Answer

            Introduction                                                                                                  

This report focuses on the student’s work placement experience at Hornsey Vale Community Centre. The work placement was undertaken for 30 days, as a requirement of the London Metropolitan University. The university requires students to undertake a work placement for a minimum of 30 days and a maximum of 50 days. The student commenced the work placement on the 2^nd of October 2018 and completed this process on 18/01/2019. This process was undertaken to provide the student with an opportunity to apply theory acquired in class in real world circumstances of community development, test the student’s abilities, and enhances the learner’s skills in community development practice. The work placement also enabled the student to acquire experience needed to execute future community development tasks or roles in an effective manner. The areas covered in this report are the aims of the report, researching the report, finding work, preparation, and search, discussion of the organisation (Hornsey Vale Community Centre) in which placement occurred, review of the student’s work role and skills during the placement, and analysis of a theme associated with the placement. The report then concludes by a general assessment of the learning experience’s nature. These areas are covered in the subsequent subheadings:

1b        Aims of the Report                                                                                      

The following are the aims of this report:

• To address all the sections of the report in an adequate manner
• To demonstrate a good comprehension of the student’s placement
• To reveal evidence of the application of standards for community development
• To demonstrate the student’s awareness of community development values
• To demonstrate evidence of reading and research
• To show coherence across the sections of the report

2a        Researching the Report /the Evidence Base                                           

Secondary and primary research or sources were considered in the search for the data for this report. This undertaking was underpinned by the notion that a student’s work placement serves as a form of organisation research or case study. The methods that were employed in collecting information for the report are described in the subheadings below:

Secondary Research

According to Creswell (2014), secondary research takes into consideration data or information that has been gathered by somebody else previously. Richey and Klein (2014) assert that this form of data is also known as past data and is often accessible via various offline and online resources, government records, and past researchers. The embracement of secondary research by the student presented several benefits including easily accessible data for the report, access to a range of data for writing the report, saving time needed to execute the research, and exposure to data gathered in a professional manner (Richey & Klein, 2014).  In relation to this, the student employed various sources of secondary data in gathering data for the report. The first source of secondary data that the student consulted was the Hornsey Vale Community Centre’s website. This source enabled the student to collect data on the organisation’s management, mission or social issues targeted by the organisation, history, and context within which the organisation operates. Apart from gathering secondary data from the organisation’s website, the student also focused on collecting data for the report on the internet. Different academic databases such as Proquest and Ebsco were accessed for peer-reviewed articles that focus on various issues that are discussed in this report in relation to community development work placement. The internet was also employed in accessing information about the National Occupational Standards for community development. These sources contributed significantly to the student’s access to a range of data that was employed in developing this report. 

Primary research                                                

Creswell (2014) asserts that primary research takes into consideration the involvement of the investigator or researcher in gathering data herself or himself. In this form of research, the investigator focuses on the collection of real-time data. This nature of data is gathered during the course of a given research project or activity and is under the direct control of the researcher. Primary research can be executed using various methods including questionnaire, interviews, observation, and the investigator’s involvement in aspect under investigation. The embracement of primary research in the collection of data for the study enabled the student to gather first-hand information or data for the report. The student gathered primary data for report by involving himself in organisational activities. The student also conducted everyday observations about the activities of the organisation, as a means of collecting primary data for the report. In addition, the naturally occurring conversations between the student, organisational staff, and target community members were also taken into consideration as part of the data for the report. Critical incidents that transpired in the course of the work placement period were recorded in the student’s log and preserved for the development of this report.

Ethics was embraced during the process of gathering data for the report. The student ensured that the confidentiality of the organisation and individuals, who were involved in the provision of data for the report, was respected. Richey and Klein (2014) assert that the community development workers must often uphold or respect the privacy of others or individuals during the processes of data collection. The author argues that interviews or personal guidance interactions should be conducted in suitably private and agreed settings or environments. The aspect of confidentially was upheld during the student’s interaction with the targeted members of the community in which the organisations operations were executed. The student adopted several measures to uphold the privacy of individuals.  For example, the student ensured that individuals were informed or aware of the boundaries of confidentiality as well as data-sharing at the commencement of the data gathering process. Anonymity of individuals was maintained even when it came to the recording of data in the student’s log. The student ensured that disclosure of individuals’ confidential information was not done without the consent of the person involved.

2b        Finding Work, preparation and search                                                     

Searching for placement requires that the student be persistent and resourceful (Staton, 2016). The student commenced the process of searching for a placement by focusing on insider information from educators and colleagues on where and when to seek opportunities for placement and the support available for the student throughout the placement period. The student then proceeded to search for advertised placements in different sources or media platforms and internet such as vacancy databases or career network websites. The student also performed the search on the weekly internships and placement bulletin published by or listed by the Careers Network in various sectors. Moreover, the student conducted the search on social media accounts administrated by Career Network channels including twitter and Facebook accounts. Searches were also conducted on the sources provided on the Career network website.

Several aspects were taken into consideration when it came to selecting the organisation available for placement. The student focused on the roles available, organisations’ areas of operations, affiliations, types of placement or placement time offered, organisational motivations, availability of wages or bonuses, alignment to the student’s interests and skills, and size of the organisation. In relation to these factors, the student considered Hornsey Vale Community Centre a suitable organisation for placement. The next process involved the establishment of the recruitment process at the organisation. This goal was accomplished by visiting the organisation’s website and searching for the procedures employed by the organisation in recruiting students for placements and internships. This process was followed by sending the student’s Curricula Vitae (CV) to the organisation. After getting a placement role at Hornsey Community Centre, the subsequent processes or stages involved the determination whether the role met the student’s academic course requirements for community development. The student also established whether the role met the relevant National Occupational Standards and values for community development. The confirmation of the student’s role was followed by advising the student’s department, placement coordinator about the location of the organisation, time and date of placement, duration of placement. 

3          The Organisation: Its Management, Context, related Social Issues     

Hornsey Vale Community Centre is every person’s village hall within the heart of North London. The organisation is run or operated by the local community and focuses on the interests of the local community (Hornsey Vale Community Centre. n.d.a). The centre runs over 50 dissimilar activities and regular classes every day. These classes and activities are run by the organisational instructors and private instructors (Hornsey Vale Community Centre, n.d.a). The centre is also associated with different groups including martial arts meant for kids, ballet for adults, evening meditation group, and informal craft club among others. Besides, the organisation runs a range of regular classes and activities on its own or in collaboration with local projects like the MS Society Exercise Together assemblage or the centre’s monthly Community Lunch Club for Over 50s (Hornsey Vale Community Centre, n.d.a).

As a community-based organisation, Hornsey Vale Community Centre endeavours to embrace and develop National Occupational Standards (NOS) in many ways. The centre accomplishes this goal by engaging in various social activities or operations. Throughout the year, the centre organises a range of community events, which are often held by partnering with other local agencies. Examples of the centre’s partners are Friends of Stationer’s Park, Action for Kids, Age UK, and local businesses such as Freemans Butchers, Broadway Fruiters and Dunn’s Bakery (Hornsey Vale Community Centre, n.d.a). The centre employs these projects as an opportunity to bring individuals together and share their experiences, as well as create a vibrant community.  By partnering with local businesses and different partners or agencies in ensuring the benefit of the community, the centre manages to promote key area four of NOS, which is associated with the support and promotion of community development approach to cross-sectoral and collaborative working. It is also vital to note that the centre’s establishment of novel partnerships and projects using community development practice and approach is in line with the key area six of the NOS, which is associated with the provision of community development aid or support to organisations. The organisation’s ability to support organisations is attributed majorly to its self-supporting model of operation. According to Hornsey Vale Community Centre (n.d.a), the centre is largely financially self-sustaining via room for hire services that include the provision of rooms for regular classes, parties, and events. In addition, the organisation has a circular funding contract with the Haringey Council. This council is in charge of the current fund for the centre’s outreach programme, which is run by Hornsey Vale Community Association. The Hornsey Vale Community Association is a charitable, not-for-profit organisation (Hornsey Vale Community Centre. n.d.a).

As aforementioned, the centre has different groups focused on ensuring the development and progress of individuals and community members including kids. In this manner, manages to promote Key area three of NOS, which focuses on taking a community development approach to collective action and group work. In addition, by bring various members of the community in working together and sharing experiences, the centre promotes key area five of the community development national occupational standards, which focuses on supporting the learning of the community from shared experiences. The organization employs the principles of social regeneration approach in achieving its primary goal. This goal is accomplished by the establishment or existence of the resident of Hornsey and the development of Islington community. The organisation also demonstrates the employment of the social regeneration approach in accomplishing its objects by involving the people of Hornsey to contribute their idea in the development of Islington borough. This goal is attained by means of the strategy outlined by the Islington project (2002), which include the 17 wards in Islington to prioritized the main themes such as education, young people, employment, health, housing, vulnerable people, community safety, financial inclusion, and building capacity (Hornsey Vale Community Centre. n.d.a). In this manner, the centre addresses key area two of NOS, which focuses on the comprehension of and engagement with communities.  Moreover, the organisation’s activities focused on addressing issues associated with housing, vulnerable individuals, employment, health, education, financial inclusion, and community safety enables the centre to address key area one of the NOS. This area covers issues such as comprehension and practise of community development, integration and employment of the community development values and process, functioning with the tensions inherent within the practice of community development, and relation tom various communities.

4          Your Work Role & Skills Review                                                   

Twelvetrees (2002) considers community development a long-term value-based process aimed at addressing imbalances within power and bringing about change established on equality, inclusion, and social justice. This process enables individuals to organise and function together to establish their aspirations and needs, embrace actions aimed at exerting influence on decisions affecting their lives, as well as improve the quality of their lives and that of communities in which they reside, and society of which they form part (Skinner, 1997). In relation to this my role as a community development worker during the placement was to help the Hornsey community to realise social change and improve their lives and their community’s quality of life. I accomplished this goal by integrating people from the community to come together and discuss their problems and share their experiences. According to Hogget (1997), community development work focuses on active engagement of communities in creating sense of problems or issues, which impact their lives, establishing goals for advancement, and addressing or responding to needs and problems via active participation and empowerment. During my placement at Hornsey Community Centre I undertook several tasks in line with my role that contributed significantly to upholding the community development values and standards outlined by NOS.

According to Ledwith (2005), the practice of community development takes into consideration supporting groups and working with individuals to increase their confidence, skills, and knowledge. As a community development worker, I was involved I working with Hornsey community in identifying their skills, needs, issues, and assets. I undertook several tasks to ensure that community members came together to discuss their concerns. For instance, I focused on encouraging individuals to join hands in addressing their problems by sharing their ideas and ideas. This responsibility was in line with the value of collection action as outlined by NOS.

Popple (1995) and Cookle and Shaw (1997) argue that the practice of community development promotes a collective course that enables individuals to learn from the reflection of their experiences. By bringing people together to address their issues, I provided a platform on which they could meet and analyse their circumstances and establish problems that they could address via collective action. As such, this undertaking also served to promote the value of working and learning together. It is also vital to note that bringing members of the Hornsey community to identify their assets contributed to the promotion of the CD value of community empowerment. Harris (2009) and Eade (1997) assert that the practice of community development seeks to empower communities and individuals via using the community’s strength to realise the desired changes. Bring individuals within the Hornsey community together to identify their opportunities, assets, and responsibilities, as well as rights was also among my responsibilities during my placement at Hornsey Vale Community Centre.   Coming together for a common course enabled individuals within the Hornsey community to establish their potentials in addressing issues associated with community safety, financial inclusion, health, and education. Helping the community to address such issues also contributed to the promotion of the CD value of social justice. According to Meade (2016) and Craig et al. (2008), increasing social justice serves as an essential component of community development practice. Such an undertaking involves the identification and alleviation of structural disadvantages and promotion of approaches aimed at overcoming inequality, discrimination, and exclusion. In relation to this, my role as a community development worker was to bring people within the Hornsey community together to identify and alleviate structural disadvantages that impacted the lives of vulnerable individuals including the disabled persons. Moreover, I brought individuals together to identify and address structural issues that resulted in financial exclusions, lack of education, and poor health and wellbeing of certain groups of people within the community.

During my placement at Hornsey Vale Community Centre, I was also in charge of helping the organisation to raise public awareness in relation to issues or problems relevant to the community. I accomplished this goal by creating flyers on such issues and initiatives or interventions for addressing them. The flyers also served to inform community members about meetings for the discussion of problems experienced within the Hornsey community. This undertaking was also in line with enhancing the process of planning, coordinating, and attending organisational events for the community and meetings held between the organisational staff and community members. As such, my roles as a community worker during my placement at Hornsey Community Centre were in line with the standards and values of community development as provided by the NOS. Even though I did not manage to undergo any training during my placement, I manage to acquire range of skills in the course of executing my responsibilities. Prior to entering the organisation, I had limited or no skills in areas associated with working with community members to identify their needs, issues, assets, and skills, helping to create public awareness on issues affecting communities, preparing field work reports, group administration, and establishing links with groups or community members. However, engaging in various responsibilities related to these areas contributed significantly to my acquisition of on-the-job skills, which were pertinent in these areas. I believe that these skills can be advanced further by engaging more activities and responsibilities in these job areas. Furthermore, undertaking training can contribute largely to advancing my skills in these areas. Other skills related to my role, which I still need to develop, are conflict management skills, fund raising and management for communities, and supervisory skills for limited budgets. 

5          Analysis of a Theme                                                                        

Funding issues for not-for-profit organisations was one of the major themes that emerged during my placement. Funding issues happen to be among the major challenges that not-for-profit organisations continue to grapple with. According to Craig et al. (2011) and Cortis (2017), the primary goal of not-for-profit organisations is serve a public mission, as opposed to making money. As such, balancing the funding and mission is what defines not-for-profit organisations and isolates them from for-profit firms or companies. Not-for profit organisations often spend much of their time and efforts on seeking for ways of attracting funds. In many situations, such efforts are void of selling products. Not-for-profit organisations just ask individuals to hand over funds or contribute finances to their activities, and contributors comply willingly. Relying on such an approach is risky considering that operations executed by not-for-profit organisations can stall in the absence of funds from contributors. As such, not-for-profit organisations should focus on the establishment of novel way or models of operations that can enable them to generate funds without relying majorly on external funding. Thompson and Williams (2014) and Craig et al (2011) add that not-for-profit organisations always struggle to find adequate finances to survive, and this situation often result in a constant urge to raise funds in a more effective manner.

While conducting my placement at Hornsey Vale Community Centre, I established that the organisation’s self-supporting model played a significant role in the generation of funds for organisational activities or operations. The centre is involved in the provision of room for hire services that enables it to raise funds to execute its activities within the Hornsey community. The centre is also engaged in a circular funding contract with the Haringey Council, as a means of ensuring constant supply of funds to the organisation. In addition, the organisation is involved in partnerships with other organisations and local businesses, which in turn enables it to obtain adequate funds and resources to run its operations. As such, it can be noted that the existence of self-sustaining model of operation founded on income generating activities, engagement in contracts with other organisations, and formation of alliances with other not-for-profit organisations and local businesses is significant in ensuring constant and reliable sources of funding to activities and operations of not-for-profit entities. Such an undertaking ensures that community development initiatives are executed in effective and efficient ways, which in turn leads to success. In relation to this, there is a significant need to investigate various approaches or mechanisms of creating self-supporting not-for-profit organisations, with the aim of ensuring the adoption of such strategies.       

• Conclusion & Evaluation

The learning experience encountered during my placement contributed significantly to equipping me with skills and knowledge needed to undertake real life tasks and responsibilities within the community development practice. Even though the placement only lasted a month, I manage to acquire a range of on-the-job skills in areas such as working with individuals within a community to identify their skills, needs, problems, and assets, public awareness creation skills including development of flyers to distribute to the targeted community, development of field work reports, administration of community groups, and relationship building or networking skills. Prior to my involvement with the placement, I had limited skills in these areas. The placement enabled me to gain the practical experience needed to execute real world duties within the practice of community development. This undertaking also provided me with an opportunity to apply knowledge gained in class in addressing real world issues such as awareness creation and formation of groups. I believe that working with experience community development workers within Hornsey Vale Community Centre played a significant role in the acquisition of my skills and realisation of my placement success. I spend time working alongside an experienced community development worker, especially when it came to mobilising and encouraging Hornsey community members to participate in meetings and events organised by the organisation. Experienced community development workers also guided in me in developing and distributing flyers to individuals within the Hornsey community.

Despite acquiring skills in the aforementioned areas, I still need to acquire community development skills in different areas such as and supervisory skills for limited budgets, conflict management skills, and skills needed for fund raising and management for communities. However, I believe that my inability to acquire these skills was attributed to the short placement period that I had and the nature of responsibility assigned to me during my placement. In relation to this, my career action plan will integrate the attainment of these skills and working in areas that will enable me to acquire and develop such skills. 

I intend to embrace several measures in the future develop my career and enhance my skills in the execution of community development practice. I will enrol for short courses aimed at equipping me with skills such as conflict management and management of limited budgets for community development initiatives. I will then proceed to seek a placement of at least 3 months with the Hornsey Vale Community Centre or a similar organisation. Such an undertaking will enable me to develop the skills that I will have acquired from the short courses.  Moreover, working in such an organisation for a considerable time will enable me to acquire new skills under new roles. Besides, such an undertaking will provide me with an opportunity secure employment with the same or similar organisation. I will focus on further development of skills by undertaking trainings provided by my employer. In addition, I will focus on furthering my education my enrolling for a part-time master’s program within the field of community development. While working as a community development worker and pursuing a master’s program in the community development skills, I will focus on the establishment of professional networks with community development workers or professionals in other organisations and sectors. After the completion of my master’s programme, I will proceed to pursue my doctorate program within the field of community development. The completion of such a program will equip me with adequate research skills and knowledge required to address critical issues in the community development practice. Such an accomplishment will also enable me to secure a good job in a senior position within a leading organisation. While in my position, I will work with like-minded community development professionals in researching solutions to issues such as strategies for achieving self-sustaining models in not-for-profit organisations. In this manner, I will have excelled in scaling my career, professional, and personal developments to greater heights.