Funding Plan Research Paper

Funding Plan Research Paper

The purpose of this assignment is to create a plan for funding an intervention while applying financial planning and management best practices. Write a 1,200-1,500 word plan for funding, including the following information: Description of the data used to determine the targeted health disparity. Description of the health disparity targeted through the intervention. Description of intervention sustainability. Description of possible cost savings resulting from intervention implementation. Rationale for chosen sources of funding. A proposed budget that includes total cost of implementation, expenses, and amount of funding received. Description of adherence to financial planning and management best practices. Include one or two resources in your paper. Target Population: Homeless in Los Angeles County Health Disparity: hygiene Proposed Interventions: -clothing exchange program (similar to clean needle exchange program): trade dirty clothes for clean donated clothes at a \”trading site\”, trading site to dispose of soiled clothing. -portable sink stations: (similar to those used with portable bathrooms) stationed throughout areas in los angeles with a dense homeless population. Funding Plan Research Paper

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Description of the data used to determine the targeted health disparity.

The targeted health disparity is homelessness in Los Angeles. A review of the population statistics reveals that close to 100,000 Los Angeles residents have become homeless since 2019. Homeless encampments have sprung up across the city with 94,430 encampments springing up in the last year, an average of 4,500 new encampments every month. The city neighborhoods most affected by the issue are Downtown Los Angeles with 5, 264 cases, Venice with 4,817 cases, Woodland Hills-Warner Center with 4,339 cases, Wilshire Center-Koreatown with 3,917 cases, and Van Nuys with 3,426 cases. The increasing number of homeless persons presents a human health catastrophe since these persons are exposed to environmental risks that act as opportunities for infection. In addition, the homeless persons face an uncertain future while exposing the rest of the city residents and tourists to dangerous neighborhoods (Andrzejewski, 2020).

The homeless situation in Los Angeles has been worsened by the ongoing Corona-19 epidemic that has reduced employment opportunities so that more people are forced out of their homes due to inability to pay the rents and mortgages. The epidemic necessitated a statewide shutdown that saw Los Angeles residents not working in an essential industry being asked to shelter at home in an effort to stave off the virus spread. This was a complicated task that added to the number of homeless persons. In addition, it has been complicated by the fact that homeless persons are living outside exposed to environmental elements without access to basic hygiene and clean water. Besides that, most shelters for the homeless have been closed down in an effort to reduces opportunities for infection, thus worsening the homeless situation in the city (Barry-Jester & Hart, 2020).

Homelessness presents, irrespective of whether the situation is chronic or temporary. It is caused by a range of factors to include disabilities, death of parent or partner, divorce, sudden serious illness, domestic violence, trauma, mental and substance use disorders, lack of affordable housing, unemployment, and poverty. Homelessness contributes to poor health. This occurs through the many problems that homeless persons face, which worsen their health. Some of the problems include exposure to severe weather, unsanitary living conditions, stress, violence, trouble staying safe, problems getting enough food, and limited access to health care (Truglio-Londrigan & Lewenson, 2018).  In fact, homeless persons are at high risk of contracting a wide variety of communicable diseases to poor access to personal hygiene and clean water. Besides that, they are at high risk of infectious diseases spreading among their populations, a situation that is accelerated and exacerbated by their close-quarter living arrangements (Buechler et al., 2020).

The Los Angeles city government is aware of the health concern that homeless persons face and present, and seeks to address the concern through providing shelter. In fact, plans are underway to relocate approximately 7,000 homeless persons to shelters and permanent housing over the next five years at a cost of $300 million. 6,000 new beds will be provided over the next ten months and 700 additional beds provided over the next 18 months. While this intervention should be applauded for being proactive, it is a slow process that only serves a small fraction of the number of homeless persons in the city. 41,290 homeless persons are within the city of Los Angeles, a 14.2% increase from the previous year, and yet the government’s shelter program would only provide housing for 6,000 of them in the next ten months. This implies that only 14.5% of homeless persons will get shelter and housing in the next ten months while 85.5% will remain homeless (CBS News, 2020). Funding Plan Research Paper

Description of the health disparity targeted through the intervention.

The health disparity has been identified as homelessness in Los Angeles. A significant problem that homeless individuals face is an inability to maintain personal hygiene. Many of the homeless persons live in unsanitary conditions without access to basic hygiene and clean water. The intervention seeks to present a solution to the personal hygiene issue through two approaches. The first approach is a clothing exchange program that would allow homeless persons to get clean clothes in exchange for their soiled clothes that would then be disposed. The program would target well-wishers and donors for clothing donations that would then be distributed to homeless persons registered in the program. The second approach is portable sink stations that would allow homeless persons to access basic hygiene and clean water. The two programs will be strategically located in areas dense with homeless persons who would then be registered to the program and their condition verified before being allowed to be beneficiaries (Truglio-Londrigan & Lewenson, 2018).

Description of intervention sustainability.

The intervention program will rely on donations and volunteers drawn from among interested persons. The program will initially engage in public campaigns to ensure awareness of the program activities and their intention. The one time campaigns with then be turned into longtime donations and volunteers through a stepwise process thereby ensuring sustainability. The first step involves setting up goals so that the donations and volunteers are targeted at purposes tasks with their impacts visualized through goal-setting. Repeat donations and volunteers are likely to be reported if there is a feeling that the donations and volunteer presence are necessary and worthwhile. With attainable and measurable goals (both short-term and long-term), the volunteers and well-wishers are likely to feel the difference they are making firsthand. The short-term goals will motivate them during individual sessions, while long-term goals will keep them emotionally invested in the results of the program over an extended period of time. The second step is having a good database of well-wishers and donors to help with managing them and having targeted communications when sending sign-up links, reminders, etc. In addition, the database would help with allocating more time towards building real relationships with them. The third step is having follow-ups to thank the donors and volunteers who donate their clothes, talents and time to the program out of the goodness of their health. This step helps in making them aware of how amazing they are for supporting the program (Williams, 2016).Funding Plan Research Paper

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Description of possible cost savings resulting from intervention implementation.

The intervention implementation is expected to result in cost savings from economies of scale. This would occur by consolidating the effort and volume expended in providing hygiene services and clean clothes to homeless persons. The consolidation will help in lowering the per-unit-fixed cost of providing clothes and hygiene services by generating greater volumes so that costs are spread out with costs per individual program beneficiary reducing as more homeless persons benefit from the program. To be more precise, the program spreads the fixed costs across a large number of beneficiaries (Penner, 2016).

Rationale for chosen sources of funding.

The chosen source of funding is donations from well-wishers. The rationale for using donations is that many people have used clothes that they would be amenable to donating for distribution to homeless persons. Besides that, donations help to create awareness of the issue and supporting the issue as a good cause. In addition, it helps to connect with the community dedicated to addressing the issue of homelessness in Los Angeles (Williams, 2016).

A proposed budget that includes total cost of implementation, expenses, and amount of funding received.

Table 1. Half-year budget estimate for first year

Description of adherence to financial planning and management best practices.

The program will adhere to financial planning management best practices through three approaches. The first approach is presenting the sources of revenues and detailing whether there are vulnerabilities or dependence that could affect current or future sources of income. The second approach is examining past records to help predict future expenses. Trends from market analysis help to build the budget and determine expenses. The third approach is being honest about any expertise required to accomplish the program goals (Williams, 2016). Funding Plan Research Paper

References

Andrzejewski, A. (2020, Sept. 30). Mapping Los Angeles’ Homeless Encampment Challenge – Nearly 100,000 Cases Reported Since 2019. https://www.forbes.com/sites/adamandrzejewski/2020/09/30/mapping-los-angeles-homeless-encampment-challenge–nearly-100000-cases-reported-since-2019/?sh=16c8f134dee6

Barry-Jester, A., & Hart, A. (2020, Oct. 7). This was supposed to be the year for California’s homeless. Instead it’s a slow ‘train wreck’. https://www.latimes.com/homeless-housing/story/2020-10-07/california-rural-homeless-coronavirus-train-wreck

Buechler, C., Ukani, A., Elsharawi, R., Gable, J., Petersen, A., Franklin, M., … & Bryce, R. (2020). Barriers, beliefs, and practices regarding hygiene and vaccination among the homeless during a hepatitis A outbreak in Detroit, MI. Heliyon, 6(3), e03474. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2020.e03474

CBS News (2020). Thousands of people who are homeless living near Los Angeles freeways to get shelter, permanent housing. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/thousands-of-homeless-people-living-near-los-angeles-freeways-to-get-shelter-permanent-housing/

Penner, S. (2016). Economics and Financial Management for Nurses and Nurse Leaders (3^rd ed.). Springer Publishing Company.

Truglio-Londrigan, M., & Lewenson, S. (Eds.) (2018). Public Health Nursing: Practicing Population-Based Care (3^rd ed.). Jones & Bartlett Learning, LLC.

Williams, R. (2016). Sustainable Non-Profit Management. Amazon Digital Services LLC. Funding Plan Research Paper