Provisionally approved for Fall 2002 7/9//02
DELIVERY OF SERVICES
Level II
RATIONALE: Human service workers must be able to deliver basic service activities and understand how those service activities are related to a broader human service delivery system. In this context, it important to understand how the nature of service delivery in terms of programmatic approaches and techniques is influenced by the system itself. Because the human service field is so diverse and specialized and the kinds of work so varied, an effective human service worker must possess a functionally broader knowledge base of the major sponsors, agencies, and/or institutions that make up a particular human service delivery system.
Human service delivery systems are often characterized, for example, as tax-supported or government agencies, private non-profit agencies, and profit-making institutions. An effective human service worker, therefore, must understand how her or his delivery of service is impacted by the kind of human service delivery system in which the service activities are enmeshed.
COMPETENCY: Can participate in the delivery of a basic human service in an organized setting and explain how that service is integrated in a particular human service delivery system.
CRITERIA:
1. Identify and discuss the service activity and describe the nature of your participation in the delivery of that service.
2. Describe the human service delivery system to which the identified service activity is related.
3. Explain how human service delivery systems in general shape programmatic approaches and techniques and how the particular identified human service system shaped the approach and techniques you used to deliver the identified service.
4. In relation to the identified service activity, describe how a particular human service agency as part of a particular service delivery system impacts the client population, staff composition, and professional roles.
PORTFOLIO LINK: You are expected to use the Level II Communications Portfolio writing standards as guidelines for the essays required by this competency. At a minimum, writing should demonstrate Level I Communications Portfolio standards.
The written paper(s) that you produce for this competency, therefore, may be used for your Portfolio II option of writing an analysis essay.
STANDARDS:
1. For Criterion 1, the service activity must take place in relation to an organized human service setting. It may include one or more of the following basic service activities: outreach, advocacy, brokering, mobilizing, support-giving, networking, liaison work, instructing, interviewing & canvassing, and the like. In describing the nature of your participation, you must define your role, specifying your responsibilities and the limitations of your role.
2. For Criterion 2, you must select and describe the appropriate human service delivery system from among the three major categories of human service delivery systems and give examples of the types of agencies and/or institutions that are apart of that system. The three major human service delivery systems are: (a) tax-supported or governmental agencies or institutions; (b) private nonprofit agencies; and (c) profit-making institutions. Your discussion must be based on a relevant body of literature from the field of human services.
3. For Criterion 3, you must identify and discuss at least two programs for each of the major human service delivery systems and show how these programmatic approaches are shaped by the particular system. You must also identify at least two techniques used in the programs for each of the major human service delivery system and show how these techniques are shaped by the particular system. One of the programs and one of the techniques should be related to the service activity you delivered. You should base your discussion of programs and techniques on interviews conducted with key knowledgeable personnel at appropriate agencies and on other relevant resource materials.
4. For Criterion 4, you must provide a summary discussion of the client population, the staffing, and the various professional roles in the agency to which your service activity is related and show how these various elements are impacted by the identified human service delivery system. You should base your summary discussion on your own observations, the interviews you conducted for Standard 3, and relevant literature from the field of human services.
EXAMPLES OF DEMONSTRATION:
1. Prior Learning and/or Independent Learning: A student who is currently working or volunteering or has had prior work or volunteer experience in a human service agency, helping clients to navigate the system and the agency to get services, contacts an evaluator, obtains relevant readings, and writes a 7 to 10-page paper, following the criteria and standards. The student may negotiate to do parts of the competency through an oral presentation with the evaluator.
2. Course: A student takes a CPCS course that addresses the competency.
3. Field-based: A student participates in an internship that offers training and practice in hotline intervention with women and children who have suffered from family violence. The student participates in 24 hours of training and works at least 40 hours staffing the hotline.