East End Community Services Ethical Issues

East End Community Services is a nonprofit organization founded by Jan Lepore-Jentleson in 1998 to serve the people of East Dayton. Before founding East End Community Services, Jan Lepore-Jentleson, the executive director, asked parents and members of the community what are their “most immediate needs.” The overwhelming and devastating response was “our children have no dreams” (Machi 2015). As on offshoot of St. Mary’s Development Corporation, Lepore-Jentleson launched East End Community Services to provide basic services to people in need, as well introduce a new sense of hope previously missing from the East Dayton community. East End Community Services is non-religious, non-profit oriented social services organization. As a part of their
initiative to serve East Dayton, East End Community Services focuses on providing guidance to youth through Miracle Makers and their Youth Center, as well as provides job assistance and training, and classes and workshops for parents. Additionally, the organization continues to follow their original mission of providing neighborhood and community development. East End Community Services describes their organization as “place-based,” meaning the organization strives to empower their clients and their community as a whole (Ervin). Their approach of empowerment is divided into three main branches: children and youth services, family and adult services, and neighborhood development. For children and youth, East End operates Miracle Makers, an after school program for elementary-aged children at Ruskin Elementary School, a youth center for post elementary-aged children and TOTS, a program that “provides educational support to children beginning at birth to ensure they’re ready for Kindergarten”( Machi 2015). For adults, East End assists with job searching and provides on-site job training. For families, East End strives to bring basic needs and security by renovating old vacant homes and making them suitable for families of the neighborhood. Additionally, East End holds a monthly food bank drive as an outreach for families in need. For many non-profit organizations, funding is an essential, but stressful element of the job. Fortunately, East End relies heavily on government contract based funding. Although grants and other large donations are still essential for the organization to operate, the finance assistance and support the government has given has allowed for a great reduction in financial stress. The current budget of East End Community Services is approximately 1.8 million dollars. Unfortunately, due to the immense spread of services East End strives to provide, governmental contracts are unable to fund some services like Miracle Makers and instead they must rely on grants. Grants are problematic for many non-profits because of the perpetual uncertainty and stress associated with finding a new grant to fund the program after the current expires.
2.
For my interview, I was fortunate enough to meet with the current Chief Operating Officer of East End, Kate Ervin. Although Kate has only been at East End since October of 2015, Kate quickly earned herself the title she holds today. Kate is originally from Dayton but attended Smith College, a small liberal arts school in Massachusetts, where she majored in Studio Art. A few years after graduating from Smith College, Ervin decided to further her education with a Masters in Public Administration from the University of Dayton. Before coming to East End, Kate worked as a Dayton City Planner, specializing in community development. In October of 2015, Kate began working at East End Community Services as the Director of Community Development. In this role, Kate operated at a macro level, assisting with affordable housing development as well as working to increase the economic development of the East End community. With Kate’s assistance, East End was able to provide the community with many new houses to replace some of the abundance of condemned houses in the neighborhood. As of October of 2016, Kate has been promoted to the Chief Operating Officer (another macro position), where she assists with day-to-day operations. Alongside this position is the responsibility of renewing governmental and local foundation based funding, as well as meeting with local members of the community to discern what needs are most necessary for the betterment of the community. Important to note, although Kate’s work mostly consists of macro-oriented work, Kate still strives to sometimes operate at the micro level and have personal human connections with the people she is attempting to serve.
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Handling ethical issues is always a challenging subject to approach in the field of Social Work.
According to Kate, East End Community Services has been fortunate enough (at least since her time starting in October of 2015) to have minimal issues arise relating to issues of ethics violations. East End Community Services is relatively small in size and strives to hire people they believe best suited to the community, Furthermore, as a part of their training, employees are required to read and agree to the organization’s policy manual, which includes the organization’s principles, as well as a code of ethics. In our discussion, we talked about issues such as breach of confidentiality, conflicts of interest, and
relationships. Kate believes the most significant issue the organization has in relation to the code of ethics is how outdated the policy manual is. Some employees find themselves confused as to what does and does not apply in the nineteen-year-old manual, as goals and services of the organization have changed. She believes the organization should construct a new manual in the near future that is comprehensive and easy to follow. Furthermore, on the board of East End Community Services is an Ethics Officer, who strives to prevent ethical issues before they occur. The only example of a possible ethical issue Kate was able to give me was an example of a possible conflict of interest. Although it was deemed not to be an issue of ethics, Kate was unsure if she was partaking in nepotism by hiring her brother to assist in training East End Staff with child disciplinary skills. It was agreed that Scott Ervin was hired not because he is Kate’s brother, but because he has exceptional skills in dealing with behavioral problems for at-risk youth. In summation, Kate believes East End has been extraordinarily fortunate to not have any major issues of ethics in her time working at the organization.
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For East End Community Services, creating a relationship with the community and the clients they serve is the most fundamental aspect of their organization.
In our conversation, Kate discussed the emphasis East End places on listening. The staff at East End is trained to listen to their clients first and understand the needs of the people, before diving into the work or assistance they will be providing. Only through listening and understanding, can the employees of East End establish a “quality human connection” with the community and the people they are serving. For Kate, it is not her employees’ job to focus on the betterment of East End; their job is to focus solely on the needs and betterment of their clients. Through listening and quality human connection, the East End staff is able to effectively minimize hoops and roadblocks for clients, without taking away human connection. On the importance of human connection, Kate said the staff at East End strives to be a welcoming environment and not “a scary bureaucracy center”
(Ervin). Additionally, Kate discussed the organization’s emphasis on hiring staff that is not only skilled but relatable to the people of the community. The staff’s ability to establish trust and effectively work in the community relies on their ability to relate to their clients. With a degree in Studio Art, Kate is a prime example of the minor focus East End puts on an individual’s undergraduate degree. Although an education is important, Kate believes what is most fundamental at East End, is the employee’s ability to create quality relationships and effectively serve the people of the community. With a skilled staff that is relatable, trustworthy, and emphasizes the importance of listening, East End Community Services is able to provide quality relationship-based social services to the community of East Dayton.