Case Study
Assessing Needs in an Agency Providing Service to Marginalized People
Just Outcomes was approached by a community service agency where the dissatisfaction of workers and mounting complaints about management was affecting service provision. A longstanding leader in the organization had left, and the new management was challenged in developing trust with the team. Turnover had become a huge problem, and divisions within the staff were taking root. We were asked to provide a needs assessment and a proposal for subsequent steps forward that were informed by the principles of restorative justice.
Standard approaches in cases like this often consist of determining blame and removing select workers or management from the workforce. A restorative approach encourages institutions to adopt a stance of listening, acknowledgment, problem-solving, and addressing the root cause of concerns. In many of these contexts, relationships are vital and need to be preserved.
Accordingly, we conducted in-depth, confidential individual and small group meetings with a cross-section of staff, and with leadership. This gave us a firm understanding of the many perspectives at play, how workplace culture had evolved, and what role it was playing in the current challenge.
After this assessment, we offered a 2-hour workshop to staff and management with the goal of identifying what we had observed in their workplace culture that was contributing to the current tension and stress. We proposed a way forward that included a model of diversified leadership in order to begin to rebuild trust and client-centered service, which was unanimously accepted by the staff.