The person I chose to interview, William Siedhoff is the director of Department of Human Services in the city of St. Louis and he has been in the director position for five years. This makes him one of the most knowledgeable people to source information from, since he has experience in the field of Human Services.
The first question that I asked William was the kind of services that are offered the department. His response was “The Department of Human Services of St. Louis City is mandated by the city charter as the government organ that oversees the social welfare programs. To administer the social welfare program effectively, the department is divided into five divisions which are homeless services division, the office of veteran affairs, the office of the disabled, office of the area agency on aging and the division of youth and family Services. Moreover, it is in these divisions through which the department coordinates its programming and funding activities.” (Campion et al, 2008). He also told me that this department has a direct duty of giving information and referral services to the citizens; otherwise there are additional services that are provided to the citizens through partnering with the private and public agencies.
We spoke briefly on where the department gets its funds and he told me that the major sources of funds are Federal, State and City General Revenue since the department is a unit of the city government. In addition he told me that the funds are managed by the board. He further clarified that the overall activities of the Human Service Department are coordinated by the city charter together with the city mayor and the Board of directors. Besides to the above sources of funds, he told me that additional funds are obtained from project planning initiatives which are developed through a strong advocacy and participatory activities.
I also asked if he could briefly let me know the major challenges of the funding and he told me that developing the budget to address the needs of the high risk populations with the limited money available is the biggest challenge. However, there are other challenges like difficulties in contract negotiations and grant managements. He also told me that the most difficult to fund is the division of Homeless Services because of the challenges in awarding the contracts, monitoring them and data collection which are used for reporting. Additionally, he said that the most problem in getting the needed money in time is the delay by the fiscal unit to come up with the proposed budget.
He briefed me that should the department get additional money then it will be channeled to the advocacy duties. Through advocacy, he expects a big growth in the number of citizens who will know the roles, duties and the eligibility criteria for the services. He also believe that with proper advocacy, the department will be able to generate grants that will add more funds in the future.
In conclusion I will say that sharing with the director who has passion for human services has enabled me to gain deeper understanding on the Human Services, particularly on the services the department offers to the public and the funding options. I sincerely appreciate the time and effort of William because they have helped me to learn things that are applicable to my information needs. Thanks a lot William.
Campion, M.A. Campion, J.E. & Hudson, J.P. (2008). “Structured Interviewing: A Note on Incremental Validity and Alternative Question Types”, Journal of Applied Psychology. Pp 78.
