Lonely Adolescents

"Adolescence is a unique, highly sensitive developmental stage initiated by puberty. During this time, the biological imperative is to detach from family and move closer to peers,” according to a 2021 study of adolescent grief during the COVID-19 pandemic. “In more individualistic cultures, a core developmental task of adolescence is to determine ‘who am I?’ Adolescents seek a coherent, integrated, and stable sense of themselves, separate from the identity imposed on them by family.” This is normal personality development in our Western culture but carries with it the risk of falling into a deep sense of loneliness especially for adolescents as they try to separate their personal identity from their identity as a member of their family. Their desire to feel socially accepted and identify with a group beyond their family of origin becomes particularly intense during this developmental period.

Beyond Cliche

When we encounter a homeless person asking for a little help on the curb by a stoplight, most of us will offer a little financial assistance and drive on feeling we have done our part. We rarely give them a second thought. They usually fit the cliché we have fashioned of the damaged vet, or the mentally ill, or the alcoholic or drug addict who sleeps on a park bench or under a flat newspaper tent. A while back, however, I had an awakening. I parked near a young woman with 3 small children camped on the curb of a Whole Foods parking lot. She displayed a large handwritten sign asking for help but did not approach me or verbalize at all. She was obviously shy and appeared embarrassed by her circumstances. I couldn't just drop a dollar in the colorful basket she had set out and go about my business. She and her children did not neatly fit my homeless cliché. I was compelled to inquire.

The Market Sets the Price 

The proper pay scale for social workers has been the subject of debate for many years. Many believe that social workers are paid fairly, and any upward pressure will put the survival of nonprofits (both public and private) in jeopardy. Others believe that social workers deserve to be valued according to their worth and professional skills. No amount is too high.

Mindful in Michigan 

Technology in all its myriad forms has invaded and altered the very fabric that binds society. In the relatively short span of 50 years digital and cyber technologies have transformed how humanity learns, communicates, transacts, records, analyzes, and interacts on every level. The invention of the internet and the development of social media supercharged the otherwise prosaic everyday tribal activities of socializing, trading, raising the family, and falling in and out of love. Almost every daily activity is now conducted through cyber filters. Much like the introduction of electric lighting, internal combustion engines, telephones, and airplanes, computers and their offspring have altered the very foundations of human interaction. To varying degrees, but in a very real sense, technology has rendered us all "strangers" in our own lives.

Safe Havens: How Community Centers Change Children's Trajectories

In every corner of the world, communities hold the power to usher in transformative changes, especially for their youngest and most vulnerable members. Often seen as mere byproducts of their circumstances, children can rewrite their destinies when local communities step forward as catalysts of support and growth. By nurturing these young lives through education, mentorship, and care, a community can alter individual destinies while charting the course for its collective future prosperity.

Modern Medical Practice

A relatively unknown public health crisis is looming in the United States. As the U. S. population added 22.7 million people between 2010 and 2020, a large portion of the baby boomer physician generation retired and were not replaced at the same pace by generations X, Y, and Z. By 2034, experts anticipate that the U.S. will be short at least 30,000, if not more than 100,000, physicians.

Where Have All the Manners Gone? 

On a recent business trip, we witnessed several confrontational incidents between passengers at the airport and on the plane that gave this blog cause for concern. It appears that we no longer require ourselves to be polite or even cordial to one another. On the contrary, it seems that we are all feeling empowered to push our way to the head of the line and feel timid and put upon if we don't. One woman on the plane who couldn't fit her carryon in the overhead defied the flight attendant to the point that security was called, and she and her luggage were removed from the flight. It was clear to everyone on the plane that her conduct was not in her best interest, and that it was not going to end well for her. Nevertheless, she persisted. What could be causing this rise in self-destructive conduct that we see almost daily?

Nonprofit's Role in Immigration

Long before terrorism in the Middle East and the collapse of duly elected democratic governments in Central and South America sent waves of immigration to the U.S. southern border, nonprofits played a critical role integrating a “once welcome” immigrant population into our society. During this current controversial era, however, nonprofits walk a tightrope across a political divide that threatens to disenfranchise their efforts by interpreting every service impulse as "choosing sides". Nonprofits, with their mission-driven focus and dedication to social welfare, are well-positioned to provide vital services and advocacy for immigrants without regard to any political position.

Autism Spectrum Disorder

Currently, one in fifty-four American children will be diagnosed somewhere on the Autism spectrum. Social workers in child welfare have noted this rise in the diagnosis of autism across the country and have asked us to help bring autism out of the shadows.

It has become a cliché in film and TV that ex-cons (as they're known) struggle to make a fresh start because they have a "record". Every school kid in America knows that he/she doesn't want to have a "record". They'll never get a good job, never work for the government and, in many places, never be allowed to vote. A standard question on most job applications inquires whether you've ever been arrested. In other words, after a convicted felon has paid his/her "debt to society", he/she must continue to pay the debt forever. Research tells us that this "criminal record" relentlessly following those long after they have served their sentence is the primary cause of recidivism in U.S. Finding no other way to care for themselves in the "outside" world, they return to crime for survival.