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- QUESTION
Gap Analysis
This assignment, 1–2 pages:
For this assignment, choose an organization that you are interested in.
This is an example of what I would like to see in this essay.
This is the organization that needs to be covered in this essay: Children’s Home Society of America
Children’s Home Society of America Gap Analysis
(SAMPLE COPY)
Strategic planning is a set of procedures that help organizations and communities align their priorities with changing conditions and new opportunities (Patti, 2009). One element of the strategic plan is the development of a gap analysis. A gap analysis is a process used to assess the current resources and future needs of an organization. This is done by analyzing competing organizations and identifying where there may be a deficit.
Children’s Home Society of America (CHSA) is a well-established nonprofit organization. It was founded in 1883 and has been around over 125 years. It’s longevity in the child welfare arena has garnered CHSA a well-respected reputation for providing quality services to the community. Though adoption services are offered through CHSA it is only a fraction of what they do. Children’s Home Society of America offers a large variety of education, prevention and adoption services to children and families. A few services include counseling, substance abuse treatment programs, transition services, international child welfare advocacy, etc. CHSA also act as advocates for legislative change in child welfare funding policy. “Children’s Home Society of America (CHSA) asserts that comprehensive reform is needed to provide flexible and comprehensive services that will lead to achieving our national goal of ensuring the safety of children in their own homes and communities” (Children's Home Society of America, 2012).
Support your Assignment with specific references to all resources used in its preparation. You are asked to provide a reference list for all resources, including those in the Learning Resources for this course
Learning Resources
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user id: [email protected] password: School2019!Required Readings
Patti, R. J. (Ed.). (2009). The handbook of human services management (2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Chapter 15, "Managing the Planning Process"
| Subject | Essay Writing | Pages | 4 | Style | APA |
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Answer
Children’s Home Society of America Gap Analysis
Children's Home Society of America (CHSA) is a no-profit organization based in the USA that was established to take care of homeless children. It was established in 1883 and has been in operation for more than 125 years. Currently, the organization is struggling to meets its recurrent needs because of budget cuts and austerity measures. This prompts the need for a gap analysis. According to Walsh and Schaeffer (2008), gap analysis refers to an element of strategic planning used to evaluate the future needs versus current resources of an organization. In the light of this information, this paper presents a SWOT analysis for the Children’s Home Society of America.
SWOT is an analytical framework that assesses an organization by identifying its strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (Simoneaux & Stroud 2011). The main strengths of Children’s Home Society of America include; its well-respected reputation. In addition, it is among the most respected and trusted advocate for child welfare. This has helped attract strong and reliable support from member agencies, and partners in both the public and private sectors. In addition, CHS (2019) notes that CHSA has strong leadership under Sharon Osborne who is the executive director of the Children’s Home Society and Trust Foundation.
CHSA’s weaknesses include extravagant spending because the organization lacks a dedicated budget controller. Because of the large size of the organization, the accountant is currently overwhelmed with book-keeping thus dedicates less time in analyzing budgets and introducing budget cuts as well as other austerity programs.
Opportunities at CHSA include employing cross-cultural employees. This is a strategic decision that will promote diversity and inclusivity at the organization. As a result, it will be attractive to diverse groups of users (Simoneaux & Stroud, 2011). Secondly, CHSA needs to embrace digital approaches to marketing. Given that the organization works with tech savvy millennials, this strategy will help increase the visibility of Children’s Home Society of America on digital platforms.
The biggest threat to this organization is lack of supportive government policies. According to CHSA, the government needs to undertake extensive legislative changes by enacting new funding policies in support of children welfare (CHS, 2019). Government reforms should be comprehensive and made to focus on the provision of flexible services to facilitate the realization of national goals on child safety in communities and homes.
In conclusion, the SWOT analysis is vital in conducting a gap analysis. Basically, the weaknesses and threats help identify the shortcomings within the micro and macro environment that deter the effective management of the CHSA. On the contrary, strengths and opportunities explicate factors that limit the gap between current resources and future needs.
References
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Children's Home Society of America. (2019). Children's Home Society of America: Creating lasting, positive change for our country's children Available at: https://www.childrenshomesociety.org/chsa Simoneaux, S. L., & Stroud, C. L. (2011). SWOT analysis: The annual check-up for a business. Journal of Pension Benefits: Issues in Administration, 18(3), 75-78. Walsh, M. F., & Schaeffer, P. V. (2008). Exploring gap analysis to evaluate participant satisfaction regarding community development planning programs. Community Development, 39(3), 115-129.
Appendix
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