to be bared in the mind that this might not last forever. The planning needs to be done for the future. So to change the business strategy is very important. Here is some innovative recommendation for the business: The Supplier needs to changed to one instead of the 3 different suppliers, it will save time for the people involved to make the orders and also it will save the charges for the insurance and the delivery. The orders needs to be made by internet as there are less likely to have a mistake and it will result saving the time, saving the cost and enhancing the quality. The delivery charges should not be taken from ââ¬ËPetty Cashââ¬â¢ it should be invoiced. So more professionalism is required. The service workstation layout needs to be relocated to the places so that the coffee and fridge with the milk will be handy for the person making coffee, the display unit should be by the till, so that the person on the till serving customer, will provide the customer with the cakes and sandwiches right on time. And also the panini grill needs to be places near the till so that the person serving does not forget about the panini. And the coffee Machine should be close or opposite to the till for the Barista (The person who is trained to make coffee) to see the orders straight away without delaying or asking. The dishwasher should be near to the exit of the work station for an efficient loading and unloading for the people who cleans the table and loads the dishwasher. There should be stock counting and internal connections e-procurement system for the benefit of storing the stock accordingly. The outside chairs should remove the cushions for all seasons comfortable sitting without staffs to run out when its busy inside. The Staff should be trained properly to deal with the busy business environment. There should be more discount for the staff as it will help the stuff to work better if they fuelled themselves properly and also to reduce the chance of stolen food products by the staff. This will save the unseen cost for the business. The speakers needs to be relocated so that they are not around the till and does not distract the customers and also the workers during the order taken from the respected customers. Suggestions on Cost analysis: Savings of delivery cost: As there were three different suppliers, Supplier 1: Sandwiches, paniniââ¬â¢s and cakes Supplier 2: Milk and beverages Supplier : Cleaning products and snacks and takeaway cups and lids. The delivery cost: Supplier1: ? **.** Supplier2: ?***.** Supplier3: ? ***.** Total: Delivery Cost ?***.** Whereas Only one Supplier Delivery Cost: ?**.** As it is known when you order big amount of things from the supplier, a bulk discount is received. Same way goes for the insurance and other cost. Savings of Insurance Cost: As there were three different suppliers, The delivery cost: Supplier1: ? **.** Supplier2: ?***.** Supplier3: ? ***.** Total: ?***.** Whereas Only one Supplier: ?**.**the saving of insurance will be high as well. Saving on long run: The new layout will enhance the work efficiency and will provide a rich service so the cost here will be an investment for a long term. It can be understood that from a service based organisation like Coffee Corner Plc, the service layout is very important for service efficiency. When supply chain is concerned; its efficiency results time savings as well as profitability. Overall the great Formula needs to be kept in mind at all times to manage the business strategy: they are; Passion: Passion for business. Taste: Taste is important so Quality of food and coffee needs to be emphasised on at all times. Positioning: Location of the business and the service layout for efficient service needs to be considered at all times, when opening a new store. People: Good enthusiastic staff with motivation is necessary for any service oriented business. So the parks and wages needs to be considered accordingly. Marketing: Marketing is key to drive loads of customers in to the store. Systems: System of everything needs to be considered. Such as; staffing system, cleaning rota, opening and closing routines, food production and rotation system, supply-chain systems and cash procedures. Money matters: to budget things and make sure to keep proper accounts of all sorts of costs and profit. Have a good communication system to have all the accounts of the day to day process can be recorded and revived when needed. (Richardson and Gilmartin,2010) Reference: Business directory (2011) Strategic Management http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/strategic-management.html [Access Date: 12-04-2011] Mind tools(2010) Cause and effect Diagram Website: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newTMC_03.htm [Access Date: 10-07-2010] Slack et al: 2006, Operations and Process Management: Principles and Practice for strategic impact, 2nd edition, Available from: http://lib.myilibrary.com/Browse/open.asp?ID=207106loc=v pg. 210-215, 109-115 Trott, Paul: 2005, Innovation Management and New Product Development, Pearson Education UK, Available from: http://lib.myilibrary.com/Browse/open.asp?ID=60150loc=Cover 10 July 2010 pg. 5-14 Richardson, Gilmartin: 2010, Setting up and Managing Your Own Coffee Bar, How to Books Ltd UK. Pg. 40-171 How to cite Strategic Management Project: Coffee Corner Plc, Essay examples
Thursday, December 5, 2019
Steps Involved in Undertaking a Community Assessment Free Sample
Question: Discuss about the Steps Involved in Undertaking a Community Assessment. Answer: Introduction: To provide the healthcare related services to the community, it is necessary to understand the community. Community assessment is one of the best methods to understand the community. Outcomes of the community assessment would be helpful in comprehending exact requirements of the community. It also would be helpful in knowing resources available with the community to address the health issue. This knowledge of the requirements and resources can be used to advantageously plan and provide healthcare services to the community (Guzys and Petrie, 2013). Community assessment can be effectively carried out by following specific steps. These steps are discussed in this article. Steps in Community Assessment: Before initiating community assessment it is very much required to decide upon specific issues to be addressed. This decision on specific scope would be helpful in target specific planning of the assessment. In healthcare sector, most of the issues are interrelated. Hence, there should be specific approach to go with individual issue or all issues at a time. Factors helpful in defining the scope are demographics (income, ethnicity, culture and population of targeted age), communities helping people and their services, funding resources for the community services, needs of the local people, strategies available to address the issue, benefits of these strategies, government approach towards these issues, volunteer group in the community, gaps in addressing the issue and willingness of the community people to address the issue (Gross et al., 2016; Murphy, 2012). Decide to Go Solo or Collaborate: After the final decision on goal and scope of the issue to be addressed, next logical step is to assess resources available to carry out the community assessment. If resources like time, finance, skills, techniques and human resources are sufficient to carry out the community assessment, then community assessment can be carried out on solo basis. If these resources are not enough, then collaboration is the best option. Collaboration with the volunteers, consultants and other organizations would definitely be helpful in improving quality and outcome of the community assessment. Collaboration increases engagement of more community participants in the assessment planning and implementation. It also incorporates more resources which would be helpful in answering important questions in the assessment. It would establish relationship with different stakeholders. It would be helpful in interpreting findings of the assessment. In collaboration there should be provision for the memorandum of understanding (MOU) because each and every stakeholder should completely understand importance of their contribution in assessment process. MOU should clearly mention key responsibilities of each and every stakeholder. Details of each participants should be mentioned in MOU like name of the organization, name and designation of the representative of the organization, actions to be taken by the organization, resources to be contributed by the organization and deadlines for the completion of the task (Schifferdecker et al., 2016; Murphy, 2012). Collect Data: Collection of the data is one of the most important steps in the community assessment because outcome measures and interpretation of the community assessment completely depends on the collection of data. Two types of data like primary and secondary data should be collected for community assessment. Secondary data should be collected first and followed by primary data. Secondary data generally collected by other sources in the local community which would be useful for the community assessment. Subsequently, secondary data should be collected from sources outside the community. Attention should be given for the collection of quality data as compared to the quantity data. Primary data should be collected by the individual or organization involved in the community assessment. Primary data should specifically address the issue to be addressed in the community assessment. Primary data collection methods are generally used to address the issues which cannot be addressed with the collection of secondary data. Primary data gives clear understanding of issues to be addressed in the community assessment. Various well established methods are available for the collection of the primary data. These methods comprises of questionnaires, observation, focus groups, interviews and case studies. Based on the requirement of the community assessment, these methods can be used (Koo et al., 2012; Gross et al., 2016). Determine Key Findings, Set Priorities and Create an Action Plan: Key findings should be categorized to summarize the data and hence it can be effectively used in interpretation. Categories to be used for community assessment data are strengths, gaps, opportunities and challenges. Priority setting is a difficult task in the community assessment because there should be agreement among different stakeholders in the community assessment. Stakeholders in the community assessment may be from different disciplines and there may be differences in their views and opinions (Guzys and Petrie, 2013). Few barriers are there for priority setting. These barriers comprises of human problem, process problem, structure problem and institutional problem. These should be addressed for priority setting. After the completion of priority setting, next step is designing action plan. Action plan is the heart of the community assessment because whole outcome of the community assessment completely based on the action plan. Action plan should be based on the priorities. Acti on plan should specifically mention specific actions to be taken and deadlines for each action. Action plan should identify person responsible for specific action. Actions plan should set schedule and scheme for future meetings (Murphy, 2012; Koo et al., 2012). Share Your Findings: Data collected in the community assessment should be shared to the community members in a community meeting. For this meeting stakeholders and collaborators should also be invited. Prospective beneficiaries of the community assessment should attend this data sharing meeting on compulsory basis. Data can also be shared to press release in local media (Sines et al., 2015). Data can also be shared by publishing brochure. Brochure should include summary of data, interpretation of data and summary of important findings of community assessment. These brochures should reach to each and every member of the community. Through this brochure, message should be reached to community members that there is lot of intellectual and financial investment in finding the solution. Also, message should be given that lot of resources in the community is explored to find out the solution for the targeted issue. Report of the community based assessment should be published on the website (CDC, 2017). Conclusion: Goals of community assessment are to understand needs of the community members and its impact on them. These goals can be effectively achieved by incorporating valid steps in the community assessment. These steps proved useful in community assessment in diverse areas. These steps incorporate different stakeholders and provide integrated solution. In summary, these steps are useful in effective community assessment which would be helpful in growth and development of the community. References: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Community Health Assessment and Group Evaluation (CHANGE) action guide: Building a foundation of knowledge to prioritize community needs. 2017 Retrieved from https://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dch/programs/healthycommunitiesprogram/tools/change/pdf/changeactionguide.pdf. Gross, M., Mediavilla, C., and Virginia, A. (2016). Five Steps of Outcome-Based Planning and Evaluation for Public Libraries. American Library Association. Guzys, D., and Petrie, E. (2013). An Introduction to Community and Primary Health Care. Cambridge University Press. Koo, D., Felix, K., Dankwa-Mullan, I., Miller, T., Waalen J. (2012). A call for action on primary care and public health integration. American Journal of Public Health, 102(3), S307S309. Murphy, F. (2012). Community Engagement, Organization, and Development for Public Health Practice. Springer Publishing Company. McMurray, A., and Clendon, J., (2015). Community Health and Wellness: Primary Health Care in Practice. Elsevier Health Sciences. Schifferdecker, K.E., Bazos, D.A., Sutherland, K.A., Ayers LaFave, L.R., Ruggles, L., Fedrizzi, R., and Hoebeke, J. (2016). A Review of Tools to Assist Hospitals in Meeting Community Health Assessment and Implementation Strategy Requirements. Journal of Health Management, 61(1), 44-56. Sines, D., Saunders, M., and Forbes-Burford, J. (2013). Community Health Care Nursing. John Wiley Sons
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)