Connecting the dots

I have been traveling a ton this last six weeks. New York (more than once), LA, Miami, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Providence, West Virginia, Seattle, Washington, DC, and Atlanta - to name but a few.

Every place is a bit different. There is, however, a lot of similarity. The one thing that is almost ubiquitous is the seeming lack of social service resources that punctuates every community. I intentionally use the word "seeming," because the resources are often hidden.

All of the programs I have visited are doing amazing work. For some, they have dedicated their work toward housing resources, for other programs their resources are grounded in health care services delivery. The common denominator for every program is the emphasis they place in investing their resources into only a handful of programmatic activities. This works. They are very proficient and skillful providers.

The piece that falls off is the fact that people most seem to need comprehensive services. As such, many programs struggle to truly meet the needs of the clients they serve. The tool that every community has to overcome this "lack of comprehensive resources" is collaboration.

When communities come together to share their resources (i.e., their best practices) - the client is more effectively served. This is not as easy as it may sound. The challenge becomes working to build bridges of collaboration. This is the focus of HBI. We work to identify community resources - and then build collaborative opportunities for programs to work in partnership.

This "bridge building" model seems to be the most effective mechanism for shaping lasting change. HBI is an organization that is dedicated to building bridges. Bridges between resources and need. Bridges between opportunities and allies. Bridges of Hope.