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 agency’s 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.