Understanding overhead is vital to strong financial management for every organization. In this session, presenters from Your Part-Time Controller LLC will debunk the overhead myth and discuss an appropriate administrative ratio for nonprofit organizations. To help participants develop more effective financial analysis, presenters will demonstrate the importance of reasonable and consistent cost allocations, as well as how revenue diversification can play a part in the overhead process.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Sandra Magri
Manager
Your Part-Time Controller LLC

Gregg Indictor
Director
Your Part-Time Controller LLC

This session will offer successful retention strategies, which are grounded in the power of employee engagement, to combat the growing issue of staff shortages. Presenters will focus on the research-based patterns and trends regarding workforce challenges that lead employees to leave an organization and offer strategies for leadership to embrace change, build in opportunities for growth, and make employees feel seen and heard. By engaging our employees in their work and driving our mission further, we can reduce workplace stress and burnout, while increasing job satisfaction. “Our People Matter” is not just an organizational tenet; our backgrounds and experiences directly influence the unique value we bring to our work and the communities we serve. It is crucial to create a safe space that allows us to learn about and celebrate our differences. Workshop participants will leave with a toolkit of takeaways that they can immediately apply to their role and their organization.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Jenny Livelli
President & CEO
The Children’s Guild

Elizabeth Garcia
Chief People Officer
The Children’s Guild

In this highly interactive workshop, participants will spend time in intentional dialogue around DEIB (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, & Belonging). They will begin by sharing stories of times they’ve felt included/excluded. Next, we will hear the stories of those most impacted by the child welfare system. These stories will come from the lived experience of one of the presenters and a selection of stories curated online by the Administration for Children & Families (ACF). Then participants will discuss how this relates to their personal and professional relationships, particularly with young people. The audience generally leaves this workshop feeling better connected with their colleagues and often remarks about how interactive and eye-opening the material is.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Brice Mickey
Vice President of Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion
Beech Acres Parenting Center

Ryshel Bowling
Manager, Training and Licensing, Foster Care and Adoption
Beech Acres Parenting Center

What happens when we apply a strengths-based, brain and behavioral science lens to build programs and policies that support families? Join us to explore the core tenants and benefits of 2-Generation (2Gen) principles in programs, institutions, and policies, as well as learn how to incorporate these tenants in practice.

You will hear from Ascend at the Aspen Institute about how 2Gen approaches build family well-being by intentionally and simultaneously working with children and the adults in their lives. By centering the goals of the whole family, 2Gen strategies work with families as experts and meaningfully engage parents and caregivers in designing policies and programs that affect them to develop holistic, integrated, and equity-focused solutions.

Then, you will learn about the application of 2Gen practices at New Moms, a Chicago-based organization engaging young families, through their executive skills coaching approach. Understanding how executive skills and other strengths-based brain and behavioral science strategies support decision making, resilience, goal setting, and habit formation can ultimately improve whole family well-being. In this session participants, too, will identify their own executive skills strengths on a digital self-assessment, and through an interactive guided discussion prompt, reflect on how those strengths help them achieve their goals – and the implication for 2Gen program design and delivery. Then, participants will complete a short design activity related to 2Gen coaching strategies, walking away with a new idea and an executive skills coaching practitioner toolkit to support next steps for taking action in your workplace.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Laura Zumdahl
President & CEO
New Moms

Sama Sabihi
Program Manager
Ascend at the Aspen Institute

Across New Hampshire, older adults and persons with disabilities were going without meals, bathing, social contact and, tragically, they were dying alone. The cause of this crisis was a significant caregiver workforce shortage, a direct result of New Hampshire’s underfunded Choices for Independence (CFI) program – caregivers were grossly underpaid. According to the New Hampshire Fiscal Policy Institute (NHFPI), the CFI program had a structural deficit of $153 million from fiscal years 2011 to 2021.

Providers could not recruit and retain workers and cover costs. In response, Ascentria Care Alliance, In-Home Care worked with partner agencies to fund and launch The Care Paradox. The initiative put human faces to the problem and called upon legislators to increase funding for CFI to stabilize the program. With the support of the New Hampshire Hospital Association, New Hampshire Health Care Association, and others, an historic rate increase was passed, stabilizing the CFI program.

In this presentation we will illustrate the power of courageous leadership and advocacy demonstrated through the power of storytelling.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Christine Tappan
Chief, Community Services & Advancement
Ascentria Care Alliance

Amy Moore
Director of In-Home Care
Ascentria Care Alliance

Human services leaders work in a disruptive operating environment and face many workforce challenges and systemic issues. In hopes of identifying and building solutions, particularly those grounded in partnering with community, Social Current and the American Public Human Services Association have joined efforts. Together, they will work to co-create a new leadership framework for human service leaders of both community-based organizations and public agencies.

During this session, facilitators will present the latest insight gained from research conducted with community members and senior leaders. This research is based around how we can work collaboratively across the human services ecosystem and flip to a new power-sharing paradigm. Innovative and impactful examples of addressing challenges facing today’s human services workforce will be key components of the workshop.

Human services leaders must align on a shared vision and guide others using new mental models and a new operating paradigm that engages leaders at all levels. They must also operationalize practices that confront implicit bias, center community and belonging, incorporate input from families to improve service delivery, and hire people with lived experience at all levels.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Trinka Landry-Bourne, DPA
American Public Human Services Association
Organizational Effectiveness Consultant Leadership Development

Julia Mueller
Community Engagement Specialist
American Public Human Services Association

A study reported by The Washington Post in January 2021 revealed that Black employees represent a strikingly small percentage (8%) of top executives and the professionals responsible to boost inclusion often struggle. Despite variations of individual success in overcoming racial disparities and divisive narratives, Black male nonprofit leaders often experience personal frustration and psychological fatigue due to unwarranted impediments in exercising their full leadership capacity, creative potential, and organizational impact (Pickett, 2020).

In response to this daunting reality, a group of nonprofit executives from around the country formed a safe, culturally responsive space for Black male leaders nearly 10 years ago. Utilizing a barbershop format where everyone is welcome, they will share individual narratives, collective perspectives, and unique recommendations with the goal to diversify the C-suite.

Research suggests that inclusive workplaces drive employee productivity, foster creativity, improve problem solving, and increase profitability. During this presentation, these social service executives will advance the conversation by emphasizing the organizational significance and business advantage of moving past diversification to authentic inclusion.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Julius Mullen, Ed.D
Chief Inclusion Officer
Children & Families First of Delaware
@CFFDelaware

Romero Davis
Senior Program Manager for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Practice Excellence
Social Current

Raphael Holloway, MA
CEO
Gateway Center

Undraye P. Howard, Ph. D.
VP of Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Engagement
Social Current

Reyahd D.J. Kazmi, Esq.
Director of Business and Government Strategies
National Youth Advocate Program

Claude A. Robinson
Founder & President
Onyx Strategic Partners, LLC.

Jonathan Palmer, MS
Executive Director
Hallie Q. Brown Community Center

George Winn, MA
Chief Strategy Officer
Judson Center

During this informal and intimate candid conversation, presenters will establish a circle of trust, so that all attendees feel comfortable to be authentic and transparent speaking about experiences leading or participating in their organizations’ EDI journeys.

This session will be guided by two community leaders who were sponsored by longtime Social Current corporate partner Aramark to participate in Social Current’s Advancing EDI for a More Perfect Union training, as well as the Aramark EDI Implementation grant opportunity, helping to lead EDI implementation efforts at their organizations: Jessica Moore from Dallas-based Buckner Retirement Services and Regina Anderson from Washington, D.C.-based Food Recovery Network.

These two bring a wealth of experience and knowledge in the EDI space and are enthusiastic to share their struggles, successes, and lessons learned while leading organizational and community change efforts. They’ll walk through their specific EDI-related implementation efforts, while also digging into the personal aspects of the journey.

But their experiences are meant to serve as a jumping off point, allowing plenty of time for group discussion, questions, and sharing. Join us for this engaging deep dive into what this work takes, while building connections across the Social Current network.

Learning Objectives

Participants

Jessica Moore
Manager of Program Administration
Buckner Retirement Services

Regina Anderson
Executive Director
Food Recovery Network
@FoodRecovery @ReginaDM

Come and play Getting By, the game that puts your brain into poverty. You will see how your own thinking and decision making respond to scarcity. After playing, you will learn the basics of brain science. You will understand what some take for granted (give no thought to) and how that differs for people and children coping with poverty. With so many things crowding the brain, people in poverty respond to certain kinds of communication and not others. In this workshop, you will learn how to listen and respond effectively, improving your work with low-income children and families.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Linda Riddell
Founder
Health Economy LLC

Chad Dull
Principal Consultant / CEO
Poverty Informed Practice LLC

What better way to engage an organization with accreditation principles and committee work than through characters, costumes, and adventure?

Let’s face it, some aspects of performance quality improvement (PQI), standard compliance, and data analysis may be a bit dry for some folks. However, by focusing on engagement, principles of adult learning, and fun, Community Services is making PQI memorable!

Building on Kouzes and Posner’s documented values of an effective leader,* Community Services uses characteristics of humility and authenticity to animate the vision of PQI and its role in accreditation. What started as a mock team of staff wearing t-shirts and lip-synching to songs from Rocky, has evolved into cape-wearing mock team superheroes who champion all aspects of accreditation throughout all levels of the organization.

PQI is woven throughout the entire organization of Community Services and one of the most effective strategies that we’ve found is using a committee structure that includes:

However, these are not your average committees. These committees have customized personas—and character cutouts—that exemplify each of their core purposes, which not only reduces barriers to learning, but maximizes engagement, relatability, commitment of data collection, and authentic actions based on analysis. 

Community Services uses the overarching theme of adventure and analogy of a quest—for quality. We can all appreciate that the path of excellence is anything but linear and the quest captures the multitude of starts and stops, entry points, assessments, innovation, and risk management of continuous quality improvement.

The Quality Quest data scores are skyrocketing at Community Services, with staff showing an increased understanding of PQI, increased interest in joining a committee, increased motivation to participate in data collection, and most importantly, having a greater understanding of how their work contributes to organizational excellence.

*The Leadership Challenge, Kouzes, James M., Posner, Barry, Z., 2017.

Learning Objectives

Presenters

Aimee Fehr
Family Outreach Counsellor
Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Community Services

Kim Mapson
Manager of Community and Family Services
Maple Ridge Pitt Meadows Community Services