This course provides an objective perspective regarding the roles and functions of human service agencies and providers. For this assignment you should locate and interview a human service worker/case manager in a setting and with a population of interest. Your goal is to gain their perspective regarding their role and the services they provide, and to gain an understanding of whether or not this might be a population or agency where you envision yourself completing an internship.
This assignment should be approximately five double spaced, typed pages, excluding part four.
You should be sure to include, but not limit your discussion to the following questions:
Part One:
How and why did they become human service professionals? What services do they provide, what are the goals of the agency? What roles and responsibilities do they engage in? More specifically, you will want to gain a sense of the range of activities they engage in. For example, how much of their day is involved in direct client services (including the types of services), meetings (internal and external), inter-agency collaboration, etc. How does their source(s) of funding affect service provision?
Part Two:
What knowledge, values and skills do they view as most critical to their service provision? How do the responsibilities of their role compare to the roles and functions of human service workers discussed in this course? What makes their job/role more challenging? Do they have any disappointments regarding what they thought their role would entail compared to what it actually does involve? What thoughts do they have for beginning professionals? How did this interview affect your perspective of the field of human services?
Part Three:
Provide an honest and realistic assessment of your “goodness-of-fit” with this agency and potential role. How do you see your own interests, knowledge and skills supporting or challenging your taking on a similar role? What do you see as your strengths, what areas would you want to develop before engaging in this or a similar internship? If you have determined that this is not the population and/or agency for you, please be sure to discuss your concerns and thoughts about what you think would be a better fit for your interests and capabilities.
Part Four:
Be sure to include identifying information regarding the agency, their contact information, and contact information regarding your interviewee. Also, submit a picture of yourself in front of the agency and with permission, a picture of the individual you interviewed. This assignment should be approximately five double spaced, typed pages, excluding part four.
I live in Massachusetts and want to talk about homelessness. Find some agency in Massachusetts for this assignment.
