Response Guidelines

Read the posts of the other learners and respond to the initial post of at least one. Suggest additional ways the learner could bolster the skills he or she will need for successful program development.

Student post down below:

For each stage of program development there are a number of specific skill sets and knowledge required (research and data collection/discrimination and application, the ability to professionally envision and enact the links between needs/design/service delivery/outcomes, fully understanding budgetary and communication responsibilities to funding sources/stakeholders/staff/consumers) (Calley, 2011).

But the most vital skill, I believe, is having an informed, empathetic, and committed desire to understand the cultural identity of the target population, the community itself, and even the funding sources. As therapists our commitment is to connect with people relationally. As therapist leaders (i.e. human services) our ethical duty is to seek to understand and uplift the system as a whole.

Everything exists in a system from the micro (individuals, families) to the macro (communities, social service agencies, corporations). I want to be a leader that ‘treats’ the system. That bonds with and collaborates with the system and seeks to enhance that system in ways that are sensitive to the historical and current system environment and that reflects that system’s wants and needs…not mine.