Please read the Evaluation Criteria: Current Community Condition and the excerpt from a sample application below. In the space provided, please draft a response detailing the strengths and weaknesses of the application based on the information provided in the excerpt.
Evaluation Criteria:
Current Community Condition. To evaluate the Current Community Condition, Reviewers will assess how well the application:
1. Identifies
one current community condition to be addressed by the project.
Sample Application Excerpt: The challenges or issues faced by the AUIC are varied but all revolve around one theme - the AUIC has been working for years to provide services that meet the unique needs of our native community but infrastructure weaknesses, including staffing shortages, board member professional development, policy and procedure development, community outreach and the development and implementation of additional services have all been hampered by the fact that the AUIC does not have a strategic plan or an infrastructure to implement a strategic. Instead, the AUIC focus has been to pursue money where it is available and provide some services in order to keep the doors open. However, this has been done without involving the community in determining the most pressing priorities. This disconnect often times leaves the most pressing problems unresolved. The current community condition is twofold in that to truly build capacity within a small Native Urban organization you must have a multi-pronged approach to build that capacity. Because of the tough economic time faced by all Americans, especially Native Americans, and the severe lack of discretionary funds to meet these needs, any organization must address these problems in a holistic manner. We have identified two interrelated challenges that have created our inability to meet our community needs.
The Current Community Condition is: (1) The staff and Board have never had the opportunity or funds to be trained in organizational management skills necessary to govern and manage a growing non-profit organization and (2) Native Americans within the Aniwer district are not utilizing the social service providers within Aniwer to meet their current needs and to assist in the process of becoming self-sufficient because of a perceived lack of cultural awareness among the social service providers.