Blog Post 8: Fundraising

Last week in class, Social Work in Organizations and Communities, we talked about fundraising. I thought this class was interesting because I never thought about how important fundraising is within Social Work. The text book states "few social workers begin their careers with the clear goal of becoming fundraisers." Before last class, I had never thought about how one day I could be involved with raising money for an agency or organization. I have always thought more of social workers helping people through direct work. Fundraising is an important part for all agencies because they all need financial resources to be able to operate. It was interesting to learn about all the different ways funding can be provided. For example, in class we talked about how Safe Place receives some funding by other organizations offering an employee to work for them. I realized how important it is for agencies to collaborate with different organizations to be able to function in the best way possible.

We did an exercise in class so we could better understand this topic. Our class was split into two groups. One group pretended they were an agency that had to ask for money. They pretended to be Safe Place. The other group was a foundation that was told to come up with about ten different questions they would like to ask the agency before they gave any money away. This group was the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation. This foundation's main focus is to benefit children.

I was in the group that acted as the foundation. Some of the questions we came up with as a group that we thought would be important were:

• What would you do with the money? 
• How are you breaking down the money? 
• What else does your funding come from? 
• What is your end all goal? 
• What is your mission statement? 
• What is your target population?

The other group acting as Safe Place wrote down things the agency provides and focused on the populations they provide for. There was an overlap between population and what the agency might do with the money. There was a little bit of clash because Safe Place does not only provide for children, but also for women. One thing I noticed was that many of our questions had to do with asking what their specific project or their end goal was when the might not have a specific end goal or project they want to use the money on. Another thing I had never thought about was that many foundations do not want to be the sole provider for an agency so it is important to ask to make sure the agency can provide for their clients in the future without help from them. It was interesting when we discussed  how the agency's goal is to look appealing to the foundation without changing too much about them.

Observation:

This past week I noticed many people within the School of Social Work coming together to help the victims of the flood. 

Blog 7: Foster Care System

 

  

Last week in class, we talked about the foster care system. Before discussing it in class, I knew very little about it besides what I had seen from ads and little facts from other classes. I left class thinking about the assumptions I had based on ads or commercials I had seen. I picked the three ads above, because they I think they summarize what most of the ads regarding foster care look like. The top image and the one on the left both display pretty happy images. The top image displays very happy looking children and the other image uses bright colors with an encouraging slogan. The ad of the little boy displays a sad image. After thinking about these images, I concluded that growing up I either pictured foster kids as having very normal, happy lives with supportive families, or kids that were sad and had no place to go.

After class, I learned about all the different routes a child could have within the system. We talked about the positive and negative outcomes the foster care system can have on children. We talked about how a child can go back and forth between their parents, other family members and foster care families. We discussed that many are in the system until they age out and some do get adopted. Some of the children go back and forth from children shelters and some run away, which can lead to crime, jail time, kidnapping, and sometimes death. It was sad to learn that many of the children that run away past 9th grade are not being actively searched for. We also talked about how just because a child is in the foster care system does not mean that they are free from neglect and abuse. Although the foster care system does provide many children with great opportunities and positive influences, there are still many issues and holes within the system.

Observation: 

For some reason I have noticed less homeless people on Guadeloupe lately, particularly near campus.