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Introduction引言
当今世界人类社会的最主要特点就是结构十分复杂，这自然导致了现在社会上相同或不同的各种组织。在这种情况下社会化群体的作用就显得十分显著，因为它提供了这些成员中的某些人可以不属于任何群体之外有着特权地位的机会。在这方面应该指出的是，组织在社会结构中的作用是十分重要的，效力也在逐渐增加。
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.
很明显，存在各种各样的组织是十分有影响力的，例如在世界各地或各个国家，以及法律都没有显著阻碍其发展的方式和规则的跨国企业中，各种组织都努力获得更高的收入以及想取得市场上的垄断地位。 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历史
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当前的形势和结构
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社会文化意义
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.#p#分页标题#e#
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结论
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:文献参考
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.
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