Contents
1. Introduction
2. History
3. Current situation and structure
4. Socio-cultural significance
5. Conclusion
6. Bibliography
Introduction
In the contemporary world human society is characterised by a very complicated
structure and naturally this leads to the variety of organisations existing
in one and the same society. in such a situation the role of social groups is
particularly significant since it provides the opportunities for the members
of such groups to be in a privileged position compared to those people who do
not belong to any social group. At this respect, it should be pointed out that
organisations play a very important role in structurisation of the society since
nowadays the role of organisations has increased dramatically. It is obvious
that there is a variety of organisations which may be extremely influential,
for instance multinational corporations which operate all over the world and
national borders as well as laws are not a significant obstacle on their way
of development and as a rule their strive for higher revenues and monopolistic
position in the market. Unfortunately the development of such organisations
is quite rapid and seems to be unstoppable that in the constantly progressing
world is quite dangerous because such organisations threaten to undermine the
basic principles of civil society since there is no international structure
that could really control them. This is why often it is thought that there are
less and less organisations that protects the interests of all citizens, especially
the most deprived ones. Fortunately, there are still some organisations that
aim at the protection of rights and interests of such groups of people and basically
such organisations are known as non-profitable. In order to better such organisation,
their structure, work, aims, and their social role, it is necessary to analyse
one of such organisations, namely Penny Lane in North Hills, Ca.
History
First of all, before discussing the organisation and its work, it is necessary
to dwell upon its history since it will help better understand the entity and
the main principles of the organisation, its functioning and main goals. It
is always very important to learn the history of an organisation in order to
have a clear picture about the reason of its foundation that will certainly
define its future purposes and consequently perspectives.
So, speaking about Penny Lane in North Hill, Ca, it is necessary to say that
this non-profit organisation was founded not very long time ago. Notably, the
date of its foundation is 1969 and the founder of the organisation was Ivelise
(Ive) Markovits. The personality of the founder is also very important since
it is her who defined the basic principles of Penny Lane and its further functioning
was the result of Ive Markovits’ work.
At this respect, it should be pointed out that the founder of Penny Lane graduated
from the college with the bachelor’s degree in Psychology that naturally
influenced her further career and the work of the organisation she founded since
she paid a lot of attention to human relations, social problems and psychology,
including social psychology, which focused on relations of individual and social
groups as well as interaction of social groups between each other that was very
perspective in a rapidly changing society of the second half of the 20th century.
Moreover, 1960s also influenced the personality of the founder and consequently
Penny Lane itself since it was the epoch when the sense of social consciousness
was particularly sharp and strong. Remarkably, Ive Markovits began her career
as Los Angeles County Probation and Placement Officer. Soon she got an MA in
Marriage and Family Counselling and later received her licenses as a Marriage
Family and a Child Counsellor. After that she has got a chance to realise her
dreams since it was one of her main goals to “provide a home for deeply
troubled teens about whom she had come to care deeply” (Kast & Rosenzweig
1994:401). This dream was eventually fully realised in 1969, when she started
Penny Lane.
By the way, the name of the organisations was also the ‘product’
of the epoch and is quite symbolic. In fact, it was borrowed from the upbeat,
cheerful Beatle’s tune that celebrated the simple joys of life. Consequently,
the title underlined the purpose of the foundation of such an organisation and
obviously implied that the main goal of Penny Lane was to bring joys to the
life of the most deprived people, troubled teens, who were in the focus of primary
attention of the organisation at that time.
Current situation and structure
The initial goal of Penny Lane has gradually evaluated but not radically changed
and they still remained socially oriented. Nowadays Penny Lane takes care for
over 1,600 abused and neglected children and youth who are still in the focus
of the organisation’s attention (Robbins 2003:258). These children and
youth receive a verity of services and essential help, notably the personnel
of the organisation provide therapeutic residential services and what is not
less important education for teenagers. Moreover, Penny Lane provides “foster
family home placements for boys and girls of all ages” (Robbins 2003:277).
However, the service of the organisation gradually changes or, to put it more
precisely, they enlarge and involve new categories of people. At this respect,
it is noteworthy that currently Penny Lane also takes care of young adults by
means of providing them with transitional housing without which the young adults
would be homeless. Furthermore, Penny Lane provides outpatient mental health
services for children and youth as well as their families, involving other organisations
that is also very important and helpful for the development of the organisation’s
principles and ideas in the society.
Another very important service suggested by Penny Lane is adoption that is absolutely
essential in the situation when it is very difficult for abandoned children
or orphans to lead a normal social life without family support provided by the
organisation. Moreover, nowadays Penny Lane can provide new mediation services
and the organisation is prepared to “hear cases of marital dissolution,
custody, visitation, child support, family reunification, family preservation,
victim/offender mediation, etc.” (Stewart 2005:495).
It should also be pointed out that Penny Lane is a constantly progressing organisation
and currently it is still enlarging. Notably, nowadays Penny Lane is represented
not only by its headquarters in North Hills but also provides additional outpatient
and foster family services in the Antelope Valley and the City of Commerce.
It means that the organisation continues to grow and its services are really
needed.
Remarkably, Penny Lane is still headed by Ive Markovits who is not only the
founder but also the executive director of the organisation. Penny Lane’s
board of directors includes Arthur Bar Jr, the president, Annick-Derrick Hammon,
the vice-president, Bruce Hector, M.D., W. Robert Crigler, Ph.D., Bobby Smith,
Margee Menell, Olga Moretti, Esq., and Ann Hill. Such an organisation provides
Penny Lane with effective work leading to positive results.
By the way, speaking about the results in financial terms, it is necessary to
underline that Penny Lane is non-profit organisation, as it has been just mentioned
above, but its financial position is quite good. For instance, last year Penny
Lane’s projected operating budget for fiscal year 2005 constituted $26,156,460
and “all donations are tax deductible and are used for programs and activities
not covered by current funding sources” (Stewart 2005:498). As a result,
it is possible to say that financial position of Penny Lane indicates at the
effectiveness of its operation and growing need in its services in the region
where the organisation operates.
Socio-cultural significance
Obviously, the functioning of Penny Lane as a non-profit organisation is very
significant for socio-cultural life of the society because it fulfils the functions
that no other organisation can currently fulfil, i.e. neither state services
nor commercial organisations can provide such services or at least they can
only partially solve the problems troubled teens, youth and their foster families
regularly face.
Speaking about social role of Penny Lane, it is necessary to point out that
the organisation contributes to socialisation of children and young people who
have significant troubles in their social life. It means that as a rule, teens
and youth Penny Lane takes care about tend to be marginalized and can easily
become a sort of outcasts without certain support from outside. Naturally, it
is particularly important for a child to have a family, even if it is a foster
family since it is one of the main condition of normal socialisation of an individual,
otherwise, a child lacking family support and being under the influence of a
peer group risks to acquire anti-social habits and model of behaviour that is
absolutely unacceptable and may have far reaching consequences for both the
individual and the society at large, while the main goal of Penny Lane is the
integration of troubled teens and youth in social and family life.
At the same time, Penny Lane plays a very important cultural role because troubled
children and teens acquire essential socio-cultural experience due to better
integration into the society through foster families, for instance. In such
a way, they acquire cultural norms accepted in the society and while their foster
parents may serve as an example, a model for the socially accepted behaviour.
To put it in simple words, children and teens simply learn what is good and
what is bad. Furthermore, being socialised means for a child or a teen to acquire
certain moral and ethic values, norms, and rules that they have an opportunity
to learn through the communication either with their foster parents, or other
adults which are interested in their education, well-being and future.
Conclusion
Thus, taking into account all above mentioned, it is possible to conclude that
the operation of such non-profit organisation is very important and such organisations
can hardly be substituted by some other organisations or institutions, for instance,
by state agencies. At the same time, such organisations are often the ‘product’
of their epoch and it is very important to sustain the development of such organisations
and provide the creation of new ones on the basis of ideas of social consciousness
and responsibility of each individual or organisation for the well-being of
each member of the society.
Obviously, the progress of such organisations and normal life of the society
are closely interlinked since without their assistance the number of people
with anti-social behaviour would grow dramatically that would definitely undermine
social stability currently existing in the society. At the same time, it is
particularly important to make the effectiveness of such organisations as high
as possible.
Bibliography:
1. Armenakis, A., Harris, S., & Mossholdern, K. 1993. Creating readiness
for organizational change. Human Relations, 46: 681-703.
2. Kast, F. E., & Rosenzweig, J. E. (1994). Organization and Management:
A systems approach (2nd ed.). Chicago: McGraw-Hill.
3. Robbins, S. P. (2003). Organizational behavior (10th ed.). New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, Inc.
4. Stewart, L. (2005). American Non-Profit Organisations. New York: New Publishers.
