Working as a Human Services Professional

As a human services professional, I will be providing services as a Child advocate. In this capacity, I will hope to create an impact to the society. In this, I will need to have an understanding on how interactions between different clients and stakeholders impact the achievement of the agency’s goals. To fully achieve the mission and vision of the agency, I will aim to ensure continuous professional development. I intend to use workshops, lectures, and short-term non-degree certificate programs as my means of achieving professional development in my career. 

1. One of the short-term courses that I may undertake will be the Management Fellows Program which is offered by the Department of Children and Families. This is a unique capacity building program targeting to sharpen management and leadership goals (Germak, 2012). 
2. An example of a workshop that I can attend is a workshop for Human Service Workers on Strategies for Safety and Self-care. This will be held at Metropolitan State College of Denver and will entail learning about the important strategies to recognize dangerous situations when dealing with clients and how to provide protection when such incidences occur. 
3. The lectures that I will use of professional development will be the Luminaries Lecture Series that is provided by the Office of Human Research Protections within the Department of Health and Human Services. These lectures are full of thought-provoking insights on human subject research protections (Department of Health and Human Services, 2018).

Ways of Enhancing Personal Accountability

1. Making evaluation a priority – This results from having clearly defined standards of measuring performance which will be the reference point at which I will hold myself accountable. To fully implement this, I will ensure that I set meaningful and measurable objectives. This provides a yardstick that will increase my accountability as the administrator of my agency (Lipman, 2014).
2. Tracking my progress – I will seek to continuously reflect on commitments and performance in dealing with different tasks. To achieve this, I will document and journal my personal commitment on working to achieve the mission and vision of the agency. I will track my progress on a weekly basis to ensure that I am on the right track in achieving the set objectives.
3. Creating a personal growth plan – Professional development will be essential to ensure that I keep upgrading my knowledge level to apply in the course of providing the services within the agency. In this, I will commit to invest in improving myself to attain personal growth (Sephton, 2016).

Challenges Expected in the First Time

1. Financial constraints – In the first year, I expect to experience financial shortages in catering for the operational expenses. To address this challenge, I will seek more community partnerships with stakeholders who can provide financial assistance to the agency. I could also organize fundraising walks geared towards collecting funds to support the activities of the agency.
2. Employee relations. I may also face the challenge of maintaining a cordial relationship among employees. To deal with this I will seek to establish an open organizational culture that allows for the free flow of communication. I will also plan for team building sessions involving both indoor and outdoor activities. 
3. Unrealistic expectations – In the first year of operations, there is a risk of setting high expectations for the agency. This might lead to putting pressure on the staff that might be destructive to the team. To solve this challenge, I will make sure that I involve the staff in setting realistic objectives and goals. Another solution to this will be to carry out monthly reviews on the progress of attaining the annual goals. 

References

Department of Health and Human Services. (2018). Luminaries lecture series. Retrieved from https://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/education-and-outreach/luminaries-lecture-series/index.html

Germak, A. J. (2012). Building leadership and management capacity in the human service sector through training and professional development.

Lipman, V. (2014). How to improve management accountability in your organization . Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/victorlipman/2014/05/05/how-to-improve-management-accountability-in-your-organization/#1dcefe41d766Sephton, M. (2016). Four ways to hold yourself accountable for success. Retrieved from https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/273219