Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND PRACTICE MODEL PAPER 1

Organizational Assessment and Practice Model Paper: Nightlight Christian Adoptions

Social Work 492

Katie Martin

Colorado State University

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Abstract

This paper will talk about the overall function of the agency Nightlight Christian Adoptions

(NCA) and how it is organized in the Loveland location. It will include the agencys description,

practice models and roles, knowledge and skills, agency cultural competence, effects of policies,

and organizational assessment/ evaluation of the office. It will also include an organizational

chart of the agency. Most of the information that will be used can be found online on NCAs

websites and face-to-face interactions with agencys director.

Keywords: organization/ agency, practice models and roles, knowledge and skills, agency

cultural competence, effects of policies, and organizational assessment/ evaluation

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Organizational Assessment and Practice Model Paper: Nightlight Christian Adoptions

Description of Organization/Agency

Nightlight Christian adoptions (NCA) agencys mission statement is to share Gods love.

Some of the ways include: helping children find loving families of their own; children are from

both domestically or internationally, helping parents, both birth and genetic to make plans that

are in the best interest of their childs own future, assisting families to be effective and

committed parents to adoptive children, and lastly, recognizing the personhood of pre-born

children and advocating for them.

The Loveland office is located in the Palmer Garden Complex on the second floor of the

main building. There are a lot of stores and restaurants nearby. NCA is on the Southwest corner

of the intersection of 29th street and North Lincoln avenue. It is in the same complex as

Einsteins Bagels and the Island Grill and directly above the Army Recruiting facility. From a

personal experience, the location of the office was hard to find. One would have been there

before to know where the office is located or called the office and ask for directions. There are

many offices in the same building as the Nightlight Christian Adoptions office. It is a benefit to

clients because if a client is embarrassed about ones situation, other people could not tell the

client is going to an adoptions place, they would assume they are going in to other offices. The

benefit of the office being difficult to find because it gives the clients privacy and that way there

are no random people that are showing up to the office.

The types of services NCA Loveland offices provides include, domestic, international

and embryo adoption services, which also includes adoption home study. The services are

provided to all Colorado residents. The organization in Colorado serves Denver, Colorado
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Springs, Lakewood, Fort Collins, Thornton, Arvada, Pueblo, and all of Colorado area. The

Loveland location is also the home office for the national Embryo Adoption Awareness Center.

The needs and gaps the agency fills is advocating for the un-born, helping families that

cannot have children and helping them and letting them know alternative options, and finding

children a forever home of their own. NCA is fighting for the children that are very vulnerable in

the United States and internationally. The agencys primary target for impact are families that

wishes to adopt, families that cannot have their own child, people that are pregnant but are not

ready to parent, people that have kids of their own but also want to bring a child home to their

family, and the most important target for impact are the children that will be placed in loving and

caring homes. The clients of the agency include the families that want to provide a home for a

child that does not have one of their own, they are pregnant but cannot raise the child and have

decided to make an adoption plan for the child. The agency is a Christian agency however, they

serve people of all religion backgrounds, education levels, ethnicity, and so on. The organization

is a large non-profit agency. They serve many clients; as shown in figure one, NCA have offices

in many different states and each state offers different types of services. Amongst the offices in

the states, NCA also have international contacts for each of the countries that are listed in figure

1.

[ Insert Figure 1 here]

Practice Models and Roles

Nightlight Christian adoptions utilizes evidence based practices (EBP). Evidence based

practices entails the best research evidence, clinical expertise and patient values and preferences.

It is used when experts are using a well thought out and the most current and best evidence in

regard to making decisions caring for clients. When NCA are matching families with kids or
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making placements, cognitive/psychological intervention methods are used when taking

psychological evaluations of the clients that are thinking of either fostering, fostering to adopt, or

adopting children.

The community development section of Nightlight includes improving the standard of

living in populations that are disadvantaged (children) in the United States and internationally

(Butterfield & Chisanga, 2013). Other ways Nightlight is improving community development are

by empowering the clients that cannot have kids and adoption allows the clients to choose from

the programs that are available to help them to have a family. At the same time, giving the child

the chance to have a family of their own.

The way NCA applies generalist approach to their agency are by working with every

system and that include: micro, mezzo, and macro. The micro level includes the clients family,

small groups and clients as an individual. The mezzo level involves the organizations and formal

groups. The formal group includes all of the trainings NCA offers to parents. Lastly, the macro

level includes the society as a whole and the communities. Nightlight works with many

organizations in the community and that includes majority of the pregnancy resource centers all

over Colorado. They work with them to help empower the people that comes to the organizations

when they are experiencing un-planned pregnancies by giving them another option to choose for

their baby.

Everyone in the Loveland office have the knowledge of what each teams tasks are.

People at the office wears many different types of hats. One might have a specialty in a program

but most people knows how to answer basic questions about each program. A lot of social work

roles are used within the agency. The educator, mediator, and coordinator. The educator being

the staff member from a specific program will educate clients on what the program is all about
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and why the program is an important asset to the agency. They teach the clients the best way to

utilize the program and what they can benefit from it. Mediator is often times used a lot. Most

times, it is the social workers job to communicate between two clients; for example, if someone

is pregnant and they decide to make an adoption plan for the baby, another family might want the

baby and care for the baby, then it is the mediators job to communicate the wishes between the

clients that are involved. The coordinator plays a big role in this agency. They are the ones that

are organizing the activities and negotiating with others to make sure they are all working

together effectively. This could include making travel plans with birth mothers to meet with the

future adoptive parents of their baby.

Knowledge and Skills

The knowledge and skills are different based on the programs one is in. Any social work

roles, one must obtain at bachelor in social work, but the people that have a social work degree

have a masters degree. In the international programs, all the members have a bachelors degree

up to masters degree. The snowflakes/ embryo adoptions program, the education levels are very

different. The education levels range from Certified Nurses Aide (CNA), Bachelors degree and

Masters degree. The foster adoption teams education includes bachelors degrees.

Even though the education levels are very different, one thing they have in common is

that one must know and have the skills to interact with clients with all different backgrounds for

all programs. They all have the skills to perform their tasks well. Some of the skills include

counseling with clients that are having a hard time with adoptions, or counseling clients through

un-successful fertility treatments. Other skills include using the appropriate languages of

adoption, for example use birth parents/biological parents instead of real parents or natural

parents, made an adoption plan instead of keeping the baby, use mine child instead of own child,
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and so on. The staffs are really passionate about what they are doing. Majority of the staff all

have a background story of why they personally got involved with each of the programs they are

working for. They either went through adoptions themselves, they know a family that have

adopted, or they had a hard time getting pregnant and they can relate to the clients they are

working with and empathize with them.

Agency Cultural Competence

The agency hires people based on ones education levels, skills, and best fit for the job.

The way they train people how to do their jobs includes having the person asking questions,

asking whoever is in charge of the program and have them walk every step of how to do certain

things. The program director will check up on how they are doing throughout the day and ask if

one needed help clarifying anything. It is very important for the person to advocate for

themselves, when they do not know how to do something, ask someone that is knowledgeable in

that area of work. For example, the agency uses digital storage to store their papers online called

SharePoint. The digital storage has all of the information from all the states Nightlight have

offices in. This includes the agencys policy and procedures for all the programs, staff policies

and procedures, organizational chart, evaluations for the programs, and so on. Therefore, it is

very important to know step by step on where to upload and store the documents.

Another example of online storage NCA uses is called SAM, this is where the agency

will store all of the familys information. All the information includes all of the programs the

clients are in, their address, home studies, the status of the case and so on. It is very crucial to put

the information in the right place. Staffs from all the other offices will see and potentially use

that information to help the client in different states. NCA uses this way to store clients

information so clients do not get entered by other staff members more than once. This way, if
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the client decides to move while they are in a program, the offices in other states can look up on

SAM and continue with the case instead of starting over on all the information that is already

gathered. This is why it is very important to advocate for yourself if one does not know how to

perform a task or know where to upload the files, the results could affect other staff that are

trying to help that client correctly.

Every employee has their own space to perform their tasks. Ones work space contains a

computer, keyboard, a big desk with storage in it, and an extension call list of the people in the

office and other offices in other states. The staff at Nightlight, especially the ones that are

working with the international programs are familiarized with cultural diversity in the agencys

international programs. Majority of them were either born in another country or have worked in

another country for an extensive period of time.

The other staffs in other programs are all aware of their clients of cultural differences

from their own and how to effectively work with them. During trainings for parents that are

adopting, the agency addresses race/ethnicity, gender, and promote diversity- sensitive practices.

There was an activity during the adoption CORE training for prospective adopting parents. We

all had a cup full of beads and each colored bead represented a specific race/ethnicity. The staff

read a list of questions and the participants would put in a bead that represents their answers. The

questions included: what race one identified with, what race are your friends, co-workers, peers,

what race are the artists music one listens to, the school one went to were predominantly and so

on. By the end of the activity, majority of the peoples cups were white, which represented

white/Caucasian. Then we had an open discussion about how we felt about the colors in our

cups. The staff that were doing the trainings also stress to the parents that are adopting
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internationally and in the United States on how to address the cultural differences and

race/ethnicity differences with that child.

NCA have networks with a lot of local churches to promote the agencys programs and

other adoption agencies and churches in other states. Staffs are aware of their own bias and

believes and they do not force that on the clients. If they are working with clients that are

Christians, then they use that commonality and talk about it openly with the clients. One thing

the agency could do better is hire a more diverse team. Currently, majority of the staff members

are white/Caucasian.

Effect of Policies

Nightlight follows the Structured Analysis Family Evaluation (SAFE) Colorado state

laws in-order to successfully provide home studies to families that qualifies to adopt. Under this

law, the people that are residing with the adoptive parent will also need to be evaluated. Some of

the elements that are included in the study includes: mental health, emotional stability, physical

health, and moral integrity, the ability one promoting the welfare of the child, the petitioner has

participated in counseling in-regards to adoption if the court has decided it is appropriate, the

child that is being adopted is suitable to the adoptive parent, criminal history records check for

the parents that are adopting and the people that are residing in the same home, check for

substantiated reports on child neglect and abuse, social history and background, the adoptive

parents family characteristics, domestic and marital partner relationships, motivation for the

placement of the child, the potential parents willingness to care for a child with special needs,

extended family relationships, the social and physical environment the child will coming into,

parenting styles and their ability, other parenting abilities, such as, the effects of neglect and

abuse, sexual abuse, separation loss of biological sibling relationships, the birth parents issues,
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and any child background information that might not of been included in the referrals, telling the

child about their adoption story and openness about adoption . It is a very in-depth evaluation

and in each category, one must receive a certain score in-order to move on to the next category

of evaluations. It is important to follow this guideline because a vulnerable child will be placed

in these peoples homes. Peoples bagged need to be addressed first and be highly functional

adults to be able to care for a child. The agency needs to make sure the homes the kids are placed

in, the adults self- care is being met or in the process of being met. The child needs a stable

adult and an environment in-order to thrive.

A federal law that affects the placement of children is the Indian Child welfare act

(ICWA). It was created in 1978 and it oversees the removal and out of home placements of

American Indian Children that are in the states custody. ICWA established the guidelines for

placement of Indian children in foster and adoptive homes and that gives the authority the legal

rights in the child welfare cases. It also has the criteria for foster and pre-adoptive homes. The

ICWA 1978 act prioritizes keeping Indian children placed with relatives or other Indian families

(CORE training). This law is important because it shows that Nightlight recognizes this law and

when they have to place an American Indian Child, they will know what procedures to follow.

Organizational Assessments/ Evaluation

Some of the assessments and evaluations Nightlight uses to help improve future trainings

and classes includes, surveys after the home studies, complaint procedure. NCA also uses online

systems to help them run regular reports and remind them when information needs to be updated.

The systems include SAM and SharePoint- an online program where the agency keeps track of

all of their important documents and records. Some of the information includes expiration date of

the familys foster care license,

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Other assessments and evaluations NCA uses include the adoption CORE training

survey. It is a formative assessment. There is a section for rating on a scale of 1 through 4, 1

being strong disagree and 4 being strongly agree. The questions on the survey were mostly about

the content of the information that was presented and how prepared the trainers were, how easy

was the content to follow, the pace and length of the topics, and if the goals were defined clearly.

There were also complete the sentence section; questions included the most valuable part of the

training, training would have been more effective if, and what is something the person took

the training could share with others. This evaluation will help the staffs to know what to change

for future adoption CORE trainings.

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References

Butterfield, Alice K. Johnson and Chisanga, Benson (2013, June). Community Development.

Doi: 10.1093/acrefore/9780199975839.013.71

Generalist practice (n.d.) retrived from

http://catalogue.pearsoned.ca/assets/hip/ca/hip_ca_pearsonhighered/samplechapter/02057

89811.pdf

Nightlight Christian Adoptions: CORE training

Nightlight Christian Adoptions (n.d). retrived from

https://nightlight.sharepoint.com/_layouts/15/WopiFrame.aspx?sourcedoc=%7BCDD73B

00-5AC2-49ED-8A00-

E8EE423B1E68%7D&file=Adoption%20CORE%20Training%20Survey.docx&action=

default&IsList=1&ListId=%7BC3AF971C-6080-4C74-A60B-

87676628BC51%7D&ListItemId=35851
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Figure 1

Nightlight Board Daniel Nehrbass Lisa Prather

of Directors President Vice President

South Texas
California Colorado Oklahoma Missouri Kentucky Georgia Florida
Carolina

Rhonda Corie Douglas, Debbie Mariah Dana Chelsea Laura Erin Wheeler,
Megan White, ED
Jarema, ED ED Nomura, ED Bundrick, ED Poynter, ED McElveen, ED Godwin, ED ED

General
EAAC Social Services
Counsel Domestic
Domestic Marketing and Program Mgr Admin Asst/HS Placement Manager
Mike Nomura Intl Director
Program Program Coordinator Supervisor Katie England
Domestic Lara Kelso Kelley Hollie
Manager Director Rebecca Tolson Danny Stevens
Program International Domestic Pregnancy
Kimberly Tyson Post
Beth Coke Coordinator/In Coordinator Social Svcs Mgr Social Services Program Coord Counselor
Adotpion/Educatio
Pregnancy Jen Grams ternational Manager Juliette Brown
Stephanie Alicia Olsen n Manager
Counselor & Paige Zapf Assistant Miller Katie England Home Study
Bookeeper Manager Heather McAnear
Foster Care Allison Cass
Deborah Uber Pregnancy Vickie Home Study Social Services
Cristiana Adoption Counselors/Ho Provider Amy Eudy
Director of Intl Birkheimer Manager
Schneiderhan Assistant me Study Home Study
Programs HS Provider Jennifer Moye Denise Mason
Accounting Loretta Gassid Providers Coorodinator
Manger Kate Feeback /Adoption Technology Home Study Mgr
Karie Hand Advocate Katherine
Cami Remijio Domestic and Kory Verdonck Calvin Sarah Allen
Foster Care Ronishia Dennis Lindsay Nation
Foster Program Legal Counsel Spanish Birth- Pregnancy
Coordinator Kitty Spencer Social Service
Juli Wisotsky mother Liaison Counselors/Home
Amanda Kelsey Deb Fusek Assistant Sarah Andrews Study Providers
Schaffert Hendricks
Sharon Bass Rita Cleary Inquiry Beverly Quinn
HS Coordinator Support Svcs
Regina Smith SFE Specialist Kelly Long
Alice Llanos Liana Stoddart Coordinator Kristen Schadel Katie Smith
Snowflake Svcs Renae Kennedy Beth Button Ghana Lauren Jones
Nichole Riha Foster Care Domest Program
Manager Progarm Caidon Glover
Leah Freeman Carrie Knight
Meaghan Nally Coordinator Michelle Crawford
Hannah Dea Home Study
Foster Magaret Providers
Stephanie Ochoa Gibson
Advocate Caroline
Home Study HS provider
Providers Moriah Eisert Borucki
HS Coordinator Candice Charles Mary Searcy
Lori Bryant
Emily Keefer Adoption Sara Nolette
Megan Fabian Advocate
Grace Allen Home Study Kim Reese
Providers Stephanie
Tanya Cohen Muth Kim Letteer
Melanie Law Laura Thien
IT
Nichole Snow Sara Noltette
Dave Venable
Pat Smatla Michelle
Rebecca Dillon Baylson
Leslie Prentiss
Cheri Barger

International Contacts
Albania
Ervin Tane
Bulgaria
Elena
Colombia
Santiago Alvarez
China
Alison Yu
Uganda
Ken and Cathy Nganda
Haiti
Running head: ORGANIZATIONAL ASSESSMENT AND PRACTICE MODEL PAPER 14

Eveline
Latvia
Kristine
Ukraine
Svetlana
Nicaragua
Martha
Kyrgyzstan
Saule
Panama
Jorge and Carlos