Effects of Trauma

Part 1

Executive Summary

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity for the better. They serve youths from age 5 to young adults across the 50 states facing adversity, and BBBSA aims to stem juvenile delinquency in America. The organization serves youths by offering mentorship matches of Littles and Bigs. Through mentorship, the organization aims to offer the youth an opportunity to rise above their current situations and become productive community members. BBBSA is also involved in policy advocacy, where the organization focuses on eliminating racial discrimination in its workplace and society.

Discrimination is rampant in the United States, and the organization tries to overcome it by using a diversity and inclusion policy implemented across all its agencies. The policy ensures that employees are treated with the utmost respect. They also treat clients and donors with the same respect regardless of race, color, religion, sexual orientation, or gender. The other problem is education inequity experienced in the United States. The education system is skewed and favors those from affluent areas. Children and youths from low-income areas have dilapidated classrooms, and they lack educational resources to assist them in their study journey.

It was established that there is a discrepancy in the funding of schools. The results indicate some schools struggle to offer services to students due to a lack of funds. Schools in low-income areas receive less funding, making it hard to meet their operational needs. Recommendations are made to push for changes in the funding of schools to eliminate the reliance on property tax. The use of property tax means schools in low-income areas will receive less funding since the tax collected is low. Therefore, there is a need to substitute the funds through federal government contributions or create an education pool that equally funds all schools in the United States. Eliminating discrimination should begin at the school level by ensuring that all schools receive similar funding regardless of where the school is located.

Introduction

The Big Brothers Big Sisters of America (BBBSA) seeks to change the lives of children facing adversity for the better. They serve youths from age 5 to young adults across the 50 states facing adversity, and BBBSA aims to stem juvenile delinquency in America. The organization serves youths by offering mentorship matches of Littles and Bigs. Through mentorship, the organization aims to offer the youth an opportunity to rise above their current situations and become productive community members. BBBSA is also involved in policy advocacy, where the organization focuses on eliminating racial discrimination in its workplace and society. The organization has connected over 2 million Littles with Bigs in the past decade. The organization receives funding from the government and needs to increase its funding sources to ensure it manages to serve most of the youth who need its services.

The organization is committed to inclusivity and diversity and makes the same promise to its employees, the community, and the clients it serves. The diversity and inclusivity policy demonstrates the organizations belief that everyone should be treated with dignity and respect regardless of their differences. The policy attempts to address the problem of differences in race, gender, ethnicity, or other things that make people different. Inclusion ensures that people feel a sense of belonging in the organization (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2022a). The Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Council is responsible for implementing the diversity and inclusion policy in the organization (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2022b). The council was formed in 2021, and its purpose is to support the organizations long-standing commitment to empowering the youth.

BBBSA recognizes the challenges youth face and attempts to create better opportunities for the youth of color by offering mentors who guide and direct the youth to better opportunities. To combat systemic racism, the best strategy would be to fight education inequalities. Eliminating education inequality begins with increasing funding for schools located in black communities (Bloome et al., 2018). Removing the property tax as the source of school funding will ensure schools in low-income areas receive the same funding as those in high-income areas. The federal and state governments should develop more major resources that ensure every child gets a fair share of the pie.

Recommendation

Recommendation 1: The organization needs to increase its funding sources and reduces its weaknesses. The over-reliance on government and donor funding is a challenge for the organization since its programs can be negatively impacted if it does not meet its funding requirements. Therefore, the organization should work towards increasing its revenue sources to reduce its reliance on government and donor funds. Being an autonomous organization will assist the organization in advocating for its clients.

Recommendation 2: To reduce the competition from other similar organizations, BBBSA should look at diversifying its clients offerings. With a focus on majority Black youth, the organization limits its services and makes it look like it works mainly with the racial minority.

Recommendation 3: The organization should implement an evaluation that uses metrics to measure the performance of the poicy. All policies should be measured to assess their effectiveness. Therefore, using a performance measurement with set targets, the organization can conduct annual analysis and measurements to see if the policy is bringing the results expected (Worth, 2020). Performance measurement should include aspects that focus on clients (youths) and other stakeholders.

Recommendation 4: Eliminating property tax as the source of school funding will ensure schools in low-income areas receive the same funding as those in high-income areas. There should be a way to ensure all schools receive equal funding. Without equal funding, schools in low-income areas will struggle and not have the necessary resources to achieve their goals.

Recommendation 5: Provision of books for low-income families to expose their children to reading early. Exposing children to books and not television ensures children begin learning early, and they can develop a reading culture early. Exposure to books gives children the best foundation for learning, and they have a head start in their studies.

Recommendation 6: To combat systemic racism, we need to take aggressive action to address policies, structures, and practices that contribute to the wealth gap, health disparities, and educational inequalities. BBBSA needs to push for policies that eradicate systemic racial discrimination. The policies should target changes that address not only the organization but also the country (Johnson et al., 2020). The biggest challenge is the decades or even centuries-long systemic discrimination that has taken place in the United States.