A blog posting about nonprofit staff members. Far too often, nonprofits pay badly and expect their staff to expect it, because you do nonprofit work for love. It seems to me, though, that you’re stuck with a much smaller pool of candidates if you are only looking for people who’ll do the work for love. Better to pay enough you can pull from all quality candidates.
Author: Alanna Shaikh
Premature babies at risk
Very premature babies aren’t getting the follow-up care that they need. Premature babies are very often born to women who have risk factors, including low-income and drug use. This means that medically fragile, high needs babies are going home to women who may not have the resources to care for them or even get appropriate medical care.
The best answer would be an integrated medical system, where hospital care is automatically connected to social services and outpatient care. Right now, parents have to find follow-up services themselves in most places, assisted perhaps by a booklet or a list of phone numbers.
Innovation
I adore #14 from this list: “Don’t even look at your own industry for ideas – look everywhere else. If you take it from your own industry, you’re a copycat. If you go to a different industry, they’ll tell you how they did it – and you’re the innovator in your industry.” I try to do that all the time – look from place to place for ideas that can be applied in a new way. It’s what this blog is about.
Creating community – Kimkins.com
I’ve been keeping tabs on a lot of interesting efforts to create community, both in real life and online. I think that creating community is key to behavior change, and behavior change, as I have said before, is key to just about everything.
One thing which has interested me is the Kimkins scandal. Kimkins is a very low-calorie diet plan promulgated primarily through a website, Kimkins.com. When looked at objectively, the Kimkins plan is completely nuts. It’s low calorie enough to wreck your metabolism, and makes no nutritional sense. The people doing the diet, though, are committed to the community of which they are part.
It has turned out that the woman who created the diet has no nutritional background, and did not in fact lose all the weight she claimed to have lost. There are pro-Kimkins sites to be found, such as this one, and a plethora of anti–Kimkins websites. On both sides, what everyone is most intense about is the Kimkins community. Was it betrayed? Is it in denial and needs to be saved?
The community in question is a web-forum, but it has created a passion, and an impact on human behavior that is more than many geographical places could. Wouldn’t it be amazing to harness community power like that to create positive change?
Statement from Cyd Mizell’s father
Cyd Mizell’s father has released a statement. She’s still being held, and as far as I know, no one has claimed responsibility for her kidnapping.
If this is true, it’s stunning
Accusations that the US embassy in Baghdad was built with slave labor. The State Department has had trouble with contractor management, we know that.
Another view of Iraq programs can be found here. I will not comment.
Folic acid – not so great after all?
This is a great example of the kind of trade-offs you find in public health decision-making. Folic acid prevents birth defects, but it may be causing bowel cancer. In an ideal world, you use data to decide what to do – look at the frequency and severity of birth defects in a world with no folic acid fortification, and compare that to the extra cancers resulting from the fortification. The you choose the option that leads to less disease.
In the world we live, there probably isn’t enough data to make an informed decision, and there will be political pressure involved in the decision as well.