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Leah Hicks, Zayda Swick, Mysticka Robinson, Autmn Horner and Nessa Behie
College of Social Work, University of South Carolina
SOWK 412-001: Social Work Practice with Organizations and Communities
Jen McArdle
Community Analysis
March 1, 2024
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Community Analysis
Introduction (leah)
Our group was assigned Family Promise of the Midlands. They are located in Columbia
and serve families in the Columbia area. For the purpose of this assignment, we have researched
and spoken with several community members to better understand the organization and who they
serve. We are more focused on the volunteer aspect as the organization benefits from the
volunteers and the work the values they bring to the community.
Background Information on Organization (leah)
Family promise was created in 1986 and is a national non-profit organization. The
organization is in at least 180 cities in the U.S. Family Promise is an organization that brings
churches and people of faith together to serve families in need. More specifically, they “bring the
faith community together to help families regain their housing, their independence, and their
dignity” (IN TEXT CITATIONS). They thrive on volunteers to make this happen. Volunteer
roles are a very wide range. They can be doing administrative tasks or hands on like changing
light bulbs, cleaning, moving furniture, or yard work.
Data from online sources (comes from week 6 power point – Autumn)
Interview with Terri (Nessa)
Interview with Volunteer (Leah and Nessa)
For the interview with a volunteer, Leah and Nessa interviewed Mrs. Dena Jordan who is
a volunteer with Family Promise of the Midlands. Mrs. Dena has been volunteering with Family
Promise since 2019 and started with her church then transitioned to volunteering on her own. She
mans the organization’s phones from home and will send sends the client information sheets into
the office. Mrs. Dena is a retired speech pathologist who is a white Christian woman who appears
to be able bodied. Mrs. Jordan said that the volunteer application was quite simple and that she
would love to have more to have more volunteers.
When asked about the need for more volunteers, Mrs. Jordan said that they specifically
needed people who could fix things around the houses, could organize different items, and could
drive the families to different appointments. She also mentioned that people were needed at any
point during the week, especially during working hours, to help run the organization and could
support families through the activities planned for children and parents alike.
Finally, the interviewers asked Mrs. Jordan how she recruits new volunteers and what
demographic would best suit the needs of the organization. To this Mrs. Jordan said she will reach
out to people on Facebook and would try to get other church members involved. Mrs. Dena thinks
that youth should get involved and that people just need to try volunteering with Family Promise
of the Midlands once to be volunteering more. They did not have the chance to get to the second
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question, but due to earlier statement of Mrs. Dena, it appears that the organization needs younger
people who can help with more hands-on duties such as regular maintenance and other issues that
may come up throughout the week.
Interview and tour with Case Manager (Nessa/ Autumn/ Mysticka)
During our planning process, we decided to interview the Case Manager of Family Promise, Ms.
Alysha. When coming to the building, she was very welcoming and warm. She greeted us and
even offered us refreshments. Before we conducted the interview, she gave us some printed
information about the organization she felt was beneficial to our project. She then showed us two
videos, one was a promotional video from 2022 and the other was a news interview with
someone who assisted with donating a home to the organization.
Ms. Alysha works as the only case manager and interacts with volunteers like Mrs. Dena daily
and works alongside Mrs. Terri to take care of volunteer needs. When asked what she thinks are
the biggest volunteer needs, Ms. Alysha replied that they need people who are willing to do
physical work like cleaning and moving furniture.
Another question our group had for Ms. Alysha is what impact did COVID-19 have on their
volunteers numbers. She told us honestly that COVID was a huge issue fro them since most of
thier volunteers are senior citizens, some of whom passed from COVID-19 and others were
terrified of getting the deadly virus. She told us that the vaccine was another hurdle they had to
jump besides the initial issue of having to completely change their housing model. The only good
thing to come out of the pandemic, is the fact they do not need as many volunteers to help the
families anymore. Instead of having 40-50 setting up beds in the churches and making them
breakfast and supper, the organization only needs a handful of volunteers to help with events and
moving families.
When we asked Ms. Alysha what she thinks could fix the lack of volunteers she told us that
recruitment was HUGE for the organization and they really only needed people to know who
they are and what they do for people to want to volunteer. Mainly she want to pull at people’s
heartstrings and show how much people could contribute to make them want to volunteer.
Next we asked if volunteers get to put in any input for the organization and how it is run. Ms.
Alysha told us that volunteers have open floor meetings to discuss issues or suggestions as well
as the churches, where most volunteers come from, usually come up with the ideas for the family
events and coordinate most of the planning.
Finally we asked Ms. Alysha a more personal question of what her normal day looks like and
how she helps run the organization. She told us that she is constantly busy whether that be
Interview with Client (Nessa/ leah)
For the client interview, Ms. Alysha gave us the contact information for Nikki who agreed to do
a phone interview.
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Data from Asset mapping and surveys (leah)

Completing the asset map was a challenge. As I was looking for resources for the clients and
volunteers of Family Promise to use, I saw some limitations and strengths. Schools, restaurants,
fast food, and apartments withing a two-mile radius were plentiful. However, Homeless shelters,
grocery stores, and food pantries were scarce in a two-mile radius, forcing me to cast a wider net
at 3 miles.
The biggest weakness of this asset map is the number of bus stops near Family Promise.
There were only three bus stops within a three-mile radius. This can be a hinderance to getting
volunteers for Family Promise. The closest bus stop to Family promises .70 of a mile away. This
is a good 10-minute walk. If volunteers are needed in non-desirable weather, they may choose to
not come if they are relying on public transportation.
A major strength of the asset map is the number of churches near Family Promise.
Through several conversations, we have learned that Family Promise runs primarily off of a
handful of paid staff members and several volunteers. These volunteers have come from
churches mostly. We have identified 4 churches in a 6-mile radius of Family Promise. This is
crucial to members of the churches being aware family promise exists and hopefully urging them
to volunteer because of proximity to the organization.
Community Framework- Human Behavior Theory
Human behavior theory is defined as people learning their behaviors through
conditioning. Family Promise of the Midlands is an organization that relies heavily on its
environment and community. When the organization was first founded, they were based out of
churches. Volunteers, referrals, funding, and other resources were mainly coming from the
churches they were partnered with. But once COVID-19 came to the US and caused the
shutdown, their way of functioning was impacted. The pandemic brought about new CDC
Guidelines as well. This included wearing a mask, better hand-washing techniques, and even a
new vaccination. With these new aspects of living, local, in-person volunteering was greatly
affected. When COVID-19 first came to the US, it was an unfamiliar virus affecting people with
compromised immune systems and people of the older population. This made it harder for
people to interact with one another. Most people were terrified to even go outside in fear of
bringing home this unfamiliar illness. This is when we were placed under a “State of
Emergency” and the lockdown began. During the lockdown, most businesses were mandated to
close until further notice. This forced people to stay inside and away from the community. Some
places became flooded with volunteers who helped deliver food, water, and supplies to those in
need due to the supply shortage. But Family Promise was one of the businesses that took a hit
when it came to volunteers. People were able to stay at home and develop new hobbies and to
think about how they were spending their time before the lockdown. “Studies that looked at how
the amount of volunteering provided changed during the pandemic found that formal
volunteering declined (Dederichs, 2022) and informal volunteering remained at a stable level
(Cnaan et al., 2022). Mak and Fancourt (2021) report that older adults, people with more social
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support, and people with higher education were doing more voluntary work during the pandemic
than before.” (Meier et al., 2023) Those of the vulnerable population were more prone to sending
donations than formally volunteering. “A donation can be placed from the safety of one’s own
home, while groceries cannot be delivered without getting into contact with others, which means
subjecting oneself to the risk of getting infected with COVID-19.” (Meier et al., 2023) This was
the thought process of many people who had become accustomed to being in the safety of their
own home.
Before COVID-19, Family Promise of the Midlands was based solely out of the churches
they were partnered with. This aspect changed once the United States went under a mandated
lockdown. Their business had to be relocated due to the churches being closed as well. This took
a toll on their volunteers and how they ed the community. While speaking with the Case
Manager of Family Promise, she stated that they were unable to help as many people as possible
anymore since they had to relocate. She also said most of their volunteers were based out of the
churches they volunteered with. Once they received their new building, the problems they faced
were getting the volunteers to come back, and keeping everyone safe. When interviewing a client
with Family Promise of the Midlands, she was asked what ethnicity and gender were most
observed when interacting with the volunteers. She stated that most of the volunteers were older
Caucasian females. “Similarly, Dederichs (2022) found that formal volunteering was more
common among women, university graduates, elderly individuals, and those with high levels of
self-rated health.” (Meier et al., 2023) The Case Manager also stated that most of the volunteers
came from the churches, and they were mainly of the elderly population. With this being their
main group of volunteers, this brought dilemmas. Some volunteers were okay with wearing a
mask, whereas others were afraid to bring any illnesses home to their kids or compromised
family members. The organization couldn’t force anyone to get the vaccine that was available,
and they couldn’t promise to keep them protected as well seeing that most of their work is hands-
on. This causes the members of Family Promise to be more hands-on with their clientele. It was
stated that the organization was still receiving donations but not many volunteers. Currently, the
organization is working with their partnered churches to try and bring more volunteers in. But
the issue is that people are still so content with being at home and have not gotten reacclimated
with their community. People still haven’t truly come back to doing in-person interacting. Most
volunteers want everything online or behind a glass to interact with others. People are
accustomed to a new way of life, and the adjustment is hard, especially for businesses like
Family Promise.
Structural Framework-Contingency Theory (Zayda)
Contingency theory is defined as individual outcomes that depend on situational factors. It uses
new perspectives and open systems to develop strategies and evaluate the most effective
solutions. Family Promise of the Midlands is a nonprofit organization and works as an open
system. An open system means that Family Promise acquires environmental resources such as
(funding, resources and volunteers) to produce services for their environment.
(page 201 book)
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Data highlights (Autumn)

Conclusion (everyone)

References (links right now, will turn into apa format later- leah)
https://familypromisemidlands.org/our-story/
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/jpbafm-06-2020-0076/full/html
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/08997640231185119 (Mysticka’s link)

Appendix
(Must include windshield/walking survey, asset map)
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Volunteer Interviewee Questions

1. What was your experience like volunteering?

2. How did you get involved with the organization?

3. How did you feel about the application process?

4. Did you have to do an interview, if so, how was it?

5. What are your roles and responsibilities as a volunteer?

6. What demographics do you think would help most at the organization?

7. Why did you choose to volunteer here?

8. What is your relationship like with the other volunteers?

9. Have you ever recruited volunteers and if so, how did you do so?

10. What was the organization like when you started and how has it changed, if
at all?

11. In your opinion what should change to retain volunteers?

Community Asset Map link

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412 Map - https://www.google.com/maps/d/viewer?mid=1Czpo9lmpJk4YCoxQKkyWDVzZJMv3nac&usp=sharing