Kirkuk Cultural and Social Center

Kirkuk Cultural and Social Center, the employer I worked for about two and a half years is a civil society organization based in Kirkuk, Iraq. Its services were distributed throughout the city of Kirkuk, as well as three other cities. Services provided by this organization include information technology services, legal services, administrative and accounting services, support services for the displaced and the have-nots, and the establishment of festivals and parties. The staff in this organization varies according to the different functions and positions they occupy. The organization included people with a doctorate, master's degree, bachelor's degree or below. The main location which is in Kirkuk city had about 82 employees.

 The above is just to give a general overview of the institution I was working on so that the reader can know what organization I will speak about and the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that it has.

Strengths:

1. Diversity in administrative structure and staff.

2. There is no central decision-making in the organization.

3. Provide different services to different age groups of people.

Kirkuk Cultural and Social Center has many strengths that made it a strong competitor between the organizations of the Iraqi civil society in general and the city of Kirkuk in particular of these points that the center consists of a group of sections and each department has its responsibilities and duties that do not conflict with the rest of the sections. The center has an enormous management department led by competent people who have the ability to lead and coordinate with the other parts of the center. The administration department is also responsible for the management of human resources, appointments, and training. Also, the administration department draws up the general strategy of the center in coordination and consultation with the rest of the departments. Each section of the center has a department head, and each department head is directly linked to the director of the center who has the highest authority. Decisions at the Center shall be made through consultation and not by the Director of the Center or the Head of Section only (Nevin, 2014).

Kirkuk Cultural and Social Center provides many charitable activities to people without discrimination, especially individuals with limited income, the center provides them free of charge, so the center has a strong public base from people (Equal Employment Opportunity isTHE LAW). The activities offered by the center has a significant impact on people's minds because they found the center to be the haven for most of their medical, technological, social and recreational needs.

Weaknesses:

1. Compliance with government regulations and laws.

2. Government intervention for some activities.

3. Financial weakness.

Kirkuk's cultural and social center has strengths that make it one of the strongest competitors, but like any service institution, it has a set of weaknesses that sometimes make it rickety. Iraq is a new country on the institutions of civil society that was unheard of before the liberation in 2003, so the laws governing these institutions are few and also new. Therefore, the first weakness faced the center is that the center must comply with Iraqi laws and regulations. As I said earlier, there are not enough laws and regulations to sponsor the work of civil society organizations in Iraq, so these organizations are exposed to many problems, especially with government agencies such as the courts and the police (Elizabeth, 1997). The lack of adequate laws resulted in the absence of full coordination between governmental institutions and these institutions. Therefore, Kirkuk's cultural and social center has had difficulties opening medical clinics because it did not have sufficient support from government health facilities. The same happened when the center decided to open the legal center it had difficulties to coordinate with the legal institutions such as the courts. Direct governmental supervision of some activities made the center limit its activities because it found itself losing direct control over its activities. These activities include the distribution of humanitarian aid to displaced persons and visits to their camps. The center was then forced to reduce the number of subsidies.

One of the main weaknesses of the center is the lack of financial support. In quite a few cases, the Center faced severe financial difficulties, which forced it to reduce its activities, in addition, to lessen the number of workers to less than a third. Lack of funds in NGOs makes them vulnerable to closure and thus lay off all employees or sell and acquire from other organizations (compensation).

Opportunities:

Can be a low-cost alternative or a free alternative to law offices, medical clinics, and technology institutions.