In a movement, they say you have to identify the problem, but the words you use to describe your actions are the direction you’re headed.
So much of the direction we’re seeing in child welfare is about a “movement away” from, not a “movement to.” The deinstitutionalization movement is about shifting a child’s experience within alternative care. It’s not about creating a whole new experience. We need to begin to think differently about this. We must start thinking about what it means to make a whole, integrated person, a whole family, and a healing community.
Over the past few years, our team has embarked on a groundbreaking research study. This study is focused on a crucial aspect of child welfare: understanding how to train caregivers working with children in residential care. Our research started with the theorem that advancing knowledge and expanding skills is the best pathway to better outcomes for children living in residential – often referred to as alternative – care. However, our grand hypothesis was quickly turned upside down, revealing the issue’s complexity.
Working closely with my esteemed colleagues—Stephen DiDonato, PhD, Billy Greenman, MFT, Karen Falkenstein, MPH, RN, and Lisa Werkmesiter Rozas, PhD, LCSW—we discovered that the barriers to learning new knowledge and skills for child welfare caretakers were less about curriculum or intellect and more grounded in awareness. In our research, we sought to create communities of learning with the hope that structuring a format and providing new knowledge would translate into better caregiving practices for children. We believed a space and place for learning was the key.
Instead, we found a simple perspective that is wholly complex – people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. Through intense work with child welfare caregivers and comprehensive surveys, focus groups, and interviews of key stakeholders, we learned that what people crave more than anything else is connection. We repeatedly heard that caregivers wanted practical knowledge and skills to implement immediately in their work. Yet, when we curated practical training – they walked away more confused than before we started on the journey.
It quickly became apparent that any learning—gaining access to new knowledge and integrating new skills—needed to take a back seat to create more significant connections. We designed experimental learning activities for over two years to unite child welfare providers as a community. We stumbled upon the world’s best secret that few seem to know. It’s not rocket science. We aren’t revolutionary. Our model is born from a rich tapestry of research, methodologies, and practices.
What we found—the key to any meaningful level of learning—is that awareness is everything. Awareness of our current state, where we want to be, and, more specifically, our true self. The great 20th-century thinker Carl Rogers said, ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.’ Inside all of us is the power to change. We need to connect more deeply with that part of ourselves.
To help empower wholistic connection, we’ve created a framework and roadmap to help us engage in a new worldview. We call the framework Communities of Excellence. It’s not some material or even physical space. It’s a philosophical approach. It invites us to look inside ourselves as a tool to connect more deeply with others. It calls forth the power that exists in all of us. It honors the whole person we are all seeking to manifest.
As we move to deinstitutionalize child welfare programs worldwide, let us not forget that we are not moving away from a care methodology as much as we are moving toward a whole-child philosophy. We are moving toward a world where every child has access to a life built on the integration of health, hope, home, and purpose.
Fiestas Patrias – 28th of July
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneThere is something so refreshingly powerful about coming together, not just on this day but every day, and uniting in a shared pride and a common heritage. Our unity is our strength.
We are proud to be an organization with a three-decade history of dedication to the people of Perú. We are honored to be an organization led by Peruvians for Peruvians.
Join us in extending a heartfelt Fielze Fiestas Patrias to all Health Bridges International staff, family, friends, and partners.
¡Viva Perú!
Future Planning – wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneOur work is uniquely centered on relationships. It’s about people connecting with people to share, grow, and transform together. This commitment to transformative connections is not just a part of HBI’s DNA, it’s our passion, our dedication, and the essence of our work. It drives the way we plan, do, study, and act.
The piece that often gets overlooked when we talk about the power of connections is the urgent need for funding for annual salaries to staff an organization to work in such a way. Most grants will not fund overhead. Most funders like to support specific programs and projects with definable outcome measures. However, there is an urgent need for more opportunities to approach a foundation and request funding for annual salaries. To create these powerful relationships, the world needs to drive change and build new bridges of collaboration, and we need dedicated people. We need the right dedicated staff in the right defined roles. Your support is crucial in making this possible.
HBI operates with a very low overhead. One reason is that we have very few full-time funded positions outside our on-the-ground staff. We have a phenomenal Director of Operations who works full-time for HBI . . . AND continues to work as an emergency medicine nurse to make ends meet. As the Executive Director, I do not draw any salary whatsoever. Building a transition plan for our top leadership requires a salary. Yet, we do not have human resource staffing, nor do we have anyone dedicated to fundraising. We cobble together our research team thanks in great part to the many academics who volunteer their time and talents. Truth be known – I carry out all our communications, and I am not a savvy social media contributor. There is nothing sustainable about running an organization with this model.
We are at a stage in our development where we need solid, dedicated support to advance our organization. We are not seeking an annual salary comparable to the private sector or trying to provide ourselves with bloated compensation. We want to build an organization that can be here well into the future.
I am not one to make overt requests for financial support. However, I now know that securing funding to appropriately compensate our team is critical to our organization’s long-term health and impact. We would appreciate your help. Consider making a recurring donation to support HBI’s operational activities. Become an annual donor who pledges to support our administrative team. Please help us build the model we need to thrive.
We are changing the world with your help. Now, we need your help securing the team that will allow us to continue making a difference for children, families, and the communities that care for them well into the future.
Support our team. Make a donation or pledge today. Thank you.
Impact – wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneI bring this same enthusiasm for what can and will be to the world of HBI. I know that some days will be easier than others, that money will flow, and that tomorrow is a new take on life. This is especially important for our work on systems change.
Building a model training program capable of training every healthcare professional in Peru who attends births in newborn resuscitation is not for the weak of the heart. The task requires a “slow and steady” commitment, which is only possible with a never-say-done philosophy. Our training model is going places. Yes, it is a slow grinding pace, but it is happening. Things are happening. Trainers are getting trained. They are, in turn, putting on trainings and providing their colleagues with the life-saving knowledge and skills of newborn resuscitation. Most of all, even if we can never empirically demonstrate such a sustained impact, we know babies’ lives are being saved.
Walking alongside a child who has lived through unspeakable trauma is a process that requires a daily if not hourly, commitment. It is the kind of work that puts the child as the focus and then creates opportunities to address that child’s unique needs. The job requires a daily recommitment – recognizing that life is complex in the best circumstances. There are millions of children living in violence, trauma, abuse, and neglect. Thousands of children in Peru do not have a loving, supportive home. Should we get overwhelmed by the sheer enormity of the challenge we face? Or should we take a “we got this” attitude and keep moving forward? There is no option. I will always choose an unbashful, over-the-top, super-optimism.
This is our impact. We are committed to never giving up.
Saying Goodbye – wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneToday, the team said a sad goodbye to one of the remaining Girasoles. He was so happy to be reunited with his family.
Many of you have walked alongside us on this journey for years, supporting our mission to provide a safe and loving home for children in Ica, Perú. Today, we come to a turning point. With mixed emotions, we announce the closure of the Casa Girasoles Ica.
The decision to close the Casa Girasoles was challenging. We understand the deep connections many of you have with the children we serve. However, the landscape of child welfare in Ica is changing. Over the past decade, Perú has made significant strides in strengthening family support systems. The changes in child welfare services mean more children can now thrive in permanent, loving homes. The impact of this change in child welfare-focused programming at the Casa Girasoles is that our census of boys dropped to only three.
Transition Plan – While Casa Girasoles Ica will close, our commitment to the children of Ica remains unwavering. Here’s what this means:
Looking Ahead – Our mission remains to champion children, families, and the communities that care for them. We will be focusing our efforts on the following:
We know this news may be difficult to hear. However, we hope you’ll join us in celebrating the incredible progress made in Ica’s child welfare system. Together, we’ve helped create a future where children have more opportunities to thrive in permanent, loving homes.
Don’t hesitate to contact me directly if you have any questions. We are committed to transparency. Thank you for your unwavering support.
Toward Wholism – wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneSo much of the direction we’re seeing in child welfare is about a “movement away” from, not a “movement to.” The deinstitutionalization movement is about shifting a child’s experience within alternative care. It’s not about creating a whole new experience. We need to begin to think differently about this. We must start thinking about what it means to make a whole, integrated person, a whole family, and a healing community.
Over the past few years, our team has embarked on a groundbreaking research study. This study is focused on a crucial aspect of child welfare: understanding how to train caregivers working with children in residential care. Our research started with the theorem that advancing knowledge and expanding skills is the best pathway to better outcomes for children living in residential – often referred to as alternative – care. However, our grand hypothesis was quickly turned upside down, revealing the issue’s complexity.
Working closely with my esteemed colleagues—Stephen DiDonato, PhD, Billy Greenman, MFT, Karen Falkenstein, MPH, RN, and Lisa Werkmesiter Rozas, PhD, LCSW—we discovered that the barriers to learning new knowledge and skills for child welfare caretakers were less about curriculum or intellect and more grounded in awareness. In our research, we sought to create communities of learning with the hope that structuring a format and providing new knowledge would translate into better caregiving practices for children. We believed a space and place for learning was the key.
Instead, we found a simple perspective that is wholly complex – people don’t care how much we know until they know how much we care. Through intense work with child welfare caregivers and comprehensive surveys, focus groups, and interviews of key stakeholders, we learned that what people crave more than anything else is connection. We repeatedly heard that caregivers wanted practical knowledge and skills to implement immediately in their work. Yet, when we curated practical training – they walked away more confused than before we started on the journey.
It quickly became apparent that any learning—gaining access to new knowledge and integrating new skills—needed to take a back seat to create more significant connections. We designed experimental learning activities for over two years to unite child welfare providers as a community. We stumbled upon the world’s best secret that few seem to know. It’s not rocket science. We aren’t revolutionary. Our model is born from a rich tapestry of research, methodologies, and practices.
What we found—the key to any meaningful level of learning—is that awareness is everything. Awareness of our current state, where we want to be, and, more specifically, our true self. The great 20th-century thinker Carl Rogers said, ‘The curious paradox is that when I accept myself just as I am, then I can change.’ Inside all of us is the power to change. We need to connect more deeply with that part of ourselves.
To help empower wholistic connection, we’ve created a framework and roadmap to help us engage in a new worldview. We call the framework Communities of Excellence. It’s not some material or even physical space. It’s a philosophical approach. It invites us to look inside ourselves as a tool to connect more deeply with others. It calls forth the power that exists in all of us. It honors the whole person we are all seeking to manifest.
As we move to deinstitutionalize child welfare programs worldwide, let us not forget that we are not moving away from a care methodology as much as we are moving toward a whole-child philosophy. We are moving toward a world where every child has access to a life built on the integration of health, hope, home, and purpose.
Thank you!
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneA huge thank you to the many folks who contributed to the 2024 A Bridge to Change East Coast event. We had a great group of attendees, and all enjoyed delicious Peruvian food from Coracora Restaurant. The Silent Auction allowed everyone to bid on unique Peruvian items and great local offerings.
As a second-year event, the atmosphere and mingling of new friends and HBI stakeholders was festive and exciting.
Check out the following photos, and please consider joining us at one of our upcoming events in Wisconssin and Oregon. For more information – A Bridge to Change Events 2024
We’re Back on the East Coast
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneThe Connecticut event is part of our A Bridge to Change tour that started in Colorado in March. In addition to Connecticut, we have events planned in Wisconssin and Portland. You want to attend all of these events . . . If that’s impossible, make your way to one of them.
The A Bridge to Change events are a great chance to learn how your support changes lives and hear about HBI’s future direction. In addition, we are fortunate to partner with some of the best Peruvian restaurants in the United States and always have a great group of people.
We will post photos and updates from the East Coast event on the HBI blog. To get tickets for one of the events or to donate in support of our work, check out https://hbint.org/attend-a-bridge-to-change-event/
What is our “why”? wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneA mural of the many boys who have been a part of the Casa Girasoles over the past 20 years.
I’ve been thinking a lot about HBI’s “why”—the reason we exist and the impact we strive to make.
In the NGO world, we use a lot of terminology to define our work. We talk about goals, outcomes, structural models, and processes. The bottom line for all the terminology is whether our work makes a difference. Does it help to empower the life of a child? Does it help families living in the experience of extreme poverty build better connections and attunement? Do we effectively and meaningfully utilize the resources and investments we receive from our supporters?
Whatever terms we use, the focus for any NGO is to make a difference. However, we need goals and measures to quantify and define our impact.
Outcomes, in the context of our work, are the specific changes we aim to achieve as a result of the work we accomplish through our programs and projects. These could be tangible changes, such as a decrease in children finding their way into the child welfare system, or intangible modifications, such as increased community cohesion. Outcomes provide a barometer for the impact of our investment.
In the realm of non-governmental and not-for-profit work, the significance of outcome measures must be balanced. They are pivotal in securing funding from foundations, grants, and donor-advised funds. We employ specific indicators to monitor our progress towards these outcomes. Foundations and donors anticipate outcomes from the investments they make in our work, and this expectation is entirely reasonable. While I fully endorse the operational mandate that defines outcomes as a methodology for achieving results, I take issue with the fact that a substantial portion of NGO work focuses on achieving outcomes rather than effecting systemic transformation. This is where the authentic potential of HBI lives – in transforming systems, not just achieving outcomes.
I am a reluctant pragmatist. I am the type of person who thinks we can build a rocket ship and chart a path to the moon. My impassioned optimism is only sometimes practical. When I talk about ‘transforming systems’ in the context of our work in the child welfare space, I’m referring to the process of changing the underlying structures, policies, and practices that perpetuate the social issues that lead to child endangerment, abandonment, and exploitation. This is about more than just making minor adjustments or achieving short-term outcomes. It’s about fundamentally altering the way our systems operate to prevent these issues from arising in the first place. It’s hard work, but it’s the only approach that—in my mind—provides a pathway to sustainable change.
Focusing narrowly on outcomes and circumscribed objectives is neat. It offers a balanced scorecard approach to this work. Funders love clean outcome objectives. But if the outcomes we seek—or receive funding to pursue—are not linked to some more extensive systems-level methodology, what do they ultimately achieve? A systems-level methodology is a comprehensive approach that addresses the root causes of social issues. It could involve policy advocacy, where we work to change the laws and regulations contributing to child endangerment. It could also involve community organizing, where we empower local communities to address the root causes of these issues. It could also involve capacity building, where we strengthen the skills and resources of the organizations and individuals working in this space. We need to take a holistic approach to understanding incredibly complex challenges. Finding a way to talk about and substantiate the investment necessary to leverage transformation is where things get messy.
Processes are about setting actions to drive our desired outcomes. For instance, if our outcome is to become physically fit, our process could be to exercise regularly and eat a balanced diet. The process approach is action-based, focusing on the steps we need to take to achieve our desired outcome. But what if the process is as extensive as creating a world where every child can access a life built on health, hope, home, and purpose? In systemic transformation, the process involves a series of strategic actions, such as policy advocacy, community organizing, and capacity building, that collectively drive the transformation of the underlying systems. We need to focus on these actionable steps to drive such a process.
At HBI, we steer all our processes and define our actions through a commitment to constructing and testing models that can pave the way for broader systems-level change. Models or systems are the underlying beliefs or methods that steer our actions. They furnish a framework to operate within and assist us in staying on course towards our goals. A model is not merely a set of instructions. It is an identity we adopt to achieve our desired outcomes. More than just something that can be utilized within our organization, we believe models provide a roadmap for other organizations to manifest their own transformative cultures.
Our ultimate aim, the “why” that drives our work, is our commitment to creating a world where every child can access a life built on health, hope, home, and purpose. We recognize that to achieve such a lofty goal, we must remain rooted in actionable steps. For us, this entails approaching everything we do from a holistic and integrated methodology. Our work is not measured in days or weeks. It is measured in months and years. We adopt a gradual and consistent approach that seeks to connect and empower every child, family, and community to the opportunities they need to attain the life they deserve. This is our work. This is our commitment. We are deeply grateful for the support of our generous donors. Thank you.
Beauty – wayne centrone
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneI’m a big fan of the late Irish poet and philosopher John O’Donohue.
O’Donohue writes with such depth and clarity that his work is timeless. I recently read some of his poems, and I found his work critical to understanding the current world challenges.
The essence of life is beauty. It is not the type of beauty that can only be found in culture or aesthetics, but the beauty found in depth. A deep understanding of complexity transforms this type of beauty. O’Donohue says, “If our style of looking become[s] beautiful, then beauty will become visible and shine forth for us.” This statement resonates strongly inside of me. I feel so fortunate to be regularly called into communion with so much beauty. I am blessed to be enriched by the profound beauty of a 30+ year marriage and the immeasurable power of a healthy and happy child – but more than that, I am enriched through the beauty of our work.
There is nothing easy about the work we do with HBI. So much of what we do is about continuously showing up in the lives of others. It is about commitment and connection. This is true beauty.
“May the nourishment of the earth be yours,
may the clarity of light be yours,
may the fluency of the ocean be yours,
may the protection of the ancestors be yours.”
— John O’Donohue.
Pushing, pulling, and getting out of the way.
/0 Comments/in Blog /by Wayne CentroneThis work, tackling a big, gnarly, complex challenge, is super hard. Some days, I feel like I am pushing the rock up a hill; other days, I feel like I am pulling rocks with all my might. If I have learned one thing in these many years, hard is good. Lean into hard. Give up on your picture of success or the perfect outcome.
Our unwavering focus is on building a world where every child can access a life built on health, hope, home, and purpose. We understand that to create such a world, we must think beyond the present. We need to shape an impact that not only supports children, families, and child welfare providers today but also paves the way for a brighter future.
This is why HBI’s work—through our newborn resuscitation training program, Casa Girasoles, and Communities of Excellence—seeks to integrate effective (evidence-based) support for the here and now and craft models that can be scaled and reproduced. Many of our efforts are about pushing and pulling, but soon enough, we will need to change our focus, get out of the way, and let the next generation take over.
What a true privilege it is to be involved in this hard work. I can’t imagine doing anything else with my life.