Organizational Capacity-Building to Battle Addiction in the Oneida Community

Oneida Nation community members created a new and developing organization The Healing Society (fictious name) operated by a volunteer board. The board needed strategic direction to build organizational capacity and sustainability to address the lack of awareness in the community about the increase in opioid and heroin abuse after a well-known community member died from an overdose. The purpose of this postpositivist constructionist qualitative case study was to gather empirical data from the perspectives of internal and external stakeholders through a SWOT analysis focused on their perspectives. Their answers addressed: (a) the organizational strengths and weaknesses of The Healing Society to ensure short-term strength and long-term growth, and (b) the opportunities and threats impacting short-term strength and long-term growth of The Healing Society. A facilitated focus group exercise was used to gather an internal perspective from board members. Volunteers, community elders, and the parent organization staff were targeted to provide an external perspective through a semi structured interview process. Data collected from stakeholders was entered into Microsoft office 365 and NVivo 12 software to be analyzed. The analysis identified critical success factors in the form of themes, categories, priorities, and action items to consider when developing short- and long-term strategic plans. Implementing the recommendation to enlist interns or volunteers to complete the strategic plan elements would free up time for the board members to increase networking activities to meet the needs of the community, ensure public trust, and enhance perception as a model service agency