ERIN COUSINS
HuMaNiZiNG DiReCT SeRViCe Direct Service: Working to address the immediate needs of individuals or a community, often involving contact with the people or places being served.
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here is a tendency to think of direct service and volunteer work as inherently good, and as work that automatically reflects the goodness of those who participate. It is work done during one’s free time, out of the goodness of their hearts, and for no money. While that may be true, there must be a more nuanced understanding of direct service and the actual impact it makes upon a community for this pathway to reach its potential within a fully humanized field of social impact. Often, those who engage in volunteer work are underqualified, untrained, and unaware of the historical and social contexts of the social problem being addressed, the community being served, and the organization facilitating. The current status quo leaves little space for critique of organizations, or investigative research to determine whether their social impact and community-facing philosophies
