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Working yourself out of business is not working Wednesday, January, 27, 2010
Great Non-Profits Deserve A Great Rating System Wednesday, December, 16, 2009
Missing the Mark: Why Business-Mindedness Cannot Solve the Problems of the Non-Profit Sector Tuesday, December, 8, 2009
Too Many Non-Profits? Tuesday, December, 1, 2009
The Poverty Business Tuesday, November, 17, 2009
Poor By Design Monday, November, 16, 2009
The Poverty Landscape Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
We Need Inforum Thursday, November, 5, 2009
Effective Social Investing Wednesday, November, 4, 2009
Social Services Cause Homelessness
Wednesday, November, 11, 2009
We Need Inforum
Industries get better through competition and knowledge exchange. In the social service sector, we do little of either. Social service is a difficult business. It is emotional, it is technical, and it is grueling. While our intentions are altruistic, our work-product is not. We don't measure our successes based on how much we care, we measure ourselves based on how much we do. What we do, of course, is not so much about our outputs, but the social outcomes those outputs create.
In order to improve the social outcomes of those we serve, we need to exchange information with one another about what works and what doesn't. We also need to compete. We need to compete to make each other better, and to help more people.
If you've spent much time looking around for publications geared toward those in our sector, for websites dedicated to poverty, homelessness, and social services, you likely have been as disappointed as I. Other websites about poverty and homelessness are less about knowledge exchange, and more about inducing sentiment. These websites serve an important function in that they demonstrate the importance of the work we do to the general public. However, for those of us in the sector, we don't need to read about why we should care, we need to focus on what we ought to do about the issues facing low-income individuals and families.
We need Inforum because Inforum is a website for us, people dedicated to the social service sector. This is a site where readers know the difference between anecdotes and data, whose hearts are not hardened, but rather reasoned with knowledge and experience.
This is a site for you, and it will only be as good as you choose to make it. Inforum needs to be a discussion. We are colleagues, and Inforum is our water cooler. I signed-up to be a blogger on Inforum because our industry desperately needs websites like this, but until now, had none.
Engagement, debate, discussion, it is all part of any healthy industry's growth trajectory. In order for us to help more people, we need to engage one another about the work we are doing. Take the next step in moving our industry forward. Join the conversation.
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When Celebrities Do Good... Tuesday, February 26, 2008
"Not In My Lobby" Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Is Immigration Increasing Poverty In America? Thursday, November 27, 2008
On This Thanksgiving Day... Friday, March 7, 2008
I’m Worried...
Linda Rosenberg, MSW Juan was a delivery driver, but his health problems were putting him at risk of losing his job. His diabetes was poorly controlled and had caused foot ulcers that made it difficult for him to walk. He also had bipolar disorder, which was not being controlled. When he joined the Working Well program in Harris County, Texas, Juan worked with a case manager to get orthopedic shoes, to receive support in developing a diabetic diet and exercise plan, and to make an appointment with a psychiatrist to bring his mental health condition under control. As a result, Juan was able to continue working full time as a delivery driver and received a raise for exceptional performance (Bohman, Stoner, & Chimera, 2009). Working Well is part of the....
Homelessness Resource Center "I believe that people who are trained in Motivational Interviewing have a different perspective on building relationships. Many people are trained to view clients in a paternalistic manner, like they are children. This attitude says that providers always know what is best for a client. This attitude makes us think that we must convince clients that we know what is best for them. In this view, success is measured by the provider’s actions, not the client’s." In the spirit of Motivational Interviewing, Alan Pickett, a Mental Health Outreach Nurse at the Project Outreach Team (PORT) for Washtenaw County Community Mental Health in Ann Arbor, Michigan, does not define success this way. He believes his first task to is to make himse
David J. Jefferson “The prevalent fear of poverty among the educated classes is the worst moral disease from which our civilization suffers.” When William James, ostensible father of American Psychology, penned this line over a century ago, he had embedded the idea in a discussion on religious experience, in which he also extolled the virtues of voluntary poverty. Today, in a totally distinct context, James’ words are imbued with new meaning. Due to economic recession and what many economists have deemed a jobless recovery in contemporary America, people who never before feared poverty—the educated, or middle class—must now confront harsh new realities. The current conditions are like nothing we’ve ever seen. Conspiring myriad circumstances....
Jamie Van Leeuwen When Denver’s Road Home began over four years ago, we never could have anticipated a year like we just had. Who could ever imagine that our economy would shift into a global recession unlike anything the country has experienced since the Great Depression? And yet, in the midst of unparalleled economic shifts, there comes great opportunity. We believe there has never been a more important time for Denver to have a plan to end homelessness. During the past year, our homeless plan has been tested and we expect the coming year will continue to pose new challenges for us. Housing foreclosures, unemployment and funding cutbacks will continue to place new demands on our ten-year plan to end homelessness. As a result, we updated our plan so....
Linda Valverde & General Dogon The authors have lived and worked in Central City East—commonly known as Skid Row—for a combined thirty years. During all of our decades of living in Los Angeles, neither of us had ever heard of gentrification until about five years ago, when we became members of the Los Angeles Community Action Network (LA CAN). Now it seems that gentrification has become a common household word in cities throughout the United States, and nowhere more than downtown Los Angeles. When redevelopment really took off in downtown L.A. in 2002, LA CAN and our allies created five principles for fair redevelopment. We wanted to see our neighborhood revitalized, not gentrified. The principles were....
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