Community Agency Observation

Community Agency Observation

Running Head: OBSERVATION 1

OBSERVATION 6

Community Agency Observation

Phyllis Lovering

Argosy Online

Community Agency Observation

My preferred agency of observation

I will be observing the local Baptist church. The church accommodates a maximum of 1500 people. The Baptist church is open six days in a week; the only day that the church is closed is on Monday. It is open to the public where any person can visit the church so long as it is between 6 am and 8 pm. The church has three official days when it holds its services. They have a mid-week service that happens every Wednesday.

The church has a Friday service that targets the youth and the Sunday service which targets all Christians. Other than having church services, the Baptist church has a youth center that is open all the days that the church is open. At the youth center, there is a boxing ring and a basketball court. Youths from the area prefer visiting the youth center in the late afternoon till the center closes when the church closes.

Other than the youth center, the church has weekly visits by different health specialists. The community members who cannot access health services due to financial constraints get a chance to have the specialists look at them and advise them on their health at a subsidized price and even at times for free. In addition, the church also gets to interact with not only churchgoers but also other community members who have a hard time getting and maintaining jobs, homeless people as well as people who have challenges getting food. The above mentioned people visit the church premises with hopes of getting the services that they need. In general, the Baptist

Community Agency Observation

church does not only serve as a worship center but it also serves as a community facility where the youth of the community get to meet and exercise and also serves as a social facility.

The reason why this type of agency is important to my field

There are several reasons as to why this specific Baptist church is important to my field. The first main reason is that it acts as a community center. The church premises are not only for worship purposes but they facilitate social services and social activities to happen thus it is easy to observe the community and come up with policies and activities that will ensure the health and peaceful coexistence amongst the community members. Through the social activities such as the youth activities in the youth center, crime rates are low and the youth get to stay physically fit. Community members that are sick and that cannot afford expensive medical care get to be treated and advised for almost for free.

The second reason is that the church accommodates or allows people of races provided one is a Christian or seeks to be a Christian. For that reason, the church has church goers whose first and only language is English as well as people who have more than one language. The accommodative attribute of the church makes the church a good place to observe community interactions (Armstrong, 2016). The pastoral team of the church receives all manner of requests from the public. For example, they receive requests to officiate marriages, request to solve disputes such as divorces, requests to spearhead charitable events. All the above requests brought to the Baptist church represent the needs of the community, the desires of the community as well as the pressing issues of the community.

Community Agency Observation

This particular Baptist church and other churches all over America have a lot of significance to communities in America. Churches are places of worship, they are meeting places, they play a role in solving community disputes, they play a role in uniting people, they play a role in advocating for the rights of the community and they encourage cohesion in the community. By observing the Baptist church, I get to gather information on the influence of religion on community peace and coexistence. I also get to understand and see the role of non-governmental and not for profit organizations and agencies in community work (Collins, 2015). Through understanding the roles, I will be better placed to offer relevant social services that would come quite handy for communities.

Professional goals that I hope to reach through this observation

The first professional goal that I hope to achieve through this community observation on the Baptist church is coming up with policies of ensuring that the community members get social services help. From observing the people who frequent the church premises on days that are not official service days, I can get to identify the needs of those people. For example, by identifying that a lot of homeless people or less fortunate people visit the church premises to get food or to look for employment opportunities, it will be possible to identify the immediate needs of the community. Through the observation, it will be possible to set up objectives geared at helping the people of the community. From the data collected on people that visit the church premises with the aim of getting food and health services, it will be possible to set up and implement programs that meet the food and health services demand.

Community Agency Observation

Through this observation, I hope to identify useful connections that can be used to make the lives of the community members bearable if not better. By identifying the services that the community lacks through observing the church goers and also the people who visit the church premises, I can come up with connections that would better the whole community. For example, I can come up with ways of ensuring that the youth of the area always have useful activities that they participate in. The activities will play a role in bettering their lives through making sure that the youth acquire life skills. The activities will play a role in ensuring that the youth get an education which can better their lives in the future. In addition, the activities can help in lowering the crime rates in the area. The above goal is realistic and measurable as the rate of criminal activities can be used to measure whether indeed the activities introduced are effective at doing away with criminal activities and empowering the youth.

Through the community observation of the Baptist church, it will be possible to set up policies and programs that advocate for healthy family living (Collins & Perry, 2015). The church receives many family disputes such as wrangling spouses. By using the information gathered from the observation, it can be possible to come up with ways to reduce if not do away with family conflicts in the community. The above goal can be measured by looking at the divorce rates and domestic violence in the community once the programs have been initiated to check the effectiveness of the programs (Zust et al., 2018).

References

Armstrong, N. (2016). Historical Perspectives on Church, Social Welfare and Community Work in Britain. Reconsidering Religion, Law, and Democracy: New challenges for Society and Research, 21.

Collins, W. L. (2015). The role of African American churches in promoting health among congregations. Social Work and Christianity, 42(2), 193.

Collins, W. L., & Perry, A. R. (2015). Black Men’s Perspectives on the Role of the Black Church in Healthy Relationship Promotion and Family Stability. Social Work & Christianity, 42(4).

Zust, B., Flicek, B., Moses, K., Schubert, C., & Timmerman, J. (2018). 10-year study of Christian church support for domestic violence victims: 2005-2015. Journal of interpersonal violence, 0886260518754473.

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Community Agency Observation was first posted on February 8, 2019 at 2:16 pm.
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