In the trenches, it’s not always easy to shift your focus from providing services to individuals in need to systems change that might prevent those individuals from knocking on your door or calling your hotline. Yet, the nonprofit sector has woken up to the need for advocacy and community engagement to achieve social change. If you are trying to wrap your head around what this might look like, and how services and advocacy/systems change mix, check out these resources:
-National Community Development Institute’s Building Capacity for Social Change Model. In particular, note the “six focal areas of transformative activity.” (This model is a core ingredient of the
-Prevention Institute’s Spectrum of Prevention
Personally, I’ll admit I have been a little squeamish about combining services and social change at the same organization. I’ve seen some train wrecks where both efforts were compromised, or funding received for services was diverted for social change efforts, with a “ends justify the means” attitude that I found unethical. Generally, I like the idea of a network of organizations working together, along the lines that Gideon Rosenblatt proposes in Movement as Network. That said, I am intrigued by the integrated approaches suggested above as well, and look forward to continuing to evolve my thinking on this matter.