ARTICLES

The expression that how we spend our days is how we spend our lives is especially prescient to our work. At a minimum it is a 40-hour professional week. There are 40-hours to do something that matters. In a lengthy career with many human services programs that start and finish there are going to be ebbs and flows with programs that miss the mark and ones that are a bright start of impact. When these differences occur it is the difference between having robust logistics proces

Having enough is magic. It makes life easier and more comfortable, while, hopefully, prompting gratitude. Enough allows for growth and creativity, unlike scarcity which breeds fear and distraction. When needs are met, higher order considerations like fulfillment and sharing are possible. Enough is a sign of strength and stability in society. Unfortunately, human services programs are being cut outright, with little indication that there will be reshaping.   Staff must know th

Unprecedented. No matter your political views, the future is being changed through the retelling of storeis that have existed through America's history. It is perhaps the most powerful modern example of the role of story in our society. Companies, programs, and the people that make them possible are all trying to flex their own stories to stay relevant, let alone thrive. The abrupt story changes without evidence are creating confusion and disruption, not impact that matters.

A model program is not a fantasy, but its existence is unbelievable. We can each likely recall an example from history of a model human services program that mattered and changed the course of society. Reflecting on the qualities of that program, feelings will resonate; they come from the story that has entrenched the program as a model. There are myriad human services programs occurring at any given moment with just as many opportunities to make them matter. Often those oppo

A program success is not synonymous with a program that matters. The archives of human services research are replete with examples of evidence that were not successful at the outset because they were initially refuted or ignored, only to later be rediscovered and provide a crucial link to current thinking. With a different lens, the evidence mattered, which may allow it to be redefined in hindsight as a success. The challenge in the present is to keep 'success' and 'matters'

People and their time are incredibly underused (and misused) resources. The reasons are varied whether personal or societal. Organizations and program leaders have a responsibility to work within their scope to empower people and value their time. People are vital for the unique strengths they bring to a program, while their time is finite and divided across numerous daily demands. Story is arguably humankind's most powerful creation, and it can bring good an bad. Human servi