Like all presidential elections, this one has stirred up a tremendous amount of emotion. The supporters of the winner feel exhausted, and the supporters of the runner-up are disappointed. While people from both camps may rarely see eye-to-eye, professionals in the field of social work must interact with both- and for social workers and others in the helping professions, a strong sense of impartiality is critical.

Financial measurements are sufficient and appropriate in the for-profit corporate world, but strict financial measurements rarely reveal the strategic performance of the typical nonprofit. Financial performance measurement systems in the nonprofit world usually focus only on the measurement of donations, expenditures, and operating expense ratios. Success for nonprofits, however, should be measured by how effectively they meet the needs of their constituencies.

2014

Back in 2014 this blog was one of the first to report on the troubled Veterans Health Administration facility in Phoenix where 40 veterans died while languishing on an eternal wait list to see a doctor. Since then, we've maintained a set of blog posts and articles that have related updates and status changes at the VA, as well as other issues that are affecting our veterans.  A subsequent investigation uncovered a system-wide inability to offer vets timely medical treatment. 57,436 newly enrolled veterans faced a minimum 90-day wait for medical care, and 63, 869 veterans who had enrolled over the past decade never received any appointment at all. In addition, a corrupt administrative culture was falsifying wait-time records in order to protect management performance bonuses and punishing whistle-blowers who tried to bring the wait-time mess to the public’s attention.

The following blog post was shared through the Social Care Network and I wanted to share it here with our readers.  This is a great post written by a social worker who has outlined a strategic 10 point plan for social workers.

In a recent blog, a social worker argued that we, as a profession, need to discuss solutions rather than just gripe about our problems. I’m not sure it’s fair to say we only complain – and our voices are rarely heard in the media or in government anyway. But since you’re asking, here’s my own list of proposed solutions for better social work:

Recent management studies are attempting to dismantle and examine power relations inside and outside nonprofit organizations to open the black box of governance politicking, power struggles, board behavior and management decision making. Apparently it is a simplification to believe that organizations are run by the proverbial “boss” and all decisions that affect the organization are made by the “powers that be”.

At Global Vision Technologies we are inspired every day by the dedication and commitment of the social workers we are privileged to work with. It is no secret that, for the most part, social workers are overworked, underpaid, and constantly immersed in human suffering. Why do they do it? What motivates them to work such long hours under constant scrutiny facing opposition from supervisors, regulators, and the clients themselves? In their own words, here’s what social workers told us about why they do what they do.

How Bad Beliefs...

On August 22, 1996 President Bill Clinton signed into law legislation that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. The new bill was supposed to reform welfare. At that time, most Americans believed that poverty was the fault of the poor and that it wasn’t fare for hard working people to be burdened with supporting “freeloaders”. Welfare had become a dirty word. TANF was designed to counter this objection by adding a work requirement to the welfare eligibility requirements. Now social workers are required to help anyone who can work to find a job and only approve welfare assistance when it is clear to the social worker that no job is available.

So often people ask me how I became a Child Protective Services Case Manager and inevitably the next question is why? If I’m being totally honest I kind of just fell into it and I had no idea what I was getting myself into.

Reading View. Alt Shift A for Accessibility Help.

As a former social worker I found this a really interesting idea and I’m still trying to make my mind up? 

As you watch the Olympics in Rio this week take notice of a small group of athletes who are competing without a country. They are the Olympic Refugee Team. “These refugees have no home, no team, no flag, no national anthem,” International Olympic Committee President Thomas Bach said when he announced the selected athletes last month.