Aligning service delivery models with community problems

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Riverbend City ® Activity

Roles, Skills, and Service Delivery Models

Introduction

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Scene 4

Conclusion

Credits

Introduction

A service delivery model is an organizing framework of principles that guides how an organization distributes resources and services to a community. It is the philosophy behind the choices made by an organization as it takes action. Service delivery models also provide guidance to individual human service professionals to help them frame their practice.

As an intern for Riverbend Community Action, you continue your work representing your organization on the Ruby Lake Homelessness Task Force. Now that the group has met a few times and has researched and brainstormed possible ways to address the youth and teen homelessness crisis, it’s time for the group to choose a service delivery model. After hearing the task force members’ thoughts on the matter, you will recommend the service delivery model you feel will best serve the community. Then, based on your choice of service delivery model, you will recommend possible new task force members who can help carry out that model.

Scene 1

Email from April Nguyen

Thank you for your great work with the Ruby Lake

Teen Homelessness Task Force

! The task force members have appreciated your willingness to hear their perspectives, as well as your willingness to offer insight into possible roadblocks and ethical issues.

The next step is for the task force to select a service delivery model. I know the task force members have some varying opinions on which model to choice. I’d like for you to listen to what they have to say, and then recommend a model. Here are the three models they will be choosing from:

• The medical model. This model operates under the assumption that the person coming for help is sick or ill, or is otherwise unhealthy.
• The human service model. This model focuses on the interaction between individuals and the environment, and on interpersonal and environmental conflicts.
• The public health model. This model can be viewed as a bridge connecting the gap between the medical model and the human service model. It focuses on improving public health through the improvement of environmental factors such as education, nutrition, food safety, water supplies, immunization, and maternal and child health.

After choosing a model, I’d also like for you to recommend possible task force members who you think would be effective at helping to enact it.

Thank you again for all your help!

— April

Scene 2

Teen Homelessness Task Force

You meet again with the members of the Ruby Lake Teen Homelessness Task Force. You ask them which of the three service delivery models they prefer: the medical model, the human service model, or the public health model.

Chelsea Jenkins

Crisis Intervention Counselor

I think my preference is for the medical model—although I can see good arguments for the other models as well. And that’s not so much because I see my clients as “sick,” per se. It’s just that, as a mental health provider who works with teens who are very much at risk, I think it’s crucial that we take seriously the dangerously unhealthy position these kids are coming from. A huge percentage of these kids have mental health problems, addiction, PTSD, pregnancy, HIV, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts. These are all medical conditions, and I think by emphasizing this, we have the best chance of effectively treating kids for these conditions. I mean, after all, one of the biggest problems homeless kids face is lack of medical treatment, including mental health treatment.

Mark Tucker

Group Home Supervisor

I am torn on which model to choose. At first glance, the medical model appealed to me the most–even though I don’t like the language of calling kids “sick.” But what I see in the group home are kids who are badly in need of help. You might say that homelessness is a disease, because it comes with all kinds of mental and physical problems–like depression and anxiety, and HIV, and pregnancy. Plus these kids can find themselves in real danger. Prostitution, drug addiction, sexual assault, human traffickingt–these are real consequences that come from homelessness. Like I said, I see this every day. These kids need treatment, and they need it now.

On the other hand, none of these kids would be homeless if there weren’t serious problems in their environment. So that’s why the human service model appeals to me. We can help these kids now. But there will be another group of kids to help next week, and another the week after that–until we make some changes in the system. We need safety nets built into the community so that kids who need help can get it before they wind up on the streets. We need programs so that families with children can find the resources to stay in their homes. All of these things are hard. In some ways, I guess that’s the appeal of the medical model. If a pregnant girl comes to stay at Ruby Lake Youth Oasis, I can get her hooked up with the resources she needs. But dealing with the issue of teen pregnancy from a systemic perspective? That’s harder. I don’t know how to do that.

Jason De La Cruz

Foster Care Coordinator

I think it’s important that we steer clear of the medical model. These kids are not sick. And if we use the medical model and insinuate that they are sick, then we’re playing into stereotypes that these are dangerous, damaged kids who are beyond hope. You know what is sick? A society that allows so many young people to fall through the cracks and wind up on the streets. The sickness is in the system, not the kids—and I’m sick of people blaming kids for homelessness. You don’t blame the victim–especially when the culprit is a very, very broken system!

In my mind, none of these models addresses the systemic changes we need to most effectively keep kids off the streets. But if I have to choose between these three, I’ll go with the human service model. What I like about this model is that it shifts blame away from the kids for their circumstances. It focuses on the interaction between individuals and the circumstances that surround them. It looks at the personal crises of these kids within the context of environmental conditions that are complex and that are not their fault. The human service model is a good first step towards making the changes we need to the system as a whole.

Elizabeth Fine

Guidance Counselor

Of these three models, my favorite by far is the public health model. I think it’s a good balance between the medical model and the human service model. From the medical model, it takes the idea that homeless teens are facing individual mental and physical crises that need to be addressed immediately. But I like using the language of “public health” better than “medical,” because that implies that these kids aren’t broken—but that they do have serious problems as a result of being part of a larger public health crisis. The public health model also focuses on systemic change. If we focus on improving issues such as gaps in the educational system, then we can find ways to make sure that at-risk kids get a quality education and break the cycle of homelessness and poverty.

I also like the public health model because, well, you could argue that the community as a whole has health problems. Like lack of access to well-paying jobs, and poorly funded schools, and housing and food insecurity issues, and streets that aren’t particularly safe. Healthy communities do not have teen homelessness problems to the degree that Ruby Lake has them.

Scene 3

Choose the service delivery model that you think will be best for this task force:

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.
You have not chosen a candidate.

Why did you choose this service delivery model?

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

Scene 4

Task Force Selection

Now that you’ve recommended a service delivery model, it’s time to recommend additional members of the Ruby Lake Teen Homelessness Task Force. An important factor in choosing these individuals in that they should be willing and able to help enact the service delivery model you recommended.

Here are some potential candidates who are interested in joining the Ruby Lake Teen Homelessness Task Force. Learn more about each of them—and see what each of them has to say about the best way to help homeless youth and teens. Then choose five people who you would recommend as good candidates for the task force.

Read each character’s statements. Select FIVE candidates for the task force.

Marcella Baker

Youth Crisis Center Intake Coordinator

Biography

Marcella has been an intake coordinator at the Riverbend City Crisis Center for the past three years. Previously, she worked at various group homes for homeless youth. She is the first line of communication with clients, gathering information about mental health and other needs.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

• Active listening skills.
• Verbal and written communication skills.
• Detailed note-taking ability.
• Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

MARCELLA: “I think we have to find ways to help these kids as individuals. But at the same time, we should be looking for ways to improve the community so we don’t have so many homeless kids in the first place. These kids don’t just wake up one day and become homeless. As their intake coordinator, I get to hear their stories. And let me tell you, every one of these stories has to do with a breakdown of the system. I can give you a laundry list of things the community can provide that would decrease homelessness. Emergency services for families who can’t pay the rent. Job training programs so that families can support themselves. Safe places for kids to go if they’re being abused. Safe places for LGBT kids to go. Teen pregnancy prevention. I can go on and on.”

Jack DeMinno

Hennsey County Intake Interviewer

Biography

Jack DeMinno has worked as an intake interviewer for the Hennsey County Department of Human Services, where he ascertains the physical and emotional needs of clients and directs them to appropriate services.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Detailed note-taking ability.
• Understanding of human psychology.

Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

JACK: “We’re seeing more and more LGBT teens who badly need public services. As a gay man, I can relate to these issues firsthand. I didn’t come out to my family until after college—and it’s a good thing I didn’t, because I may have been homeless if I had. We’ve got to get these kids help now so they don’t wind up on the streets, on drugs or in prostitution or worse. I would advocate starting a group home for LGBT teens immediately. We need to provide them with a support system and the skills to be successful, or else they’re going to become victims fast. “

Rhonda Foxworth

Juvenile Probation Officer

Biography

Rhonda Foxworth has been a probation officer for the Hennsey County Department of Corrections for the past twelve years.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
• Organizational skills.

Detailed note-taking ability.
Understanding of human psychology.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

RHONDA: “I’ve been working with kids from this neighborhood for a long time. One of the biggest problems I see from them is that they blame everybody but themselves for their problems. I do understand that these kids are growing up under some difficult circumstances, believe me. I grew up under similar circumstances. But we don’t have the power to fix the whole system that’s been years and years in the making. We just don’t—and even if we do have the power to make some big sweeping changes, that’s not going to help these kids now. If we’re going to prevent teen homelessness—and help homeless teens get into better situations—then we have to help teach them the skills to empower themselves.”

Samir Guha

Hennsey County Program Coordinator

Biography

Samir Guha is a program coordinator for the Hennsey County Department of Health, where he is primarily focused with coordinating programs that relate to youth and teen health and safety.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)
Active listening skills.
Organizational skills.
Detailed note-taking ability.
Understanding of human psychology.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

SAMIR: “Homelessness is a public health crisis. Homelessness is caused by problems that relate to public health, like pregnancy, problems in the school system, and food insecurity. By improving public health in the community, we can improve the chances that kids and their families won’t wind up homeless.”

Tim Gunderson

Assistant Mgr, RBC Community Action

Biography

Tim Gunderson has been an assistant manager and supervisor at Riverbend Community Action for the past three years. He has held similar positions in nonprofits for the past decade.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Verbal and written communication skills.
• Critical thinking skills.
• Organizational Skills.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

TIM: “Once a kid gets trapped in the cycle of homelessness, it’s very hard to escape. We need to secure more resources for dealing with this problem so we can help kids break out of this cycle. There are so many issues—from addiction, to prostitution, to PTSD. The public has no idea how much these kids are suffering. We need to make it a priority to help these kids get better. “

Randy Hogan

Director/CEO, RBC Community Action

Biography

Randy Hogan has been the director and CEO of Riverbend Community Action for the past two years.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Verbal and written communication skills.
Critical thinking skills.
Organizational Skills.
• Ability to facilitate cooperation among both individuals and groups.
• Data analytics.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

RANDY: “A big part of what we need to do is to strengthen the health of the Ruby Lake community. This is a food desert. Jobs are scarce, and there’s not adequate public transportation or day care to make jobs elsewhere in the city accessible. Kids aren’t always getting the medical treatment they need. Parents don’t feel safe sending their children to the park because of drugs. And there are serious problems with the infrastructure–so much so that a Flint-like water crisis is not totally out of the question. Yes, there are some emergency steps we have to take—like providing more emergency shelters for families and unaccompanied homeless minors. But we can’t neglect the problems of the community as a whole.”

Rosemary James

Gerontology Aide

Gerontology Aide
Biography

Rosemary James is a longtime gerontology aide at a nursing home in the Ruby Lake neighborhood, and also a longtime volunteer and mentor at Ruby Lake high school.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

ROSEMARY: “I think what kids need are mentors. When kids come from broken families, they need other adults who they can lean on to show them how to make the right choices. And families need mentors too–especially parents with young single parents. We’ve been working on starting a program in the nursing home where I work where older adults serve as mentors for younger people–both teenagers and young parents. You know what they say. Fix one person, fix the world.”

Victor Maldonado

Director, Ruby Lake Neighborhood Outreach

Biography

Longtime community volunteer Victor Maldonado became the director of the newly formed Ruby Lake Neighborhood Outreach last year.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Organizational Skills.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

VICTOR: “I’ve been living in this neighborhood for a long time, and I know how much people are hurting around here. Young people don’t feel a sense of hope. They see parents without good jobs, and a community where there’s very little upward mobility. We have to find effective ways to invest in our children and our community. There’s no easy solution to prevent youth and teen homeless—we have to work together with nonprofits and government agencies to make lasting community changes that impact everyone. Otherwise, the things we do to help teens are just temporary measures.”

Barbara McConnell

Life Skills Instructor

Biography

Barbara McConnell has been employed by the Ruby Lake One-Stop Center as an employment counselor for the past five years. She previously worked at group homes for developmental disabled adults, and at a nonprofit organization that served underprivileged youth.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
• Knowledge of human developmental stages.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

BARBARA: “We need to equip kids with the skills they need to be successful in life. This should happen after they become homeless–but better yet if we can do this to help them from becoming homeless in the first place. Financial skills. Study skills. Basic job skills, so that kids will learn what’s expected of them in a professional setting. Kids in this neighborhood are growing up in difficult situations, and we would be doing them a service to teach them how to cope. “

Robert Mendez

Child Pyschologist

Biography

Robert Mendez has been a child psychologist for the past 10 years. He works primarily with teenagers, both in private practice and at a crisis center.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
• Exceptional professional boundary setting.

Detailed note-taking ability.
Understanding of human psychology.

• Knowledge of interventions.

Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

ROBERT: “I think there needs to be a lot more focus on preventing homelessness, and one of the things we can do is to focus on improving the health of families. Kids don’t become homeless when they live in healthy families—at least not very often. What do I mean by this? Well, it means parental education. It means making sure kids and their parents have access to a strong education, to good medical care, to good nutrition and health habits. It means making sure that homes are physically and emotionally safe places for kids to thrive.”

Jeremy Pless

Child Protective Services Case Worker

Biography

Jeremy Pless has been a case worker for CPS for the past four years. Previously he worked as a social worker at an area hospital.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Exceptional professional boundary setting.
Knowledge of human developmental stages.
Detailed note-taking ability.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

JEREMY: “We have to do more to help kids in the foster system. And that’s a tall order. One thing we need as a community is more resources for families–so that kids don’t wind up in the foster system, and so that other families are better equipped to serve as foster families. Families need access to resources like addiction treatment and mental health treatment, and also to more basic needs like food and affordable housing. When families are doing better, the foster care system isn’t stretched so much, and we can better serve the kids we already have.”

Lyle Redcloud

Community Organizer and Advocate

Biography

Lyle Redcloud is a former high school teacher who now works for the Riverbend City Civil Liberties Union. He volunteers heavily in the Ruby Lake community as an organizer and advocate for community needs.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)
Active listening skills.
Organizational Skills.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

LYLE: “I’m not surprised that the Ruby Lake neighborhood has such a high percentage of homeless youth. That’s a symptom of so many other issues we have. The lack of jobs that pay a living wage is a huge part of the problem. Putting our efforts into making sure that families have a safe and affordable place to live—along with access to food, medical care, and other basic needs—should be priority number one for this task force. “

Alece Rockwell

Director, Ruby Lake High School Child Care Center

Biography

Alece Rockwell is the founder and director of the Ruby Lake High School Child Care Center, a center that serves young parents and their children at Ruby Lake High School with the goal of keeping single parents in school.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
• Knowledge of Human Developmental stages.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

ALECE: “As part of the effort to address teen homelessness, we really need to address the crisis of teen pregnancy in this neighborhood. We’ve been able to help many girls stay in school. But not all of them. I know for a fact that there are teen girls who attended Ruby Lake High School who became homeless. While it’s important to provide resources to help pregnant girls and young mothers—as we do at my child care center—we could do more to address homelessness if we did a lot more to prevent teen pregnancy in our community. A lot of parents in this area have some pretty conservative attitudes about sex ed and other teen pregnancy prevention efforts, and the school has been afraid to address this head on. I strongly think this needs to change, and that the school district needs to partner with outside agencies to really address the teen pregnancy issue. “

Shelly Rodriguez

Group Home Assistant Director

Biography

After earning a degree in social work last year, Shelly Rodriguez joined the Washington Avenue Crisis Center for Youth as the assistant director.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Detailed note-taking ability.
Exceptional professional boundary setting.
Understanding of human psychology.
Knowledge of interventions.
Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

SHELLY: “If I were on this committee, first thing on my list would be more shelters so we can help these kids now! Yeah, we need to do more to prevent homelessness in the community. But first we absolutely have to deal with the number of kids we have on the streets right now. It’s an epidemic! When you’re in the middle of an epidemic, you put some effort into prevention—but your first priority has to be on treating the victims! Do you have any idea how many kids we have to turn away? If I told you, you would cry. “

Jamie Stone

Case Worker, Hennsey County Dept. of Health

Biography

Jamie Stone has been a case worker for the past five years. Previously she was a case worker at Riverbend Senior Services.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Active listening skills.
Verbal and written communication skills.
Exceptional professional boundary setting.
Detailed note-taking ability.
Empathetic.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

JAMIE: “These kids need everything! We need more shelters, more addiction and mental health treatment, more community mentors, more training for people at schools so they can intervene on behalf of kids. But we also need community programs to prevent families from becoming homeless in the first place. Job training programs, and emergency housing programs, and more affordable housing, and better access to treatment for addiction. So many things. I don’t know where to start.”

Julie Yang

Information and Data Analytics Specialist

Biography

Julie Yang has worked as an Information and Data Analytics Specialist for the City of Riverbend City for the past four years. She analyzes the need for and the impact of program initiatives.

Knowledge, Skills, and Attributes (KSA)

Data analytics.
• Advanced math skills.
• Targeted research skills.
• Interpersonal skills.
• Report writing.

How would you help homeless youth and teens?

JULIE: “Teen homelessness in the Ruby Lake neighborhood is a complicated problem. We need to gather as much information as we can about this problem. Why are teens homeless? What factors do homeless teens have in common? What are some successful things that have worked in the past to help homeless teens find resources? What programs have effectively prevented teen homelessness? We need to spend some time gathering and analyzing data—and we need to not jump into decision making without doing our homework first.”

Conclusion

As you’ve seen, the various stakeholders involved in a project have very distinct needs when it comes to the information they will need over the course of the project.

As you prepare your stakeholder registry, consider what information you will need in order to create a communications plan that will help you meet the stakeholder expectations and needs.

When you return to the courseroom, you will analyze these scenarios in a discussion question.

Reflection Questions

What do you think is the most challenging roadblock to helping homeless youth in the Ruby Lake neighborhood? What are some ways the task force might address this roadblock?

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

What do you think is the most challenging ethical issue that the task force might face when addressing the issue of homeless youth? How might they address this issue?

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

If you were on this task force, what issue involving homeless youth would you be most compelled to address? Explain why.

Your response:

This question has not been answered yet.

Credits
Subject Matter Expert:
William Ross
Interactive Design:
Alyssa Jensen
Interactive Developer:
Dre Allen, Matt Taylor
Instructional Design:
Judi Gronseth
Media Instructional Design:
Naomi Rockler Gladen
Project Management:
Marc Ashmore, Andrea Thompson

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