Harlem children's zone case study analysis

Running Head: THE HARLEM CHILDREN’S CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 1

THE HARLEM CHILDREN’S CASE STUDY ANALYSIS 6

The Harlem Children’s Case Study Analysis

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Harlem children's zone is a non-profit organization that takes care of children that come from underprivileged families by providing free education programs, parenting workshops, health program, and three charter schools. The organization was founded by Geoffrey Canada who is an American educator and activist in 1970 and its headquarters are in New York. The institution cares for thousands of children as well as poverty-stricken families. Over the years the institution has been trying to secure more funding sources and this is a major transition since its creating so that it can continue impacting positively on the community. This essay will give a case study analysis of Harlem Children Zone by identifying the major issues affecting it and how they are being solved as well as recommending a change to these situations.

Case Overview and facts about the case study

Over the past years, HCZ organization underwent through changes that led to the adoption of the name Harlem Children Zone. In 1970, HCZ had the name Rheedlen an institution that was concerned about efforts to prevent truancy. Geoffrey Canada took over leadership in 1990 and during this time the organization served up to 1500 children in the region who had strong personal relationship amongst themselves and with the staff. At this time the funding stream program was disjointed but an opportunity for funding was realized in 1999 which required a developed an effective business plan. The organization was able to manage a budget of $9 million serving over six thousand children. Using the strategy consulting firm, the business was able to come up with aligned programs, performance measures and management structural changes for the organization. The business plan planned that in ten years the network would achieve a $46 million in revenue and expand to serve 24,000 people. But after completion of the plan in 2000, the organization got over $7 million in funding to serve for three years and later changing its name from Rheedlen to Harlem Children’s Zone (Whitehurst & Croft, 2010).

With available funding streams, the network started to implement the business plan to achieve the mission of "creating significant positive opportunities and outcomes for all children living in a 24-block area..." The first process was to measure performance using strategized data collection methods. Thus they came up with an information tracking system that was able to collect demographic data on participant’s locations, survey, and frequency of visits. Also to validate the efficiency of services at the organization, student’s report cards were analyzed. Second, new positions were created and the structure of the staff was changed this was to have staff that was centered on the evaluation systems of the business plan.

The Major Issue: Measurement of Performance

The desire of wanting to measure effectiveness triggered some incentives and motivations within the business plan that led to a major problem of the case. Several directors raised concerns on the performance measuring where feedback was found to be of utmost importance among the leaders to visualize the strategies for measuring these performances (Whitehurst & Croft, 2010).

How Information Tracking System was developed

Information tracking system was applied where participants were placed in a zone and this led to the collection of lots of data, entry of data, and calculations of zone penetration and child improvement manually. Incomplete tracking information system is a problem as it leads to inconsistent and inaccuracy during the collection of data. Another issue is the lack of a program focus as the success of the agency was manipulated by the freedom of the directors who followed their own interest. In addition to the information system, the directors showed their concerns regarding the excessive application of data demands. Based on this case study, the methods to collect data appear to be quantifiable thus missing out on factors that show success but are not quantifiably measured. The conclusion of Canada was that investing more in the agency would significantly improve child literacy.

Addressing the Issue of Performance Measurement and Recommendations for the Program

There two significant organizational and human relationship within attributed to the issue of performance measurement. The quality, nature, and type of relationships directly affect people’s experience and the quality of outcomes for any human enterprise. The relationship between the funding sponsors and HCZ is very crucial as the sponsors and supporters of the plan are highly placing demands on data. According to this case, the staff fails to comprehend the important and required numbers and this inadequacy in communication impact the future funding of the agency. Therefore, the investors are required to understand the culture of HCZ that will not impede the productivity of the program.

Considering the relation between the children and the staff, which is vital as it is the base for the development of the program. The staff requires enhancing respect and trust for every child where they can share their own experiences and allow them to participate in the program. Assuming that the pressure of investor leads to the change of staff and the program, then HCZ could anticipate changes for the program and for children (Whitehurst & Croft, 2010). Fortunately, the staff at HCZ is dedicated and willing to help children in the agency and therefore would not think of leaving the organization at the implementation process of the business plan.

At a global level, one of the rising cross-cultural issues is that the new business plan to act as a replicable model for delivering social service for children and advocating for their rights throughout the country. The previous sentence states that there exist other child problem worldwide and across the country that the agency can advocate for. For example the Save the Children, an organization that advocates for children have twenty-seven functional centers in New York, Brussels, and Japan. Assuming the business plan for HCZ worked and this could eventually benefit most agencies such as Save the Children as well as other global agencies that wish to succeed using the HCZ. This could be considered as the best course of action as the investors will gain more trust in the agency as well as the sponsors thus expanding its territory and improving the provision of services.

In conclusion, Harlem Children Zone is a well-established social service with a potential of expanding and improving its base as it has stable funding through multiple funding streams. In regards to measuring performance using the performance measurement programs, led to HCZ stepping into the unfamiliar base. The investors were really concerned of the future of funding for this agency thus they had to demand data associated with performance for them to carry out their evaluation on the level of investment. The mission the organization is important for both staff and the investors as they have high prospects of influencing and improving the relationship of the community.

References

Whitehurst, G. J., & Croft, M. (2010). The Harlem Children's Zone, Promise Neighborhoods, and the broader, bolder approach to education. Brown Center on Education Policy, The Brookings Institution.

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