The vision statement should ideally be future-oriented. The ideal vision statement should reflect where we want to be (No author, 2013). The current vision statement is a great vision in a sense, but one adjustment that I would make is to orient it towards the society we serve. This is because we are a public service organization. Our vision should reflect something more about the future society that we envision, to which we are working toward. Another change that I would make with respect to the vision is that I would make sure that they focus is on a positive vision. We believe in what we are doing, and I think with a few adjustments we can show this to our key stakeholders, the clients whom we serve. While there is internal buy-in, we need the clients to buy in completely in order for our organization to be the most successful. Also, we are funded by the County so we need the politicians and administrators who run the county to buy in to our vision, meaning it would be best to have a vision that everybody supports.

With respect to the mission statement, the big thing is that I would coalesce the idea that we have about into a clear mission statement. Right now we have "our services touch every segment of the population to allow families go gain knowledge, the skills and the support that helps them to become strong and healthy." This is important, indeed, but expressing the compassion, and professionalism in one concise statement is important as well. I think a mission statement needs to be clear and concise. While the current...

We operationalize the mission and vision by allocating workers and funds to different programs. We should ensure in the strategic plan that we are oriented towards measures of outcomes, as the ability to improve lives can be measured. Overall, if we measure our success we will have a better idea of what works and then will seek to follow through with that as best we can. It is very much worth considering that we have the ability to develop strategies and tactics based on the evidence that we have gathered and from other social services departments around the country that have had tremendous success. We believe that these approaches will allow us to have the best strategy to improve the lives of our constituents, making us the best county in the state for social outcomes.
Works Cited:

Hom, E. (2013). What is a vision statement? Business News. Retrieved May 4, 2013 from http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/3882-vision-statement.html

Hull, P. (2013). Answer 4 questions to get a great mission statement. Forbes. Retrieved May 4, 2013 from http://www.forbes.com/sites/patrickhull/2013/01/10/answer-4-questions-to-get-a-great-mission-statement/

No author. (2013). Mission statement vs. vision statement. Diffen.com. Retrieved May 4, 2013 from http://www.diffen.com/difference/Mission_Statement_vs_Vision_Statement