What Inspires You? A Conversation with Ken Kraybill, Director of Training

By Wendy Grace Evans Recently I sat down with my colleague, Ken Kraybill, Director of Training at the Center for Social Innovation and co-director of t3, a training institute dedicated to supporting people working in homeless services to learn more about what inspires him. “My attention is drawn to where people are hurting, or where [...]

So you want to create a movement? by Wayne Centrone

I have been working in international health for almost twenty years. Our work, my own and the various groups I have had the fortune of working with, has changed a great deal in that time. The initial focus was on directly providing services. Whether it was working with street children in Lima, bringing teams down [...]

Take Shelter: Reflections on Film and Mental Illness by Wendy Grace Evans

This week I went to see the movie Take Shelter, written and directed by Jeff Nichols, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain. I wanted to see how mental illness was portrayed, as it is usually my experience that it is not portrayed with grace or dignity – which leaves me feeling rage, and a deep [...]

See? I am intelligent. by Claire Berman

He was sitting in a small enclave in the side of a brick building downtown, hands folded in front of him, with an overflowing plastic bag beside him that crinkled and rustled in the autumn breeze. It was chilly, but at the same time, unseasonably warm for November, and he wasn’t wearing a jacket. People [...]

What I Believe by Wayne Centrone

For many years, some believed that homelessness would end on its own. The idea was that the economic and social disruptions that created the crisis of homelessness would eventually equalize. I have heard people say that the economic pressures that led to the experience of homelessness would eventually recalibrate. Well, it seems like that recalibration [...]

Warts Shouldn't Matter When Communities Embrace By Steven Samra

Our company was recently awarded an important 5-year contract from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration (SAMHSA) to launch the Bringing Recovery Supports to Scale Technical Assistance Center Strategy. I was invited to attend the kickoff meeting as a key staff member. On the flight to Washington DC, I had time to reflect on [...]

A Gentleman and His Home by Sam Catherine Johnston

I’m an avid runner and I run the same route two to three times a week. There’s a subway station on the way, where I’ve seen the same gentleman living. His name is Hank* and he is the only person I’ve seen there. He’s usually on the computer or reading. Once I had a brief [...]

A Wake-Up Call for Social Media Slackers by Steven Samra

I turn 52 this year, and like so many other “mid-lifers,” I have been slow to enter the social networking scene. I frankly don’t care what most of my acquaintances and family are “gearing up for” on Facebook, and the terms “Twitter” and “tweeting” makes me sort of goofily embarrassed. But I confess that I [...]

It Could Have Been Me by Melissa Cogswell

There are times where I have gotten so caught up in the day-to-day work, the planning, the logistics, the scheduling, the data, the making-it-happen, that I forget precisely what it is that I am are doing here and who I am doing it for. Recently I helped implement “PATH to Housing” an 8 week, online [...]

Why t3? Why Now? by Jeff Olivet

This post was originally published on the Give Us Your Poor Blog. Recently, the Center for Social Innovation partnered with the National Center on Family Homelessness to announce the launch of t3, an exciting new training institute dedicated to transforming the homeless services workforce. t3 stands for Think, Teach, Transform, and it is the most [...]