From January 21st to January 29th two Russian workers from a rehabilitation center in Russia will study service delivery models in local and regional non-profit organizations including: Phoenix Programs, Doorways, St. Louis Effort for AIDS, Boone County Council on Aging, Columbia Housing Authority, Missouri Telehealth Network, and the Alternative Sentencing Program.

Russian social workers are currently facing record numbers of people becoming addicted to drugs and epidemic rates of HIV fueled by a wave of injection drug use. Faced with scarce resources, lack of government support, and an almost non-existent social service system they are hoping to learn how to effectively care for recovering addicts and people with HIV from Missouri non-profits.

Evgeniy Melnikov is the director of Rehabilitation Center ‘Salvation’ in Asbest, Russia. The Center provides a one-year recovery program for people addicted to drugs. Konstantine Liubimov is the Rehabilitation Center Salvation’s coordinator for the project “Vsegda Vmecte, Vsegda Ryadom [Always Together, Always Near]“, which prepares volunteers to assist HIV positive people.

Asbest is located in the Ural mountains just north of Ekaterinburg in the Sverdlovsk province of Russia (bordering Siberia). Sverdlovsk province ranks third in the country for rates of HIV.

The visit is the fourth exchange arranged by a Columbia based team comprised of Bruce and Mindy Duncan of Tre, and Bob and Doris Scribner of Executive Advantage. This visit is foundational to a trip planned by the team in April of 2008 that will focus on assisting rehabilitation centers and HIV service providers in the Ural region develop post-rehabilitation service models and HIV care services. They will also conduct business and leadership development activities.

The Duncans and Scribners have relationships with social service organizations in St. Petersburg, Tyumen, Tchaikovsky, Yekaterinburg, Asbest, and Ryazan.

Scenario

Belinda is a Caucasian team member in her mid thirties. She is interested in a promotion to a supervisory position. Belinda met with her manager, Pat to get feedback on how to be more promotable. After considerable positive discussion on her current skills, Pat said maybe losing a few pounds would help your confidence level and make you appear more in control. My sister is overweight too, and has a heart problem; I’m concerned for you.

Belinda was shocked. She was feeling good about taking the initiative to speak with her supervisor about being promoted. After that comment, she felt terrible and had no response other than to excuse herself.

Discussion Points

1. Could this situation happen in your workplace?
2. How many members of staff, in your workplace do you know that are overweight?
3. How do you think Belinda should respond?
4. Can you explain, what Pat should have expressed, if anything regarding Belinda’s weight?
5. Any other observations of the scenario?

Many of us have that same type of epiphany from time to time; sometimes it is life changing, and sometimes it slips away to be forgotten. As people came and went from the counseling program I never knew, which one would having a life changing experience, which one would miss the chance. It was much the same when I was teaching people how to reduce their risk of HIV or Hepatitis C. I would have only a few moments to ask the right questions and hope that they answered truthfully, at least to themselves. For most of that time, I saw myself as a seed planter and I focused my efforts on changing the world by affecting change in the moment, one person at a time.

Later when I began developing programs, I saw how small groups of people, could with the right knowledge and skills, change their community. The first time I participated in organizing a World AIDS Day event, it struck me that a mobilized community could have a huge impact in the world. For the first time I felt that, I could contribute to a change in the community, even if it was just in small ways with small groups of people.

One of the greatest challenges I have faced is managing the development of an organization. It is so important for communities to collaborate and strengthen each other not just for local change, but regional change. In today’s economic and business, environments many organizations struggle to overcome the barriers they face that prevent effective partnerships. Sometimes it is simply lacking the time to create structures that allow the organization to operate more effectively. Other times it is a lack of funding, staffing, or facilities.

Throughout my work in the non-profit world, I have often seen services, programs, and dreams struggle not because there is a lack of desire to carry them through, only a lack of resource — whether it is structure, money, knowledge, or capacity. Lack of resources can result in poorly operated programs and under developed organizations, poorly delivered services that merely band aid social ills rather than providing long-term solutions, and lack of growth.

From the first time Bruce and I worked on a project together, I discovered that the corporate world in its systems, rules, procedures (and all other things usually resisted by small businesses and non-profits) could greatly improve their ability to face and overcome barriers to success.

The vision behind Tre is the blending of the corporate perspective with the non-profit heart, growing big business structures inside small businesses. We began to dream of how much non-profits and small businesses dedicated to positively affecting our communities and our world could accomplish with strategically designed systems and fully equipped staff.

Tre aspires to change the world through developing stronger organizations.

Mindy Duncan, Tre

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Bruce Duncan, Tre