Monday, February 20, 2012

Reality Time for Human Service Organizations?

Many of you will remember Irv Katz, who served in a number of Indianapolis area nonprofit leadership roles before stepping up to the national stage. In this article, he reflects on the demise of Hull House in Chicago and what it means to those of us working in the sector.

"The recent demise of Hull House, the historic Chicago settlement
established over a century ago by socialite, social entrepreneur, and activist Jane Addams may well be emblematic of tectonic shifts taking place in the human service sector. And the big problem with tectonic shifts is, you don't know where the plates will land until they have.

To know about the history of social welfare in the United States is to know about Hull House as one of its most historic and significant icons. Addams imported the idea of a settlement house from England, and had the bold idea of empowering people and giving a hand up not a hand out. Central to the concept was that the settlement house was a part of the community, often an immigrant community, not somewhere downtown where one had to beg for help.

Read the full article here.

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