Despite the tremendous development and the superior economy, the United States boasts, the country also faces a lot of challenges, with more than 40 million people living under the poverty line ( Caruso, Galiani & Weinschelbaum, 2019). It implies that there are people within the country that are unable to access proper social services to meet their daily needs. In the United States, there are a lot of disadvantaged individuals whose economic position and social status place them in a vulnerable position to ill-health issues such as malnutrition. Therefore, an agency whose aim is to ensure that such disadvantaged individuals get food to eat and also cater to their social, economic, and health difficulties requires support from the government and society.
The Agency and Its Location
The Community Action Council of Howard County is an example of an organization that has the welfare of the disadvantaged people at the heart of its operations in the country. The organization has a mission, which is to diminish poverty, enable self-sufficiency, and advocate for low-income families and individuals in the country. Its operations are under the vision of the executive staff, which is to allow disadvantaged people to enhance the quality of their lives and to share in the promise and opportunity of the community (Admin, 2020). The organization operates in Patuxent Woods DriveColumbia, Maryland, and offers a range of services to the city, all of which gear towards eliminating poverty in the country.
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The rationale of The Choice
The Community Action Council of Howard County has fantastic programs for the clients, and this makes it the organization of choice. Its services target the basic necessities and resources that are beneficial to numerous disadvantaged groups in the country. It provides them with not only education but also financial and food support, and this means it has their welfare at the heart of its operations. It is an organization of choice because it aims to eliminate poverty in the country. Currently, the inequality in the country is a significant threat to many people. For instance, the high rate of criminalization in the state links to poverty among some races as these people lack options but to engage in unwanted behaviors that risk their lives. Therefore, it would be good to support an organization whose interest is to reshape society's morality by providing support to the most vulnerable (Admin, 2020). The organization is also a priority because its culture is welcoming to all people. There are 60 volunteers working in the organization, and this speaks volumes of its culture. Similarly, it caters to the health of the people it serves and serves them with a lot of diligence. Working in this organization seems healthy due to the level of diversity that is present in its surroundings.
The Interaction among the Clients and the Support Group
The Community Action Council of Howard County caters to the welfare of a diverse population. The agency’s programs are comprehensive 2-generation, and it cares for both the children and their families. There is a well-coordinated interaction between the agency and the people that benefit from its programs. During their interactions with the clients, they provide them with forms that they fill in their details, including those of their families. The basic information the organization gathers from the clients include their names, gender, heads of the household, their ethnicity and race, the jobs they do for a living, citizenship status, and the military status (Admin, 2020). Furthermore, it operates during most of the time of the day, and this makes it convenient for the clients. The service they provided the clients during their interaction relies on the number of people within the family.
The Role of the Agency, Services Offered, Eligibility Requirements
The agency exists to provide service to the most vulnerable people in society to reduce poverty and support these people so that they can have a better life. Therefore, the organization has a comprehensive service provision model that is built around 2-Generation, providing service to children and their families in a holistic manner. Child education is the first set of programs the organization offers to its clients. Their aim of the child education or the head start is to encourage early education among the children whose parents are unable to provide for them better education at a young age. The next package of the service the organization offer to the clients is the housing assistant services. In this program, the aim is to support the families with rent to avoid eviction from a house. Also, there is Energy and weatherization assistance projects or services (Admin, 2020). Under these services, the agency provides its clients with proper financial support to cater to their cost of fuel and electricity. Weatherization provides services that permanently reduce home energy efficiency and comfort. The next function is the provision of food to the clients. The organization has a big food bank where it offers non-perishable foods and fresh produce, milk, and frozen meats in a grocery store-like setting to empower customers to make their own choices.
The organization welcomes both the children and adults as long as they fall within the range set for eligibility. For the education programs package, the children must be between three to five years old, and their family should be living below the US poverty line. For other programs such as weatherization, the qualification depends on the family size and the monthly and yearly regular income. For the services such as the house assistant , the landlords must prove ownership, sign a written agreement permitting the improvements to be done and not increase rent to income-qualified families for a specified period.
The Interaction among the Client and the Agency at the Social Service Center
At the social service center, there is a high level of coordination that ensure there is free-flowing interaction between the client and the organizations. The clients get the organization’s service after the verification of their details. During their interaction, the organization avails cart stacked with food for each of the families. The quantity of food and type depends on the size of the families and the culture of their origin. The organization is one of the few in the country that does not impose rules on people to eat what is available, but what they can eat. The food is stored in the hardware, and the organization ensures that there is proper coordination at the service centers to ensure that all the clients get their services based on the number of people in the family.
The Interaction with the Health System
At the heart of this organization is the provision of healthy food to the clients. It ensures that it check the food that is healthy and those that have not expired to ensure that the clients consume healthy food to stay healthy. It also collaborates with a lot of healthcare organizations and personal. For instance, it works with counseling to provide Family and children counseling services. It also works with health organizations to prevent demotic violence and medical assistance for their clients (Admin, 2020). The aim of such interactions and collaboration with a healthcare organization is to ensure that the three are proper care services for the customers.
The Funders
The organization gets its funds partly from Howard County and the Federal government, although the proportion of funding change every month or yearly. However, the source of most of the resources the company is using is donations from different food organizations such as Walmart, Wingman’s, and Giants.
Reference
Admin, C. A. C. (2020, February 18). CAC Home. Retrieved from https://www.cac-hc.org/
Caruso, M., Galiani, S., &Weinschelbaum, F. (2019). Poverty Alleviation Strategies Under Informality: Evidence for Latin America. doi: 10.3386/w26339
