Evaluation takes courage and the willingness to change. When everything seems to be going well, it is especially important to take the time to reflect, to ask the tough questions and to be willing to hear inconvenient answers. What if the work you are doing is popular but not achieving its intended outcomes? What if you learn that the good work you are doing is actually increasing vulnerability and stigma for the people it’s intended to help?
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Natural Caring is love in action. It exists all around us in the thousands of little things we do without having to think about them. It is a unifying force that transcends differences; and yet, it often goes unacknowledged and unrecognized. Even people who are routinely caring for someone or something are quick to brush it off as no big deal.
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What do you do when you have children craving adult attention in a neighbourhood with disconnected adults fearful of ‘trouble-making’ youth? A school in Wisconsin, USA conducted a community survey and learned that the community did not know anything about the school. What the neighbours did identify in the survey was that there were young people running around the neighbourhood causing trouble. The survey results prompted the school to ask: How do we extend education beyond the walls of the school and utilize the gifts and the assets of the neighbours, organizations and institution in the community?
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Societal well-being is as important as economic well-being. This was the key message from New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, at the 2019 World Economic Forum. This was a bold statement made even more poignant given the announcement that the New Zealand government will present a “well-being budget.” This signals a new decision-making focus, one that ensures impacts on the quality of life for citizens are considered, rather than the traditional focus on just the financial impacts. In practice it means that any decisions made, policies implemented, and money spent by the government will need to demonstrate how they benefit New Zealanders and how they work across ministries and party-lines to ensure ongoing positive impacts.
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