Often the people closest to us escape our notice. An old classmate of mine from the Harvard Business School recently surfaced with a simple but profound message that instantly clarified an issue I’ve been pondering all year - what motivates the dedicated people who toil tirelessly in the nonprofit world? The message was unusual coming from a business school graduate. After all, most of my Harvard classmates went on to become captains of industry focused on making money for themselves and their stockholders. And, for the most part, they were pretty good at it. 

It is not uncommon for many to assume that technology is dehumanizing interactions and removing the need for face-to-face contact in the human services world. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth, as technology and the right human services software are actually helping social workers deliver more family-focused care.

During a recent discussion with social workers engaged in public health, obesity was identified as the major chronic health problem facing the United States.

Two important events for fundraisers come together this time of year:

1. The holidays (and the giving spirit they engender).
2. The year-end tax deduction cutoff. 

This is fundraiser prime time. Everyone is, of course, aware of this and the competition is fierce. Creativity and innovation are indispensable. The same old smiling Santa on your nonprofit’s holiday card will no longer get the job done. 

After hurricane Maria devastated Puerto Rico, social workers and service providers naturally focused on the immediate needs of their clients. They provided food, childcare, safety and support, among other services. However, a year has passed and the critical needs of these people, helpless in the face of mother nature’s awesome power, continue to evolve rather than abate.

In recent years, homelessness in New York City has reached the highest levels since the Great Depression of the 1930s. In August 2018, there were 62,166 homeless people, including 15,189 homeless families with 22,511 homeless children, sleeping each night in the New York City municipal shelter system. The number of homeless New Yorkers sleeping each night in municipal shelters is now 79% higher than it was ten years ago, and families make up three-quarters of the homeless shelter population.

This is the fourth in our series on case manager stress relief. In the first post, we discussed the physical things that can be done to relieve stress. The second focused on ways to find mental stress relief and the third focused on identifying and lessening exhaustion factors. In this post, we will examine how case manager burnout can be prevented with good supervision and mentorship.

The Pew Research Center has found that 20% of the U.S. public—and 34% of adults under 30—are religiously unaffiliated. These are the highest percentages ever recorded. 34% of those considered younger Millennials (born 1990–1994) reported no religious affiliation, compared to Generation Xers (born 1965–1980), with 21% reporting to be religiously unaffiliated.  

A caseworker’s job consists of many facets: assessing client needs, home visits, evaluations, reporting, listening to concerns, problem solving, providing referrals and the list goes on. While wanting to collaborate with coworkers and the community on projects is always the goal, the ability to do so can often be hindered by a caseworker’s workload. Fortunately, with the right case management software in place, increased collaboration can be possible.

In this new dystopian world of negative and divisive political discourse, we find it refreshing to seek out and report on the positive, uniting energy of the mission-centric nonprofit “other-world” we inhabit with our colleagues across the country.