On any given day, an estimated 60,000 youths under the age of 18 are incarcerated in an American jail. Given that children under the age of 18 account for approximately 22 percent of the US population, this figure is a concerning reflection of the state of the American juvenile justice system.
However, believe it or not. Today's situation is vastly improved over yesterdays. Thanks in part to social service organizations that have long advocated for institutional training of youth rather than confinement to reduce juvenile crime rates.

Here are some of the complexities of the country's juvenile justice system, as well as how it has evolved over time, as well as some areas where non-profit intervention is still needed.

Many legacy nonprofits suffer from a cliché image. They diligently support the original clientele that inspired their formation, but millennial donors do not identify with their legacy missions. Rather, young donors are concerned with society’s current challenges.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reports that there are now 708,100 social workers employed in the country. Furthermore, the number of persons involved in social work is always growing. Your main goal as a social worker must be to assist individuals or spread knowledge. You need a variety of social skills that work together to help you develop and accomplish your goals for social service in order to do that. However, you also need a few soft skills to help you in your social work job.

We'll go over three soft skills that any social worker needs to know to succeed in the field of social services.

“Opioid addiction is here to stay,” said a social work professor we recently interviewed. “But as long as we turn away from the horrors of this widespread addiction and choose to remain in denial, we will not make a concerted effort to widely administer treatment. The pharmaceutical industry has already created both long term treatments and emergency life-saving medications that are simply not being administered on a wide enough scale. I believe that a nationwide effort to make these medications available to anyone trapped in this particular substance abuse disorder should be a number-one priority for the social work profession at large.”

Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the demographics and logistics of the Social Work profession have shifted dramatically. Social workers are on the move, and telehealth has become ubiquitous. Social workers, however, are finding it more problematic than they had imagined moving from state to state. With ten years’ experience and a graduate degree from a major university they expected to simply fill out some kind of “transfer form” to get re-licensed in the state they were relocating to. In other words, they expected a high degree of “reciprocity” from state to state. This, however, is not always the case.

According to surveys, in the first half of 2022, approximately 53 million companies and individuals were victims of successful cyberattacks and data breaches. These figures are alarming, especially given that cybercriminals have targeted all types of businesses, including non-profits, which they may perceive to have a weaker cybersecurity structure.  Non-profit organizations deal with sensitive data such as clients' family histories, locations, and medical records, which must be protected, emphasizing the importance of non-profit cybersecurity.

This blog discusses how to effectively improve cybersecurity in non-profits.

Research shows that social service professionals exhibit a greater capacity for empathy than most of their contemporaries in other professions. Studies also show that this “ability to understand and share the feelings of another” is what motivates well-meaning young people to go into social work in the first place. The irony, however, is that this same capacity to “share the feelings of another” is also the primary cause of burnout among caseworkers.

According to studies, approximately 94% of organizations worldwide have reported using cloud computing in their processes. These companies include large-scale business organizations, start-ups, small-scale enterprises, and even non-profit organizations. This is encouraging a greater number of non-profits to evaluate their case management processes and consider upgrading their current non-profit software.

This article discusses why cloud computing is the way forward for all non-profit organizations.

According to research, around 1.5 million NGOs (non-governmental organizations) are currently operational in the United States. Some of these NGOs focus on raising awareness about different social issues, while others work on-field to help individuals in need, including seniors, children in foster care, and homeless people. But the lack of new technology and infrastructure in NGOs makes it difficult for them to work seamlessly on their cause.

According to surveys, around 53% of companies have adopted data analytics to enhance their procedures. With a large number of organizations realizing the importance of data analytics for better operations, now’s the ideal time for non-profits to invest in social services software integrated with data processing and analytics features. Like other companies, non-profits and caseworkers can benefit significantly from data analytics.

This blog discusses the importance of data analysis in non-profits.