3 Reasons Child Welfare Organizations Don’t Innovate

by Annette Sandberg

We live in exciting times.  If you zoom around cyberspace, as I do daily, you know what I mean.  There’s Twitter, Friendfeed, Ning, Facebook and other social media platforms that allow people to connect like never before.  They’re sharing ideas and getting excited about possibilities.  And I love it.  I love watching people connect, share ideas, and support each other.  But sometimes I feel lonely.  Why? Because I haven’t found anyone passionate, or even mildly interested in child welfare or child/youth mental health treatment innovation.  The key word being INNOVATION.

I have spent most of my professional life trying to understand why innovators don’t flock to the non-profit social services field.  Heck, you can be a mediocre creative and still have daily epiphanies about quality and outcome improvement within the child welfare world.  So why aren’t we further along?  Possibly because:

1. Funding supports the wrong outcome—Social service programs are usually funded by federal and state agencies who often determine funding based on who will charge the least amount of money for a service, rather than on who will be most effective in improving the lives of children, youth and families.
2. Graduate degrees and licensure are valued more highly than legitimate experience or even best/promising practice based services—I highly value education and competency.  I have spent much of my career as a trainer and hold two masters degrees.  However, most leaders in the social service arena hold advanced degrees, yet are fairly ineffective when it comes to improving success rates. I have had the privilege of working with a few high performers who operate outside the non-profit world, providing outstanding services to the private for-profit world.  They don’t necessarily hold advanced degrees, but are very well trained and provide outstanding outcomes. How is this possible?  Privately funded customers expect outcomes.  When they pay for a service out of their own pocket, they expect to see results.  They are willing to pay what it takes to succeed.
3. Working with children and families doesn’t pay—And I’m not necessarily talking about money, though that would definitely be a truism.  Degrees are highly valued within the field, yet paradoxically, there’s a pervasive attitude floating around that anyone who “cares” can work within the child welfare world. Expectations of competence are low and continuing education classes often focus on perpetuating interventions and attitudes that align with the status quo.  Why is this a problem?  Innovators and new thought professionals end up leaving the field, or lower their expectations to the point where oxygen deprivation cuts off blood flow to their creativity.

What’s Your Dream?

By Annette C. Sandberg

Once upon a time I was a visionary dreamer; seeing potential where others experienced static noise.  Actually, I frequently had multiple dreams every day.  Somewhere along the way, though, I turned down the volume on my enthusiasm and found myself depleted by the buzz, cynicism and rhetoric so pervasive in our culture today.  I bought into external feedback telling me that my dreams were unrealistic, not practical, or ahead of the times.   But there’s something in the air, and perhaps it’s time to dust off some old dreams and create some new ones.  What’s your dream?