Aspects of Community Sustainability

Introduction

Child Fund Australia is a community-based organization operating in Australia and is a member of the Child Fund Alliance which happens to be a global network of twelve organizations. The alliance is helping more than 15 million children and families in about 58 nations. Some of its activities include teacher training, constructing and equipping schools, health worker training, motivation programs, HIV/AIDs prevention, construction of water systems and youth training among others. This paper will focus on analyzing seven aspects of community sustainability. They include the potential for sustainability, need for volunteers, treatment of volunteers versus paid workers, the point of differentiation within the community, active and negative issues regarding the viability of the organization, relation to theory discussed in class and readings and finally address the stakeholders' concerns.

Sustainability suggests a constant or the ability of a system to preserve its functions in a given context. The term has three key components which include the environment, society and the economy (Roseland, 2012). All the activities of Child Fund Australia are closely monitored and evaluated on a regular basis to assess effectiveness. The practice has contributed to enhancing its future capability to uphold and even expand its operations. Also, the funds it manages to get is properly utilized. The money is applied according to strict budgets which are well managed and ensuring that its programs are audited independently. The organization has been at the forefront in addressing crucial sustainability issues to the community and also implementing the most cost-effective programs and policies in its operations framework (Clark, 2010). Its programs and policies are developed as models that can be imitated by stakeholders and community members because they act as strong motivation for the development and implementation of future community-based approaches which showcase the goals of sustainability. Because of the organization's remarkable performance about carrying out its activities, it has drawn more key players and well-wishers who have pledged their current and future support for its operations regarding finances and technical assistance thus enhancing its potential for sustainability.

Need for Volunteers

Volunteer work involves activities which we opt to engage in beyond the domain of remunerated employment and household chores (Dugud et al., 2013). The organization is in need of volunteers to assist mainly with office duties in their Sydney office. They will be required to perform activities such as data entry, filing, and compilation of sponsorship packs. Child Fund Australia has always encouraged interested volunteers to make applications through their website. Due to the expanding operations of the organization, it has embarked on online volunteering platform through Global Community to help find suitable solutions to various pressing issues. Volunteering activities are meant to serve primarily as a two-way educational exposure for both the volunteer and the community (Ian & Philip, 2012). Since volunteers are usually not paid, the organization can minimize on its operations costs and instead channel the funds to other community related productive activities.

The approaches to these two groups of the workforce should be addressed in a careful manner. For instance, it will be essential to differentiate the training needs of each cluster (Erooger, 2012). Both the volunteers and paid employees need to be handled with respect and equity since they are serving the same organization that is focusing on a joint mission. There should be careful considerations of risks presented by the volunteer to volunteer and staff volunteer interactions to help reduce boundary violations regarding job descriptions. Therefore, it is important for the Child Fund Australia to ensure that it does not accord either of the two groups' treatment that appears unfair to the other team. It will help to prevent the possible emergence of conflicts in the work setting thus promoting smooth running of the organization's activities and harmonious coexistence between the two groups. It will also enhance the performance and reputation of the organization.

Point of Differentiation within the Community

Differentiation involves the grouping of individuals who converge in a particular locality (Galllgher, 2008). This measure is necessary especially when there is the need to maximize on the service delivery to the desirable community members. For instance, Child Fund Australia has come up with a designed plan of identifying and grouping the most vulnerable community members who are in dire need of their services in Australia. The aspects used to classify the society members include age, social status, economic status and health status among others. The differentiation practice assists in ensuring the delivery of satisfactory community services to those people who desire them the most.

In general, businesses and community organizations are encouraged to align actions, decision mechanisms and budgets with principles of sustainability (Janic, 2012). The team is always updating their stakeholders and other potential well-wishers on its community-based initiatives online through their website platform. The provision of these continuous reports has helped Child Fund Australia to expand the appreciation of potential efficiencies and achieving significant savings on costs through organizational improvements thus ensuring its sustainability. It has also upheld more transparent accountability by reporting statistics on its expenditures, positive and direct actions hence keeping the organization’s growth path active. It has formulated various initiatives on ways to help aimed at bringing more supportive and interested individuals and agencies on board to promote its sustainability. These efforts include volunteering, donation of gifts, sponsor a child, sponsor a community and fundraiser among others.

Relation to Theory discussed in Class and Readings

Theoretical discussions about sustainability based on transformation are diverse and provide multiple explanations on more sustainable modes of practice for organizations (Mark, 2010). There has been comprehensive class discussions and readings on stakeholder theories, community development principles and methods of cost cutting and efficiency which are related to the activities of the organization in question (Wankel & Stoner, 2009). For instance, Child Fund Australia has created an online platform for the purpose of reaching out to more vulnerable community members and cooperating with other community agencies to successfully execute their activities as discussed in class. It has also continued to encourage volunteering of individuals through an online application platform to reinforce their community services effectively. Child Fund Australia has upheld the efforts of encouraging more stakeholders and well-wishers to join them in assisting the needy community members as suggested in our class discussions and readings.

Stakeholders are those people who have agreed to take a stake and incur some form of risks in anticipation of results (Tyler et al, 2010). Their main concerns are about raising enough funds to sustain the growing needs of the most vulnerable community members, getting volunteers and expanding their operative boundaries.

Conclusion

Community sustainability on society based organizations is always challenging. Therefore, there is the need for all key stakeholders to actively participate in promoting all the viable frameworks put in place with a view of alleviating the emerging critical issues.

References

Clark, W. W. (2010). Sustainable communities. New York: Springer.

Duguid, F., Mu?ndel, K., & Schugurensky, D. (2013). Volunteer work, informal learning, and social action. Rotterdam: SensePublishers.

Erooga, M. (2012). Creating safer organizations: Practical steps to prevent the abuse of children by those working with them. Chichester, West Sussex: Wiley.

Gallagher, C. (2008). The community life of older people in Ireland. Bern: Peter Lang.

Ian, C. & Philip, J. (2012). Voluntary Organizations and Public Service Delivery. Routledge Pub.

Janis, B. (2012). Positive Development: From Vicious Circles to Virtuous Cycles through Built Environment Design. Routledge Pub.

Mark, E. (2010). Organizational Transformation for Sustainability: An Integral Metatheory. Routledge Pub.

Roseland, M. (2012). Toward Sustainable Communities: Solutions for Citizens and Their Governments. New York: New Society Publishers.

Tyler, M., Hoggarth, L., & Merton, B. (2010). Managing Modern Youth Work. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd.

Wankel, C., & Stoner, J. A. F. (2009). Management education for global sustainability. Charlotte, N.C: IAP/Information Age Pub.

MyAssigmenthelp.co.uk is the best option for those who are looking for reliable academic writing services. To show our genuineness, we submit only high quality assignments so that students never lose out on important grades. Our mission is to provide plagiarism-free solutions at very affordable prices. Students can get academic writing help on any subject or topic from us.