The National Council on Family Relations is one of the oldest human service organizations founded in 1938. The organization is the most ancient multidisciplinary organization whose mission was to offer an educational forum for all family educators, practitioners, or researchers who develop and share relevant knowledge concerning family relationships and issues (Poehlmann & Arditti, 2018). Besides, the organization aims at establishing professional guidelines that promote family development and general wellbeing. The experienced human organization works to achieve its mission through massive research work, outreach, scholarships, and policymaking.
The NCFR organization comprises more the 3000 members who are from all 50 states in America and also different countries around the globe. The members possess varying professional expertise beneficial to the organization such as sociology, psychology, counseling and therapy, family science, and health. Other members are human development specialists, family educators, graduates and undergraduates, social workers, researchers, and family therapists. The organization also enlighten the community through advertised annual conferences, journals, and organized outreach forums. The organization publicizes scholarly journals such as the Journal of Marriage and Family, which has previously been termed the most influential family relationships journal. The NCFR annual conferences involve more than 150 sessions facilitated by 500 presenters and approximately 1100 attendees (Mosley & Smith, 2018). The community outreach approaches include organizing focus groups, mentorship programs, educator certification, webinars, and workshops for professional development. The NCFR uses evidence-based practice to influence policymaking while showing family-related research results.
The National Council on Family has been a significant advocate on the arising issues in the family institution. The organization addresses the common and emerging issues on gender equality in family relationships, health issues in the family generally and also in a particular family member, parenting issue, equality in education, and external forces influencing the family such as the social and economic forces ((Poehlmann & Arditti, 2018). Following massive technological development, family issues have seen an enormous transformation, calling for more research work and studies by the organization to offer updated information to families. For instance, more accessible access to social media by people of all ages has been associated with many family issues. Previous researchers indicate that children’s social media access has posed a significant challenge to parenting. Kids are more exposed and influenced by the media content way before the parents know. Therefore, the organization organizes forums and publishes journals to enlighten the children on the dangers of exposure to unethical materials and guides the parents and guardians on how to handle the children in this digital era without arousing conflicts among them.
The NCFR works under a policy governance system with three exceptional statements known as the Global Ends Policies, which guide the Board of Directors and the general staff. Policy governance is a form of governance where the board members have designed and documented guidelines to fulfill their obligations. Dr. John Carver invented this form of governance as an integrated-board leadership paradigm. According to Mosley & Smith (2018), the policy governance model is adequate for an organization since it enables the members to attend to complex issues quickly by allowing delegation of duties. As for the NCFR, the policy governance system is the most effective means of governance since the emerging family issues are complex and, therefore, a clear guideline for achieving the bold mission of achieving family stability. Hence, the organization has clear statements concerning each Global End Policy, enabling the easier achievement of goals.
The first Global End Policy states that the NCFR shall offer professional and knowledge development opportunities concerning family education, research, theories, and policies. Under this policy, there are four specific statements. First, the policy states that the organization shall educate and train its members on the scientific methods of approaching family issues. Secondly, the NCFR shall facilitate its members to be the leading experts concerning family practices, research, and theory development. Thirdly, it states that the organization shall ensure members networking to enhance interdisciplinary dialogues, mentorship, and strategic planning. Forth, the organization will contribute to various policymaking forums concerning families. The second Global End policy guides the organization to support the communication process where it advocates for disseminating research information and theory about the family institution. Under this policy, the organization is driven to make three milestones, including one encouraging the use of research studies and theories of family practices. Secondly, it should facilitate the approach and research-based family pedagogy and raise evidence-based decisions from research work and theory-based family knowledge, influencing decision-making for the general public.
The third global end policy states that the NCFR shall represent its experts in family science where it will set standards for the research work and education and emphasize the development of the expounding of the Family Science discipline. Under this policy, the organization is expected to meet four obligations. One, it is supposed to establish and monitor the quality of various programs under Family Science and Family Life Educators’ standards. Secondly, it is expected to ensure diversity and inclusion of international perspectives throughout all its aspects, from developing the mission, programming, governance, and professionalism. Thirdly, the organization should develop ways of encouraging Family Science professionals, and fourthly, it should offer beneficial information and adequate resources concerning career opportunities and options to all participants.
Human service organization requires a large number of funds to meet their high financial demanding operations. The different human service organization has other funding means depending on the organization’s size and on the objectives it aims to achieve (Hasmath et al. 2019). The NCFR is a mega global organization with global goals that requires a large sum of money to be effective. The organization, therefore, has many financiers, which they acquire through effective grant writing from their experienced researchers who do thorough research before applying to any proposed sponsor. For instance, the organization has collections through the dissertation and fellowship funding from George Washington University. The NCFR also receives government financing through grants from a centralized point from the U.S. funding opportunities. Other government finances are given by the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS) and the National Science Foundation (NSF). There are also other private sources of funds such as the Dana Foundation, William T. Grant, Institute of Educational Science, the Dibble Institute, the American Psychological Association (APA) Foundation, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The diverse sources of funds have enabled the organization’s sustainability since the time of creation till now, where it remains significant in addressing the emerging family issues. Adequate finances also simplify the process of goals achievement through timely disbursement of salaries to employees and establishing new strategies to meet the changing demands of family research and education.
