This is a complex exercise. You are developing the working
intervention model for a human services agency you are establishing. Envision
an agency you would like to establish and use that agency in this exercise. The
exercise requires a stakeholder panel.
When actually establishing an agency, this panel would be developed by
including participants from points A, 1, B, and possibly points 2, and
3 on the Helping Triangle for the
agency. For purposes of the exercise, select at least three associates to serve
as your stakeholder panel. They will represent Potential Clients, Initiators,
Authorizers, and perhaps Implementers and Providers. The exercise also refers
to a focus group and a knowledge pool. Who should be in these groups is
explained in the chapter. Recruit at least three of your associates to
participate in each group for the purposes of this exercise. People may need to
serve in more than one group, i.e.,
your stakeholder panel, your knowledge pool, and your focus group. Once you
have established the three groups above, you are ready to answer the questions
below.
- Who
should the agency’s clients be? – Develop a list of criteria people must
satisfy to be eligible for client
status. Once you have the criteria list, validate it with your stakeholder
panel. - What
specific difficulties do people who are eligible to be agency clients
experience coping with the range of needs, problems, and vulnerabilities
they experience in their day-to-day lives? Develop at least two brief
sketches or profiles of people who meet the eligibility criteria and are
experiencing these difficulties. These profiles are narratives or stories,
with the client as the main character. The stories are told from the
client’s point of view. Once you have your profiles, validate them with
your stakeholder panel. - With
which of the difficulties the people in the profiles are experiencing does
the agency expect to help? This gives you a list of specific
difficulties or issues with which the agency expects to help: the agency’s
Intervention Focus. Once you
have developed the Intervention Focus, validate it with the stakeholder
panel. - How
do people experiencing the difficulties included in the Intervention Focus
cope with those difficulties when they are able to cope on an independent,
self-directed basis, using their private opportunities and resources?
With a focus group selected by you, Share the profiles and the preliminary
Intervention Focus, inviting the group to share its thoughts and
perspectives on the question. - How
will you know when the services the agency provides are successful? Ask
the focus group to suggest criteria the agency should use to assess
whether or not its services are successful. Your goal is to add a happy ending to the profiles
developed earlier. - What
are your service scenarios developed through the preceding steps? – Who is
the client; what are the specific issues or difficulties he or she
experienced; What agency resources or opportunities did he access to help
with those difficulties or issues; and how is he coping better, how is he
better off for having received agency services? Once you have finished the
service scenarios, validate them with your stakeholder panel. - What
will the specific components of the agencys intervention array be; what
services will the agency provide; and how will the agency provide those
services to its clients? Once you have answered these questions,
validate your answers with your stakeholder panel. - Who
will you invite to join your knowledge
pool? Along with a list of possible participants, also draft the
letter you will send to potential participants inviting them to join the
process. - Once
you have formed the knowledge pool and have received their advice and
guidance, what is on the list of services and activities the people in the
knowledge pool think are essential for achieving the outcomes you want to
achieve? – After you have met with the knowledge pool, compare their list
to the intervention focus developed earlier. Merge their list and the
intervention focus and share it with your stakeholder panel. Based on that
step, finalize the adjusted intervention array you will use for the
agency. - What
is the intervention model most
of the members of the knowledge pool believe represents a state-of-the-art
approach to providing the services and activities suggested by the group?
Make any modifications to that model needed for it to work with your
adjusted intervention array. The result is the working model for your
agency. Re-visit the knowledge pool to solicit comments and
recommendations about your working model. Make any appropriate adjustments
to the model you think are appropriate. You now have the working
intervention model for the agency you are establishing.