Paper Boat is a forum dedicated to changing the metaphor of help, a gathering place for folks who are interested in having a bigger conversation about the way we design and deliver community-based support and assistance.
What do we really mean when we say we want to help those in need?
If we are not careful, the way we provide help can emphasize rather than diminish the differentials in power and status between help givers and help getters. And needs – if there was ever a loaded word in our human services vocabulary, needs is it. No one likes to be told what he or she needs by someone else, and yet we do it all the time to those who come to us or are sent to us for assistance.
Somewhere inside those two simple words – help and needs – are nested a complex of concepts that cluster close to core of what it means to be human. True help requires a reciprocal relationship: a sharing disciplined by compassion, shaped by understanding, and grounded in experience.
Here on Paper Boat we offer a variety of options for conversations about the challenge of providing authentic help for real needs in a publicly funded human services system: an archive of articles we have written over the years, a selection of Power Point presentations from our workshops, a list of references of books and articles we have found to be interesting, interactive pages where we post the results of leadership conferences we have facilitated, and other opportunities for learning together and teaching one another about how we can be better at both helping and being helped.
We hope you enjoy your visit and encourage you to share in this exchange. |
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