Introduction
Fire safety center for children is a non governmental organization that offers civic education to the community to ensure that instances of children being victims of fire accidents are minimized. In addition, the facility offers medical services free of charge to children who are victims of fire accidents. Besides these two functions, the centre also serves as a home for children who lose their parents to fire accidents (Bernard, 2007).
The headquarters of the organization will be in Chicago, Illinois and have a centre in the same city. It will have branches as it expands with the main target of its operations being in Kenya, East Africa and other African nations.
The choice of the countries of operation especially those in Africa is heavily determined by the fact that this continent is large, the poverty levels are largely deplorable and most of the families down there can barely afford to feed their children.
In the United States, families are sizable and most of the American parents are in a position to provide most of the security needs that their children would ever want. In Africa however, things are different, instances of political instability cause make rival group to intimidate each other by setting rival houses’ ablaze.
Innocent children and the old helplessly burn to death in such occasions. The organization is not going to seek political indulgence in the African countries but it will offer the much needed services to salvage the continent from a possible oblivion that bacons it as a result of recklessness politics. Kenya is the economic hub of the region of East and Central Africa, as such it is likely to be a better place to run a branch of the organization as well as create a regional centre.
The country has one of the best road networks and this would make transportation in and out of the country a lot easier than in neighboring countries. Destitute children who will pioneer the program will be picked from the neighboring countries and centered in the country until the organization has taken foot enough to establish branches in other parts of the region (Johnston, 1991).
The organization will be envisioned in the call for equal service delivery in an attempt to give hope to the hopeless and a home to the homeless. The vision statement of the organization will be, “To offer the society an alternative parent so as to safe guards the future of Africa”.
The vision statement is relevant to the entrepreneurial project because it sounds convincing enough to make a potential sponsor or a donor to support the activities of the organization. The vision statement does not seek any involvement of politicians. Africa is a highly politicized society that each and every activity will be considered as either political or ethnic. The vision statement does not connect the organization to any political or ethnic affiliation. This plays an integral part in enhancing the credibility of the organization.
Final decision making on important issues will take place from the United States and the viability of the projected will be tested there with a nation wide pilot project being run in the city of Chicago. After the centre is constructed and all the necessary facilities purchased the organization shall create a toll free land line twenty four hours per day call line.
The general member of the public would then be allowed to call in with any information concerning any known case of a child who is involved in a fire accident. The organization will then move with speed and work in close consultation with the fire department to rescue any child trapped in a burning house. After the safe rescue of the child, he or she will be rushed to the centre depending on the need for medical attention required.
This will be done regardless of the financial standings of the family. Should the family be well off, they could apply for a transfer from the facility to that of their choice but the center will strive to give the best services. Should there be a need, victims of fire accident will be flown to Chicago but in most cases there will be vans fitted with mini clinics which will rush the children to the centre.
Depending on the response received from the pilot project, the organization will either move down to Africa or not. Africa is a sensitive continent and it would not be wise to take a project and shortly close down for one reason or the other. The African society needs all that the world can give unlike in the Unite States where every family is entitled to child support and would thus do without the help of any third party. This explains why the pilot project and the entire management would be based in the United States.
Organizational structure
Other members of staff based on the departments
The organization shall be headed by one managing director. His office shall be based in Chicago, Illinois. His main mandate will be to solicit for funds for day to day running of the organizations. Most of his duties are out side in the field meeting potential sponsors and creating awareness of the organization and its programmes. He will also be involved in implementing other projects that would increase funding of the organization
Second in command will be the branch managers. They will be several depending on the number of branches the organization will have. They will be reporting directly to the Managing Director in Chicago but their offices will be in the regions where the branches will be located. Their greatest concerns will be to ensure that the branches run smoothly on daily basis without missing any vital resources necessary for its operation.
Below the branch managers there will be a number of key personalities who will also depend on the number of departments that a branch would have. Each department will have its director and these directors will be reporting directly to the branch manager. Their offices will be in the branch premises and their roles will depend on the department. Some of the most fundamental departments that a branch would always have include:
Medical department; this will be headed by the chief medical officer/ director. He will be in charge of all medical concerns raised by stakeholders of the organization. He will organize and manage response teams in times of emergencies. He will also oversee the operations of the hospital within the facility. He will be managing all the doctors and nurses and ensure that they perform their duties as required.
School department; will be headed by a school principal. The number of principals will depend on the branches the organization will have as there will be a school per branch. Their main mandate is to oversee the smooth running of the schools. They will hire teachers and maintain discipline of the students and ensure that the schools performance is high.
Director of security/ chief security officer, his key role will be to maintain security of the premise and keep at bay individuals who would attempt to disrupt the smooth running of the institution. Each and every branch will have a chief security officer.
Procurement officer, this individual will be the one tasked with the finances of a given branch. He will be organizing purchases as well as any commodity that departments would require and these would include all those required by the schools, the hospitals and any other department that would exist. Given the very nature of his job, he will work very closely with the heads of other departments to see to it that the organizations and their branches are run smoothly.
At the tail end of this structure lie the other members of the organization including the staff. These are diverse and largely depend on the department that they would fall. There will be teachers, doctors, nurses, security officers, auditors and so on. Each and every member of staff will report to the head of department in which he or she works (Gotham, 2004).
To ensure smooth and effective management of the branches, the type of information flow would be both down ward and upward. There will be orders flowing from the head to the staff but there will also be communication going the other way round with the junior officers offering suggestions on how certain changes can be effected.
Respect will be mandatory and expected from all who come into contact with the organization. Above all, the organization shall be based on Christian doctrines. These will be observed with the strictness it deserves to help build a society that is guided with Christian values.
Funding sources
The organization just as explained above will be large. This implies that it will require a lot of money to ensure its smooth operation. As a matter of fact, without money the blue print would remain just that. The organization after inception hopes to operate on a budget of close to fifty million dollars in each financial year running from June. This huge amount of money will be raised through the following ways:
Grants and donations, these will be the major means of raising the money that will support the organization. The managing director will be mandated with the task of looking for corporate organizations that would feel like investing in the society and try as much as possible to convince them that supporting this organization would be the best way of going about with their socially responsive investing.
Funds collected through sponsorships and donations would be accumulated for proper use by the organization. To ensure that the organization runs continuously without stalling even for a day due to lack of funds, the process would be forward tracked. This would be carried out in a way that the director looks for funds to run the organization a year earlier (Lane, 2005).
In this way the organization will be safe to operate one full year without any financial friction. Once the organization grows to begin operations in parts of Africa, the one year time bracket would be extended to five years thus assuring the region of a minimum five year non disrupted operation.
To help expand and smoothen the operation, the organization would purchase essential assets like land, vans and as it continues to grow, a helicopter to make it have a sense of ownership. This will reduce expenses like rent and transport that would only strain the coffers of the humanitarian organization.
Conclusion
The idea of starting a centre for young fire victims would be both rewarding and fulfilling entrepreneurship. This organization would be self supporting, those employed by the organization will be on constant pay role and one who comes up with such an idea would hold the position of managing director and thus be an individual who lives a completely fulfilling life knowing that his or her efforts are impacting the society positively and as a point of concern he or she would never go without a meal, all out of the proceeds of the organization. As much as the organization is a non profit it sustains itself together with those who make it run.
Through civic education on proper management of fire accidents and restrain from activities that would lead to eruption of a fire and the management of children who find themselves at the centre of activities in the eventuality that a fire erupt, the organization meets its vision statement of ensuring that the continent Africa still has a promise of future leaders, citizens and hence a fruitful and endless future.
Reference list
Bernard, K. (2007). Structural Fighting: Strategies and Tactics. New York City: Jones and Bartlett Publishers.
Gotham, E.T. (2004). Sabine Pass: the Confederacy’s Thermopylelae. Austin, Texas: University Of Texas Press.
Johnston, M. (1991). Houston, the Unknown City, 1836-1946. Texas: Texas University Press.
Lane, M.J. (2005). Socially Responsible Investing: An Institutional Investorâs Guide, Euromoney. London: Aspen Publishers.