Description

Response Guidelines

    Review fellow learners’ posts and respond to their posts (100-word minimum response).

  1. Jacquela Jordan

The learner has obtained a lot of knowledge from this course. The course was very interesting yet challenging. While there were several, three major insights that reflected my learning experience while participating in this course was, ethical behavior, Making ethical decisions and Boundaries and Ethical Leadership. Working as a correctional case manager and working with others I have already applied a lot of what I already have learned in my everyday routine especially when certain situations arise. The need for setting boundaries is especially important in a correctional setting because of the innate power imbalance. Not only is there a power imbalance between employees and staff, but there is also a power hierarchy among inmates, and of course, between any correctional staff member and the inmate. Correctional officer codes of conduct and ethics not only outline expectations for treating prisoners, but also for fostering professionalism among facility staff and within correctional departments. The ACA states that members should make public criticism of their agencies only when such criticism is verifiable, constructive and warranted. In addition, the code requires correctional officers and others to report corruption and unethical behavior to the proper authorities (Hall, 2016). I also shared a lot of knowledge I have learned with my coworkers. Working in a prison we are always faced with making ethical decisions. This class has really made me grow personally and professional. I now know how to make better decisions when certain situations occur. This class has helped me become a better correctional case manager.

Response Guidelines

Review fellow learners’ posts and respond to their posts (100-word minimum response).

2) Jacquela Jordan

Unethical behavior in the workplace can have serious implications, leading to fines, imprisonment or bankruptcy. Ethics training can prevent the negative consequences your business may face. I feel that I have grown a lot on ethical awareness. I have learned a lot. I knew some basic things but this course has prepared me on how to handle different situations, especially if I ever become a supervisor. I think employees should be trained on ethics at least every 90 days. If training is every 90 days it will help the employees of an organization judge the moral legitimacy of their decisions, enabling them to apply moral principles and values in their decision-making. Depending on your business, your ethics training program should contain several components. Your program must be based on strong ethics policy that each employee has received and acknowledged. The modules should include issues such as the acceptance of gifts, that influence purchasing decisions and reporting these gifts.

Response Guidelines

Respond to the post. Include relevant, required information; adequate explanations; and alternative viewpoints. Offer additional resources that may help expand their perspective, divergent issues for consideration, and suggestions for enhancing their discussion. Your responses to your peers should contain at least 250 words as well as two scholarly resources. Keep in mind the academic honesty policy and academic integrity stressing respectful discussion.

3) Tarell Williams

The Certificate program in Human Services is designed for men and women who want to learn the skills and attitudes that are needed for employment and for upgrading in human service positions, but who do not want to undertake the supporting academic courses required for the college degree. In order to obtain a certificate, you must hold a bachelor’s in social work from an accredited university. You must also have 30 hours of post-graduate education in the field, have 3,000 hours of supervised work within the CSW-G specialization, and hold a social work license (George, 2013). The human services professional is an individual who is driven to succeed in helping people and organizations perform at an optimal level. The human services worker must be familiar with human development, how culture and society impact behavior and the influence of economic structures on human behavior. Proper coaching and or training can refine skills in work efficiency, earning potential, expanded knowledge and skill, and professional credibility.

Coaching empowers leaders to do exceptional work. Coaches establish an advantageous relationship that uncovers hidden strengths and weaknesses within the leader. Goals will be created to enable leaders to pinpoint their weaknesses and track their progress (George, 2013). The disadvantages of coaching are that we tend to be slow to own awareness and self knowledge. The core principle of coaching is self –responsibility, or taking ownership of our decisions. We learn better when we discover things for ourselves rather than when others tell us. We like to create our own solutions rather than be told what to do (George, 2013). Ultimately it depends on the format of coaching combined with training vs retention levels, effort, and intent behind the concepts of development.

Response Guidelines

Respond to the post. Include relevant, required information; adequate explanations; and alternative viewpoints. Offer additional resources that may help expand their perspective, divergent issues for consideration, and suggestions for enhancing their discussion. Your responses to your peers should contain at least 250 words as well as two scholarly resources. Keep in mind the academic honesty policy and academic integrity stressing respectful discussion.

4) Sharon McDaniel

Nonprofit organizations play a unique and critical role in the human-services sector. Often referred to as the “Third Sector,” these organizations are principal partners with government to create tangible goods and services for community participation. Such services include food, housing, shelter, healing, child welfare, childcare, mental and spiritual health, etc. Nonprofits are foundational in addressing the social injustice that often prevent communities from thriving (National Council on Nonprofits, 2019).

Nonprofit leadership is essential in administering these often-complex organizations; however, internal and external pressures can be insurmountable for a novice leader. Stewart and Kuenzi (2018) revealed that in nonprofit leadership development and ascension, there is typically no straight line to the apex of the organization. In other words, there are many pathways to a nonprofit’s head position. For example, some advance as a result of tenure (next in line), while others are recruited through external efforts (executive recruitment), and others ascend by interim appointment (particularly if an executive has been asked to leave). Furthermore, the skill sets and academic backgrounds of those who do ascend can vary (i.e., business, social work, public administration, etc.).

Because of these diverse educational backgrounds, nonprofit leaders may be engaged in a variety of organizations. The National Association of Social Workers; National Association of Human Service Professionals; National Council on Nonprofits; National Forum on Black Public Administrators are among the prevailing organizations to which leaders in the nonprofit sector belong. This learner is a member of multiple organizations—Black Administrators in Child Welfare, Pennsylvania Association of Nonprofit Organizations, National Association of Black Foundation Executives, National Association of Human Service Professionals, National Forum on Black Public Administration, National Association of Black Social Workers, African American Strategic Partnership, and National MBA Association—as she gleans something from each of them.

While the organizations of which this learner is a member are all excellent in what they do and have provided her over the years, they could not and did not prepare her for her racialized and gendered experiences as founder and CEO of her own nonprofit organization. Even today, she continues to strive for racial equity and parity in contracting. However, the organization she needed to assist her in negotiating the structural and institutional challenges in her jurisdiction did not exist before 2015. So, she founded it.

The African American Strategic Partnership (AASP) (2019) is a membership organization of African American leaders at human-services agencies who advocate for and serve the African American community in the greater Pittsburgh region. As its founder, this learner has been humbled by this amazing and thriving opportunity. AASP and its outstanding partners serve as mentors, thought partners, capacity builders, and fund developers, as well as provide moral support without judgement. For 26 of her 30 years as a leader, this learner had to accomplish most of her goals in isolation, devoid of a safety net—AASP now provides the same. Just as this learner did, emerging leaders must find what works for them or create the opportunity themselves.

Regarding this course, it has helped this learner understand more intimately the amazing skill sets of her executive leaders who are social work practitioners. Since this learner’s undergraduate studies, she has focused on business and nonprofit leadership, however, this course has been rewarding and challenging at the same time–the course introduced concepts unfamiliar to this learner. Considering the latter, this learner will continue to push herself to be uncomfortable with topics and concepts outside of her current academic field. It has been an incredible learning experience. Thank you all!

Response Guidelines

Respond to the post by citing additional resources that may help his or her work, presenting divergent issues for consideration, and providing suggestions for enhancing the post. Your response must contain at least 150 words and one scholarly resource that your peer did not incorporate in his or her initial post.

5) Amy Ngurukie

Throughout the course, we have studied the complexities of resilience both at an individual and community level; and as such we have seen that resilience occurs when environmental, social and individual factors interrupt the trajectory from risk to pathology; these variables are what we now know as promotive factors (Zimmerman, Stoddard, Eisman, Caldwell, Aiyer & Miller 2014, p.1). It is important to understand how promotive factors operate in conjunction with risk. Promotive factors are described as assets or resources within an individual such as efficacy, identity, and orientation to the future (Zimmerman et al 2014, p.2).

There are differing abilities of how individuals cope with stressful situations that can be attributed to a varied factor (Newman 2002, p.16). These factors are inherited or acquired in the early years of life and vary on timing, duration, sequence, frequency of stressful events, and the reliability and availability of peers, family and community support (Newman 2002, p.16). Individual positive personal attributes for resilience are consistent with personal characteristics that contribute to one’s resiliency quotient, both cumulatively and exponentially in nature, and positively enhance each other with a resultant strengthening effect on the individual’s inners resolve; these attributes are also bidirectional, in that a particular severe trauma or deficit can cause a decrease in the positive attributes (Levine 2003, p.274). Although these personal attributes are correlated with personal resilience, they are not unequivocally predictive (Levine 2003, p.274) and this is evident within family members who have endured the same type of trauma, however, each response differs from person to person regardless of similar upbringings or culture.

We have studied the positives of individuals who grow up in healthy environments become resilient adults who can handle life’s stresses (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.3). Thus, the role of the family is an integral part of psychosocial development (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.3). Community resilience, on the other hand, can be described as a sense of belonging, trust in leadership, and the community’s ability to create a shared and meaningful narrative (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.3). In the book by Nementh and Olivier (2017), they mention that resilience is often realized conceptualized at the individual level, without attention to its role at the community or system level in trying to promote well-being (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.3).

Self-perception then comes from an individual understanding their behaviors and emotions through The Six Stages of Development (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.9). By successfully learning and understanding one’s own emotional needs for attachment security, attention, acceptance, approval, acknowledgment, and affection, one can understand the need to make healthy choices amid challenges, they must choose to make commitments to connect to others, love unconditionally, be proactive, and seek power and control over themselves and their behavior (Nemeth & Olivier 2017, p.9). As Nemeth and Olivier (2017) state in their book, it is important for an individual to learn how to effectively recognize and face their feelings and share with others; and secondly, one must learn to acknowledge and affirm both their own feelings and experiences as well as those of others (p.20).

On a personal note, I think my greatest impact on being resilient has been a constant reminder from an early age on the importance of my identity even though life at home was difficult. My mother constantly instilled in my sisters and me the importance of accepting who we are, accepting our differences as siblings and that none of us was better or worse than the other, just different. Also, my siblings and I had and continue to experience a very secure attachment with my mother, despite the home environment. I attribute these two factors as molding me into the resilient person I am today having experienced many challenges in life, and more recently the health challenges that have amazed me at how much more resilient I thought or imagined to be. I am still learning how to maintain my resilience, how I perceive and work through challenges, and understanding that nothing is personal or permanent. I would also say that my spirituality from a young age and into adulthood has played a major role in how I respond to trauma both personally and externally.

I enjoyed the video on “Happy”, and I was not surprised by how the individuals in this video found happiness in the simplest of things, something I have witnessed in countries I have worked and lived in that was ravaged by natural disasters. There is something to be said about community connectedness, compassion, and generosity and life satisfaction.