Table of Contents
Executive Summary
The Good Shepherd Transitional Home is located in Dallas, Texas and it aims at enabling homeless teenagers to easily integrate with the rest of the society in a manner that will enable them to realize their full potential. Most of these teens live in groups and they come from low-income families, are orphans, children of immigrant families, or refugees. Thus, the Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays an important role in enabling these teenagers transition from their previous environment when they had a guardian to their current one when they have no person to take care of them.
At Good Shepherd Transitional Home, teenagers are trained on various life skills which are essential for their survival. The mandatory skills taught in these center are time management, basic training on finance, communication skills, social skills, and ethics. In addition, teenagers are taught on other skills such as IT, accounting, finance, economics, mechanics, tailoring, and cattery which they can use in various careers that they select. The latter skills are important, especially among refugees and children from low-income families who unfortunately did not get an opportunity to learn various professional skills (Eckert, 2009).
Another important role of the Good Shepherd Transitional Home is the provision of accommodation to these teenagers. The Good Shepherd home provides the teenagers with self-contained rooms and a balanced meal during their stay since they normally do not have any income which they can use to rent a place for their stay. During their stay, the teenagers are expected to be actively searching for employment as they are trained by our skillful trainers. After two years in the home, the teenagers are expected to be able to join the rest of the society in various active roles. As such, except in exceptional cases such as ailment, teenagers are allowed to reside in Good Shepherd Transitional Home for only two years.
Situational Analysis
Currently, there has been an influx in the number of teenagers in the streets in the country. Among the main reason are the increase in refugee immigrants in the country, poverty, the country’s anti-immigrant policy, and unstable families, which make teenagers escape from their homes. An increase in refugee immigrants in the US due to the wars in the middle east countries such as Syria and Iraq, which are due to terrorist attacks, have led to many people fleeing their countries. Most of these refugees flee to stable countries such as the US and most European countries such as Turkey, France, UK, and Germany. Among the refugee immigrants who arrive in these countries are teenagers, some of whom are orphans and have various psychological and physical injuries due to the wars in their country. In addition, most of them do not have professional and technical skills since most of their productive ages have been wasted in war (Madsen, 2014). As a result, there is always a need to rehabilitate these children in transitional homes and to train them on various life skills as well as important technical and professional skills which they can use to get employment.
Poverty is the other major cause of teenagers living in groups away from their families. In most poor families, children move out of their families at a very young age in order to support their families. As a result, these children live in groups in the streets where they can be easily abused. The main importance of Good Shepherd transitional home to these young ones is the provision of proper accommodation and adequate skills so that they can be able to fend for their families. Social skills and important life skills such as communication and ethics are important in enabling these teenagers to easily find a job and to integrate with members of the society. In addition, they also enable them to properly manage their resources and avoid gangs and criminal organizations that may easily influence them to join crime.
The US anti-immigration policy has also led to an increase in teenagers living in groups in many cities. Due to the strong anti-immigration policies, some illegal immigrants, especially parents, have been forced to live in hideouts as they fear being deported. As a result, these parents are unable to find employment. Therefore, the anti-immigration policy has led to a rise in teenagers living in streets as they try to fend for their families. Unfortunately, most of these teenagers are forced to drop out of school since they are always engaged in work (Mohapatra, 2013). In this regard, the transitional home will enable teenagers living in groups to find a habitable place where they can learn some important life skills which they can use to find employment.
Teenagers who are from unstable families have a high likelihood of living in groups. Teenagers from most unstable families usually have physical and psychological injuries that lead to them preferring to live with their friends. In fact, their teenage groups normally feel more safe and stable than living in a chaotic home. Unfortunately, teenagers who live in groups can be influenced by criminal gangs into crime, drug abuse, and prostitution. Thus, Good Shepherd Transitional Home will provide these teenagers with a place where they can undergo counseling and recover from the psychological damage that is due to them living in an unstable family. In addition, they will also get training on various social skills that they may have not properly learned in their homes. These skills will enable them to easily get employment and reduce their dependence on their unstable families.
Market Strategy
The target market for Good Shepherd Transitional Home is teenagers living groups in homes. Therefore, the institution will establish itself as an attractive and hospitable place where all teenagers would prefer to reside. Also, the institution will want to be publicly known in all areas in the state so that teenagers who are unable to find residence can visit. Finally, the institution would like to have a reputation of training teenagers on important life skills and enabling them to find employment.
Good Shepherd Transitional Home will partner with allies in this industry. Partnership with allies is a good strategy for enabling an organization to serve its market by enabling it to create a large network of potential service providers and clients. Through the partnership, Good Shepherd will be able to get referrals from teenagers who have been through the institution’s transitional program (Peter & Olson, 2010). In addition, teenagers looking for accommodation and training in transitional homes will be referred to the institution by partners such as service providers for Good Shepherd Transitional Home as well as other institutions offering similar services but are either fully copied or unable to accommodate more teenagers.
Good Shepherd Transitional Home will also use social media to market its services. Since most teenagers use social media services such as Facebook and Twitter, marketing through these channels will enable the company to easily reach its potential market (Walker et al., 2015). In addition, the use of social media will enable the company to advertise to a lot of potential customers all over the country due to its wide reach.
Good Shepherd Transitional Home will collaborate with various influencers when marketing its service. In a society, there are various influencers to behaviors of teenagers. These influencers include cinema providers, sports centers, schools, and religious organizations. I will request the management of these facilities to encourage teenagers living in groups to seek accommodation and training in Good Shepherd Transitional Homes. Since most teenagers love to socialize in these areas, the management of these organizations will be effective in encouraging teenagers to join the transitional home.
Billboards and posters will also be used as marketing tools by Good Shepherd Transitional Homes. The home will place billboards along major highways in the city. It will also stick posters on walls of busy streets. This marketing strategy will be effective in reaching homeless teenagers who might be passing where the posters have been placed (Walker et al., 2015). Importantly, the posters and billboards will inform the teenagers on the location of the facility and the benefits that they may gain by joining the home.
Finally, Good Shepherd Transitional Home will use radio and television media to market its services. These forms of media are still some of the most popular forms that have an easy reach to teenagers (Peter & Olson, 2010). For more efficacy, advertisements will be mostly done on radio stations and television channels that target the youth. As such, most homeless teenagers who may be listening to the radio or television station will hear about the home and the free training and accommodation they can get in this facility.
Christian World
Every Christian has a social and moral role of improving the lives of the needy. In this regard, the Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays an important role in the society by equipping homeless teenagers with important life skills that may enable them to find employment. By the organization providing accommodation, training, and meals to homeless teenagers, it plays an important role of acting as a guardian. In Mathew 25.44-45, the Bible says, “They also will answer, Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick in prison, and did not help you?’ “He will reply, Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.” This Bible verse shows that Christians have the duty of helping the needy. Thus, Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays its important Christian role of caring for the needy.
Another important Christian duty that Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays is spreading the gospel of Christ. In the process of teaching teenagers about their expected morals and ethics, the school teaches them Christianity. Christ expects every Christian to be actively involved in spreading the gospel by teaching other members of the society and through his/ her conduct. Besides the training, the conduct of the institution provides the teenagers with an important role model that shows the teenagers on the admirable characters of Christians. In practice, children learn more from what they observe. Therefore, the humility, passion, and love shown by trainers in the institution influence the teenagers to live a Godly life. In Matthew 5.13-16, the Bible says “You are salt for the earth. But if salt loses its taste, how will it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled on by people. “You are light for the world. A city cannot be hidden when it is located on a hill. No one lights a lamp and puts it under a basket. Instead, everyone who lights a lamp puts it on a lampstand. Then its light shines on everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine in front of people. Then they will see the good that you do and praise your Father in heaven. Thus, Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays a great role in influencing most teenagers to accept Christianity. In this way, Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays its important Christian role by influencing the behavior and character of children.
Finally, Good Shepherd Transitional Home plays an important role by being co-creators with God. We live in an imperfect world; thus, we have the responsibility of using the gifts that God has provided us with to improve it. Every Christian is expected to live a socially and morally responsible life in which he/ she helps to improve God’s creation. In 1 Corinthians 3. 8-9, the Bible says, “The one who plants and the one who waters have one purpose, and they will each be rewarded according to their own labor. For we are co-workers in God’s service; you are God’s field, God’s building.” Therefore, by Good Shepherd providing meals, accommodation, and training to homeless teenagers, it plays an important role of co-creation. Actually, it enables these individuals to increase their skills and enables them to have a better opportunity if finding employment.
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- Peter, J. P., & Olson, J. C. (2010). Consumer behavior & marketing strategy. New York: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
- Walker, O. C., Mullins, J. W., Mavondo, F. T., Gountas, J. I., Kriz, A., & Osborne, C. (2015). Marketing strategy: A decision-focused approach.