Positive Tomorrows, an Oklahoma City non-profit, is opening a private school for homeless children that was designed by the kids themselves. That’s right. A private school for homeless (not privileged) children.

We know that being a case manager comes with a lot of different stressors. It's just part of the job. But we want to help ease some of that stress. This is another post in our ongoing series of blogs on case manager stress relief.

Remember taking film to the drugstore to get it developed? Or hustling over to Blockbuster on a Friday night to rent films for the weekend? How about “looking up” facts for your homework papers in the Encyclopedia Britannica? Or spending rainy Saturdays in the library writing your thesis?

Ahhh…the good old days. Whatever happened to books printed on paper and bound between covers with printer’s glue? The world has gone digital and library collections are gradually becoming obsolete. How long has it been since you visited a library?

State of the Union

Four out of five charities use volunteers in their activities, either in service to others or in helping to run the organization.

Helping people through the physical and mental issues they’re dealing with is often just a part of the healing process. For many, spirituality is a core value of their life, and therefore an integral part of the therapeutic process.

It is a serious misperception to view social workers as low paid civil servants who push paper on behalf of the less fortunate and perhaps undeserving. Social workers occupy a unique position in our social fabric.

From the very outset, the history of social work is populated with empathetic leaders who, upon discovering profound human suffering, not only offered a helping hand but immediately set out to change the social conditions contributing to the suffering. Social work's earliest pioneers - Florence Kelley, Alice Hamilton, Julia Lathrop, Sophonisba Breckinridge, and Grace and Edith Abbott, among others—laid the foundation of the profession's social leadership role and, to this day, this inclination to activism sets social workers apart from other civil servants.

When it comes to your clients and your fellow caseworkers, nothing is more important than meeting face-to-face. The more time spent directly with your client, the more likely you are to achieve the individual case goals and fulfill the mission focus. On paper it seems simple and obvious, yet paper is exactly what continues getting in the way. That’s where having the right human services software comes in.

"Getting adopted is like finally being able to sit down after standing up for a painfully long time." — Sam, age 9, in foster care - Social Work Today

This touching testimony from a little boy finally emerging from the foster care system opened our eyes to the ongoing trauma children in state custody experience. 

In the past we’ve discussed the many benefits of nonprofit software solutions and how they can help you in your day-to-day functions. For example, the correct software package can help make data easier to get to, utilize and learn from, affecting strategy and funding. This helps contribute to a more positive workflow. But nonprofit software solutions can also bring about positive change in another way- the people in the organization itself.

In recent years, funders are demanding that social service organizations analyze their program activities and outputs in a more meaningful way. For agencies to just say they are “doing good” is no longer enough. Organizations now need to justify costs by demonstrating program value. They must be able to justify their programs and funding by illustrating the quality of their services and show that their programs are producing meaningful outcomes that are aligned with larger policy priorities.