Social workers, imagine if a child’s case file could talk to you. What would you ask it? What hidden secrets would you want it to tell you about the kids you care so much about?

As social workers and case managers, we have no idea what a job is that doesn’t entail every single bit of our time and energy.  Not only do we have administrative tasks piling up a mile high, but we have clients with significant issues and demands. People entrust us with their worries, needs, and struggles on a daily basis. Healthify realized this, and that’s why they created a social services database for free.

Since entering into the Technology age we are now seeing robotics that can interact with people. This is an area called human-centered robotics, which is an emerging area in the past decade. Given these robots are human-centered, they serve as an emerging tool for social workers whose work is client-centered.

In what many might consider the most unlikeliest of places to look for entrepreneurs, social work is actually a hub of entrepreneurial thought leaders. Residing in this place of ideas for change with little to no funding, social workers are constantly grinding out creative ways to progress human and societal conditions. Social workers have been “doing good” before doing good was cool. Below is a list of 5 entrepreneurial skills that social workers embody in their everyday work.

With Canva for Nonprofits, nonprofits can bring their vision to life, and through beautifully crafted content inspire a community to action. Canva makes us all feel like a graphic designer. On Canva you can choose from hundreds of professional templates to create social media graphics, presentations, flyers, posters, invitations, cards, infographics and so much more.

Email marketing is a form of direct marketing which uses electronic mail as a means of enhancing the relationship with a stakeholder whether it be a client, the community or donors, encouraging loyalty and repeat business, attaining new clients and/or donors, and keeping people and communities that you serve informed.If you are not using one today I strongly encourage you to start.They are not hard to learn and most are free or have a free trial. (See the full blog for free and discounted email marketing)

I realize that it sounds completely counterintuitive to say a nonprofit doesn’t need money. I am not saying that they don’t need money, however with money comes the need for time and resources. Often, donations are given to non-profits in good will with the intent that these funds will improve or create a program, support research and prevention efforts or create a quality improvement system, for example. However, what many people outside of non-profits don’t realize is that unless you fund full-time positions for these specific tasks, as well as fund the task itself, it creates more work on the already over extended workers of the non-profit.

So I ask you, in Social Services, “How are you innovating in your field?” “How are you progressing services for your clients?” “What are you doing to embrace change and move the field forward?” If you are resisting change and innovation and still operating on antiquated processes then you are most likely putting your clients through an unnecessary painful process. Let’s leverage technology to move the system forward in amazing ways that benefit our vulnerable families and clients; just like our dentists did for us.

The one constant in today’s workplace is change. And the driving force behind change often is technology. Leaders in the field of social and human services need to embrace the opportunities that technology offers to agencies, their staff and, most importantly, the clients they serve.