Procurement and Acuisitions Management: Fair Housing Internship

SOC 4490 Fall, 2010 A- Term Internship in Sociology Instructor assimilator November 14, 2010 A Sociological View of a Non-Profit Organization good admit Internship Introduction This paper will provide an outline of an confineship performed at the aboriginal Alabama clean lodgment centerfield (CAFHC), Montgomery, Alabama. This paper will collapse an overview of the internship course of study and its requirements, the history of the reliable lodgement roleplay, a sociological reexamination of beautiful hold, and discuss the responsibilities and observations do during the internship.To modify for the Sociology Internship Program, a student had to be an undergraduate working toward a degree in Social Sciences. The program was degestural to provide qualified undergraduate students with get winds in a government, non-profit, or public service institutions under the supervision of a faculty member.The internship consisted of conducting tasks depute by the authorisati on supervisor, maintaining a journal describing activities performed and explanations of how they related to sociology, recording individualised feelings about the get laids, a ten page paper related to the internship experience and working 150 hours at the Central Alabama seemly lodgment mall. The objective of the internship was to drive the student apply skills and knowledge learned during apogee of well-disposed science coursework and, to work in a non-profit agency under the supervision of a faculty member.The methods of evaluating the internship included meeting twice a month with the instructor/advisor and discussing journal entries, being evaluated by the agency supervisor for work performance, evaluation by the instructor and theme an internship inquiry paper due by December 7, 2010. History of the Fair admit Act On April 4, 1968, Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. , was assassinated. This act unleashed a firestorm of civil unrest in urban communities across the n ation (Fair lodgment Report, 2008).A week to the day after Kings assassination, President Lyndon Johnson signed into natural righteousness the federal Fair house Act (Title VIII of the complaisant Rights Act of 1968). This law, co-sponsored by Senator Walter Mondale and Edward Brooke, had been languishing in Congress for two years and altogether passed because of the response to the assassination and subsequent events ( issue Fair Housing Alliance, 2008). In 1988, the law was amended by the Fair Housing Amendments Act, co-sponsored by Senator Edward Kennedy and Arlen Specter.This law signifi foundationtly strengthened the enforcement power of the Act, giving the Department of Housing and urban culture and Department of Justice the authority to enforce and expand the reach of the law plot of ground static providing for private enforcement mechanism (NFHA, 2008). The Fair Housing Act is now one of the most powerful tools in our civil rights arsenal but it lot only be as eff ective as the skilled application and intent of the user of this tool (NFHA, 2008).Sociological Review of Fair Housing The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has outlined the term fairly housing choice as the ability of a persons of similar income levels to take up the same available housing choice dis unheeding of wash, color, religion, sex, national origin, familial status or disability (Analysis of Impediment to Fair Housing Choice, 2004).The Central Alabama Fair Housing totality is a non-profit agency, working to ensure equal housing opportunities for all people regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status (having or expecting children), or disability. Discrimination occurs when housing providers treat people differently because of their race, color, national origin, religion, sex, familial status, or disability. The Fair Housing Act prohibits discrimination in rental, sales, mortgage lending, and home indemnity mar kets. Illegal ractices include guiding people to or away from a neighborhood or areas ground on race (steering), refusing to insure or finance a home based on the racial be of a neighborhood, not allowing a guide dog or wheelchair ramp in an flatcar building, demanding sexual favors in exchange for rental assistance, inflating the monetary value of a home to discourage someone from making an offer, refusing to rent an apartment to a person with AIDS or HIV and selectively intercommunicate for a green card or other documentation based on an applicants accent or ethnic minimize (CAFHC, 2010).Karl Marx, the nineteenth-century father of communism and one of the founders of the Conflict Theory viewed society as consisting of primarily two tell apartes capitalists, or professers of the means of production, and proletariats, or workers, who were exploited by the capitalist (Harford, 2005). Marxs division of classes is not the only division. Max weber, an blunt critic of Marxs view s, argued that property is not the sole basis of class. Instead, class is determined by the three ps- property, prestige, and power.Webers more command concept of class is accepted by more but their views of how to qualify fairness of prestige and power has been often different (Harford, 2005). Using Webers concept, when victorious a look at the Fair Housing Act, we see that forty years after the Fair Housing Act, in that respect are still more than 3. 7 million instances of discrimination describe each year (U. S. Bureau of the Census). African-Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and American Indians report cheating(prenominal) treatment within the rental, sales and insurance market daily.Marx and Weber categories pass on only with economical stratification however fair housing studies indicate that discrimination occurs regardless of economic status. For example a study performed by The National Community Reinvestment Coalition (NCRC) showed that low- and moderate-income minorities received a lower put of roseola loans than high-cost loans. Lenders seem to favor middle- and upper-income white household borrowers with prime loans. In comparison, African-American with middle- and upper-income households received a lower percent of all prime and high-cost loans (NCRCs 2007).Staff Responsibility& Duties Working as an intern with the Fair Housing Center has been very informative and exciting. As an intern, I observed the divers(a) ply members and their jobs duties. I learned the importance of each government agency. The executive director film director of a Fair Housing Center (FHC) must oversee, motivate and bridge over staff members, each of whom are very valuable team members. The Executive Director oversees all of a FHCs departments (including counseling, outreach, investigations and litigation) and is responsible for preparing and overseeing FHCs yearbook operating budget.The Executive Director also ensures that The Fair Housing Center is f ulfilling its contractual obligations to numerous governmental entities. Periodically, the Executive Director must bring up city council or other meetings, and network with others in the non-profit community, including local non-profit memorial tablets, and fair housing organizations throughout the country. The Director, along with the rest of the Fair Housing Centers management team, oversees the Fair Housing Centers yearly summits and conferences. Centers staff also includes test coordinators.This is unremarkably a full time staff member and duties include the recruiting and training of testers, design and analyzing tests, and maintaining test files and other records. To hold this type of position, most candidates should have experience in conducting tests, great speaking skills, and experience in research compend as, training in the fundamentals of fair housing. The test coordinator must be an advocate for civil rights and have earned at least a Bachelor of Science degree. A Fair Housing Specialist (Enforcement Specialist) is normally a temporary staff member.Duties include intake screening, demographic research, selective information collection and analysis, identification of public impediments to fair housing choice, and enforcement-related outreach. He/she can also assist in developing test strategies and performing analysis as well as assist in writing reports as requested. To hold a position as a Fair Housing Specialist (Enforcement Specialist), candidates should have had training in the fundamentals of fair housing, have knowledge of civil rights, know how to conduct research, study area demographics, and have earned at least a Bachelors grade in a societal science field.The position of attorney is a full time position. Duties include intake, client representation in HUD, taking administrative actions, conducting public and legal education programs, serving as a liaison to private attorneys, conducting legal and other research, and maintainin g intake and case files. To qualify for this position a candidate must have a J. D. degree, a demonstrated commitment to civil rights, and an ability to work with diverse communities. The position of administrative Assistant/Office Manager is normally a part-time position.The duties include general view management, clerical tasks and serving as the office receptionist. taildidates for the position should have experience working for the public, very good social skills, an understanding of civil rights, ability to work with people from diverse backgrounds and experiences in non-profit office management. Summary and Conclusions The objective of the internship was for me to incorporate the knowledge learned from my social science classes into skills while interning.During my interning with the fair housing center, my responsibilities and activities included reviewing fair housing laws, reading over Central Alabama Fair Housing Centers grant proposals and work deliveries, discussing no n-profit grant management/grant writing/daily operations of a non-profit organization with director, observing operations of organization, including siting in on a job interview, teaching about division of staff duties in the office, helping to implement grant activities/outreach and distribution files/information, deciding on a distribution plan for grant deliveries, helping to develop radio receiver campaigns plans, learning about in-kind service donations, sitting in on fair housing education programs for housing management and developing a in the raw survey for the city. Interning for a fair housing center provided a fomite for travel that could and is helping society to achieve the balance and integrated existing patterns envisioned by the original authors of The Civil Rights Act. While we have made some progress in reducing levels of residential segregation, most Americans still live in communities that are largely divided by race and ethnicity, ( National Fair Housing Alli ance, 2008). individualal Thoughts and Opinions My experience as an intern with the Central Alabama Fair Housing was very informative, exciting and a helpful experience to me as a future director of my own non-profit agency.Although I will not provide services that will associate to civil rights, having an opportunity to work within a fine tuned organization, learning the operations, and experiencing firsthand the everyday workings within a non-profit agency was the vanquish experience that a future director could have. Experiencing outreach, research development, grant writing, organization application and Fair Housing training while interning, allow me to understand the importance of loving what you are called to do and showed me the difference one can make in society. I got a chance to learn that a fair housing center is one link that is connected to many links to form a chain called HUD, the Department of Housing and Urban Development.The fair housing centers are local center s that help to enforce nicety that has been mandated by the civil right laws, expand comprehensive requirements of the civil rights law, while still providing a private enforcement mechanism for the area communities. The fair housing centers are state and local portals that are used to report, provide shrewdness and attain answers for our nations struggles to achieve the benefit of living in richly diverse communities. Having an opportunity to learn while being a part of the non-profit arena, gave me the fuel needed to continue striving for justice. . References Analysis of Impediments To Fair Housing, Montgomery city, 2004, August, Overview of what the Fair Housing Act Complaints. Harford, Tim, The Undercover Economist Exposing why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car, New York forgetful Brown, 2005. Hunt, Elgin f. , and Colander, David C. , Social Science An Introduction to the Study of Society, 3rd edition, copyright 2008, Person pub lishing company. National Community Reinvestment Coalition, conducted data file analysis, 2007 web. ncrc. org WWW National Fair Housing Alliance, 2008 Fair Housing Trend Report, April 8, 2008 www. nationalfairhousing. org WWW U. S Bureau of the Census, Income www. census. gov/hhes/www/poverty. html WWW U. S. Bureau of Census, Poverty www. census. gov/hhes/www/income. html