June 24, 2004

Bringing Advocacy to Human Services

by Mark Rosenman, Exploratory Project on Human Services and Civic Engagement

 

RosenmanWhat can be done when our society’s elected leaders aren’t funding the human services we need?  How can human service providers find the time to advocate when they’re strained just to keep up with service demands?  Can a society serve its way out of problems?  How can we do more prevention while meeting needs that will still remain?  Are there ways to redesign service delivery so that it also works to increase people’s power, reduce need, and strengthen community and society? 

The Exploratory Project on Human Services and Civic Engagement is exploring these questions, with the belief that organizations ultimately can decrease the need for their services by focusing more on human development and increasing democratic participation.  Organizations can do so with shifts in the way they now design, manage and deliver services, as much as by adding new programs.  Hosted jointly by Union Institute & University (headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio) and Independent Sector (Washington, DC), the Project is built around a Working Group of leaders from local service-provider coalitions and from a few statewide and national groups. 

The Exploratory Project’s vision is that people can assume greater personal responsibility for their lives by increasing their capacity to better represent their own individual and collective interests.  Program beneficiaries can become less passive service-consumers and more active and effective agents in service to themselves, to one another, and to democratic life in their communities and nation.  This, of course, requires continuing social investment in people by government and nonprofits.  It also means better linking human service provider and advocacy groups.
 
Through convenings—including one in Spring 2004 in Washington, DC—and ongoing communications, the Project is assisting human service leaders to identify and explore ways to build capacity (in staff, volunteers, board members and program beneficiaries) for increasing democratic participation.  The three primary tasks are to develop strategies to: (1) “broaden the conversation” about the inherent limits of service and the need to develop people and build social change through civic engagement; (2) find and provide access to models for integrating service and engagement work; and, (3) organize a network of, and incentives and support for, leaders working toward such goals. 

The Project’s staff, Mark Rosenman and Linda T. Nguyen, believe such steps are not only appropriate in any society that values the individual, but become essential because the US does not adequately fund service provision.  Furthermore, the continuing development of all people is itself essential to a healthy democratic society.  Thus, the Project’s focus on human development and civic engagement goes beyond program beneficiaries to also include organizations’ volunteers, staff and board – recognizing that we share a collective responsibility to invest in one another.

For Rosenman, the response of participating leaders of human service provider consortia has been inspirational.  “It’s amazing to see human service and other leaders creating a vision for fundamental change in their work,” he says.  “It feels like I’m witnessing the birth of a movement.”

The Working Group knows it will take years to realize the Project’s goals; its members have committed themselves to leadership over the long term.  With their active involvement, the staff is developing a multi-year plan and seeking necessary support. “We hope to serve as a valuable resource to human service providers that want to take their service delivery one step further,” explains Nguyen. The next phase will involve Working Group members and staff convening human service leaders locally to popularize these efforts.  For further information, contact the Exploratory Project, c/o Independent Sector, 1200 18th Street, NW, Suite 200, Washington, DC 20036 or write Linda.Nguyen@tui.edu. 

 

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