Human Service Organizations

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Recommended: Role and responsibility of social services

Human service organizations are at the heart of the social service industry. It is through these organizations that social workers are able to provide those in need with “goods and services” (Zastrow & Ashman, 46). Four key elements which are at the core of a human service organization are:

1. Organizations are social entities-made up of people with all their strengths and failings.

2. Organizations are goal-directed. They exist for some specific purpose.

3. Organizations are deliberately structured and coordinated activity systems. They have structures that include policies for how the organization should be run, hierarchies of how personnel are supervised and by whom, and different units working in various ways to help the organization function.

4. Organizations are linkage to the external environment. Thus, an organization is in constant interaction with other systems in the social environment, including individuals, groups, other organizations, and communities. (Zastrow & Ashman, 47).

Each of these elements work with the other, and help to create an environment that is most capable of meeting the needs of the community with which it serves.

An example of a human service organization in my community is the Lorain County Office on Aging. The Lorain County Office on Aging has three offices located throughout Lorain County. Each office offers many services to the aging community. It serves as a “safety net” for many who have not financially prepared for the major

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lifestyle changes which aging often brings.

I met with the director of the office, Anne Spelic. She holds a mast...

... middle of paper ...

...efore them daily. They must struggle to get the maximum benefit out of the smallest mean. The collective must pull together their strengths, their creativity, and their heart in order to meet the pressing needs of a community who grew old without realizing it.

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References

Aging. Retrieved from http://www.socialworkers.org/pressroom/features/issue

/aging.asp

Cutler. N. (1998). Preparing for Their Older Years: The Financial Diversity of Aging Boomers. Generations, 22(1), 81-89.

Uhlenberg, P. Demography is Not Destiny: The Challenges and Opportunities of

Global Population Aging. Generations. 37, 12-18.

Zastrow, Charles H. & Kirst-Ashman, Karen K., (2013) Human Behavior and the

Social Environment. 9th Edition.

.

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