Social organizations play an important role in helping members of society overcome challenges that could be regarded as less profitable by the private sector and of lesser concentrated benefits by the private sectors. Businessmen thus avoid these issues because there is be money to be made, whereas governments stay away. After all, tax monies would not benefit as many citizens. The needy people are therefore left with no one to champion for their needs.
This is the void that socials private and public social programs and agencies come to fill. This proposal illustrates how to establish a social program dealing with educating people on proper parenthood. The proposal is divided into several sections dealing with independent issues. The first section addresses the main problem, second with an analysis of the problem, third with the policy elements of the program, fourth with policy elements, fifth with financing and staffing issues.
The Problem
American society faces a grave danger of increasing problems in parenthood. For instance, the ever-increasing divorce cases in the country are putting pressure on parenthood. Many are the people who get into marriage without being fully ready or understanding what they could be getting themselves into. There is a need for future American parents to embark on improving their understanding of the best practice of parenthood.
The role of preparing individuals for parenthood has historically been left to parents and the involved couples. Society, in general, has stayed away from facing the issue, but this needs to change for American society to start experiencing positive change.
Parenting issues usually affect young couples in their twenties and thirties (Harkness, 2001, p. 47). This demographic group is the one that needs to change parenting styles to benefit their children in the future. In addition, the demographic group would form a source of inspiration for younger Americans inspiring them to be parents in later days. This younger set of parents are also more likely to concentrate in classes as they are more energetic compared to their older counterparts. In addition, being the most susceptible to poor parenting and divorce cases makes them more interested in learning the better practices of parenting.
In addition, the organization to be established intends to develop mechanisms that deal more with technology that only the younger generation of parents can relate with. This includes the extensive use of the internet as the primary source of information dissemination.
The social program intends to address the problem that is slowly destroying current and future American lives. The program will thus embark on helping individual young parents understand the importance of incorporating best practices while bringing up their young ones. This is in understanding that proper family units are the source of strength for American societies. Poor parenting can only lead to children developing poor skills that could be passed on to the next generation.
The program is not in any way suggesting that American society is the worst in parenting. Indeed, it is hereby being acknowledged that American society is a trendsetter in bringing up the next generation. However, the cases of poor parenting by young couples are alarming and should therefore be addressed. The program intends to help struggling couples recover. Attending program events would be completely individuals’ choice though they would be encouraged to attend by program employees and associates.
Analysis
The current problem in parenthood in America originates from the time parents spend with each other and with their children. Many are parents with full-time jobs, some have more than one. Children grow up either with house help or in daycare. Parents’ busy schedules are sometimes conflicting, which steals away the time of discussing and arranging better ways to handle work life and family. The stress from work could spread to homes and spoil the good environment to bring up kids (Graue, 2004, p. 154). The Parenthood Institute shall embark on helping individual couples could arrange for better ways to arrange a time for each other.
The theory of strong families as the source of a strong society is hereby taken as the premise for Parenthood Institute’s work. Couples would thus be encouraged to take their families as part of strong American society, and that taking care of the young ones using best practices would be a phenomenon contributing to the nation. Parenthood Institute would thus be developing a strong foundation for American society, which would be the primary mission.
The institute would not be a place to show Americans how to lead their lives, but a place to help America’s young couples cherish what they have and make it more fruitful. The gainers in the institute are Americans from all walks of life because the improved society would be something for all to cherish. Individual young couples participating in Parenthood Institute’s activities would be the greatest beneficiaries as they would be en route to rearing excellent kids to be proud of, let alone contributing in the reverse of the current sorry trend of parenting in America.
Policy Elements
This section highlights how Parenthood institutes will achieve their mission. The institute’s mission is to become the source of healing the parenthood scar in America. This means working on reversing the current trend of carefree parenting that has been experienced in recent generations. Parenthood Institute’s goals include: helping young America understand the importance of family; reminding Americans that strong families are the foundation for a strong nation; having the institute’s success serve as a source of inspiration to the rest of America.
Participants in institute activities will be taken as associates that aid in the process of achieving organizational goals. As just mentioned, participants’ success in achieving goals would attract more people who want to benefit from our services. In other words, the participants would serve as ambassadors to the rest of the individuals in the larger American society.
The benefits of participating in Parenthood Institute’s activities would include sharing with other couples facing similar challenges as they bring up America’s next generation. Sharing ideas with these individuals will thus become a source of ideas. Secondly, participants will get opportunities to mingle and get contact information from our professional counselors who are among the greatest resource. Getting contacts of the professionals would serve as additional help since advisory can still be provided outside the arranged conferences. In addition, conference attendants would be provided with discounts when purchasing publications and other materials sold therein. About services, the institute will primarily be providing Americans with an environment (both online and onsite) to learn what ails parenting in the nation and further develop mechanisms to deal with the problem, obviously with the help of professionals in the field.
Given that information technology, especially the Internet would be the primary source of information, the institute will not restrict individuals from participating in various programs. However, Parenthood Institute’s conferences in various parts of the country would take participants on a first come first serves basis. The venue for these conferences would be chosen depending on the expected number of participants. The institute will have memberships for individuals who will have the priority of space in the conferences. Together with membership discounts in conference sales, assured space would motivate more individuals to become members and therefore increase the pool of beneficiaries.
As described above, service delivery would be done through the Internet, publications, audio CDs, conferences, and one-on-one counseling sessions. All these mediums are easily accessible to the target individuals—the young couples bringing up their children. Most information, including audio and video, will be made available through the internet since more and more couples are having access. Continuing with this trend will go a long way toward ensuring that targeted parents get the message. Members would be updated regularly on the availability of new information on the website, especially regarding issues of interest.
Financing and Staffing
Considering that the Internet will be the primary source of sending information, communicating with individual (current and potential) members, a significant portion of the budget funds shall be used to establish and finance the site and the labor force involved in updating and, maintaining the contents. The information technology team would work closely with an editorial team whose members would be scattered all other the country. Another team of employees would be dealing with matters about conferences and counseling sessions. The three members of the information technology team would be paid a total of US$ 27,000 annually.
The editors, who happen to be professionals in matters about parenthood, have graciously agreed to offer their services free of charge. The events planner will get a salary of US$ 25,000. The executive director who will be involved with the day-to-day running of the institute will receive an annual salary of US$ 47,000. Owing to the institute’s small size and more of the services being done on the Internet, the receptionist position would be filled by interns.
The total labor cost will therefore amount to US$ 153,000. Office and conference supplies and equipment are estimated to be costing US$ 17,000 in the first two years, after discounts from a major supplier willing to support the organization’s cause. Renting office premises travel and officials’ accommodation during conferences is estimated to total US$ 20,000, whereas miscellaneous expenses are budgeted to cost US$ 10,000 annually. This brings the total cost of the program to US$ 200,000, all of which we look forward to raising from donors, at least in the initial years before the organization starts collecting some revenue from activities.
To ensure accountability of the funds, the Institute shall contract an account that would be reviewing financial books weekly. The organization shall apply best practices of keeping stakeholders informed on financial usage and position (Hewlett & West, 2003, p. 97)—donors shall be informed of Institute accounts quarterly and upon request. Individual employees would be encouraged to be economical with the funds and therefore increase chances of accountability. This would not be a hard task to achieve considering that employees and associates at all levels are hugely passionate about the subject of parenthood in America.
References
Graue, T. (2004). Ready for Parenting? Buffalo: Sunny.
Harkness, B. (2001). Parenting and Belief Systems. Hartford: Guilford Press.
Hewlett, M. & West, G. (2003). Parental Wars. New York: Houghton.