By Judy Buchanan
The Pantagraph headline read “Human services try to ‘reframe’ their impact.” The article captured a recent meeting of the leadership of many McLean County human service agencies as part of their effort to reframe, redirect their message and improve public understanding of what are human services. The priority given to human services by policy makers, funders and others is reflected in some of the disparities in funding and real priority given to this important function. Kudos to our local human service community for taking the lead to work toward raising the bar on changing the conversation and building greater public understanding and support for improving the well being of all of us.
“Well being” is built – just as building a strong house requires a variety of materials, building well being requires community resources, social relationships, and opportunities to be present and thrive. Like a new house, well being needs a sturdy foundation at the beginning to prevent problems later and allow it to prevail though all kinds of ups and downs.
Just as that new house needs to well built and maintained, people throughout our communities need to be developed and supported so their lives can weather life’s daily ups and downs.
In a nationwide survey by the Frameworks Initiative, it was discovered that many Americans have varying views of what are human services. When asked what are human services, some surveyed said, “they didn’t know, while others responded that human services are job services, while still others replied with they are Human Resources, maybe like the Red Cross, Human Relations, and social skills.
Human services are support mechanisms designed to support people, many of whom face stressors and challenges. As in the past, and to some degree today, human services have been thought to be charity care, leading people to dependency…providing people with opportunities to work the system and have lead to the supports being undervalued.
Local service agencies plan to schedule another workshop, bring back the National Human Services Assembly consultant and look at how the agencies tell their story. Changing the conversation to encompass more discussion of the solutions rather than the problems will be a focus. And to begin to answer the question – what kind of community do we want to live in, how will it look? What is important? Surely maintaining the infrastructure of things like streets is important, however, the conversation must include the important role of human services to the community to the overall well being, how the community looks, works and succeeds.
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