“Victories are not won by lone individuals” Fraser, James W. A History of Hope: When Americans Have Dared to Dream of a Better Future
About Us
The Human Spirit Initiative is a volunteer-driven association of individuals whose lives have been dedicated to strengthening the human services sector, professionally and personally. Inspired by the amazing impact of individual Americans who shaped the health and human service sectors of the U.S. in the 20th century, they have joined together to form the Human Spirit Initiative. Incorporated as a 501-c (3) non-profit, the organization is researching and calling attention to the history of the non-profit human services sector and the role of civic engagement in America during the 20th century. Its purpose is to spur human initiative to emulate earlier social movement pioneers to build and strengthen community in today’s world and to inspire visionary and innovative leadership for the future.
Our Vision
Greater understanding of and commitment to strengthening civil society through individual initiative and collective endeavors in building community.
Our Mission
To Inspire people to build healthy, diverse, inclusive community
Mobilizing the Human Spirit
About 100 years ago, citizens in the USA began to organize collectively around significant areas of need within their communities -- social welfare, social justice, youth development, health services, service clubs, philanthropy and voluntarism. Their efforts led to the formation of enduring charitable organizations focused on health and human services in the United States. As we celebrate their accomplishments, we recognize we are experiencing today unprecedented societal change with problems that echo those existing a century ago when our collective capacity to care began to emerge.
Our ultimate goal is to motivate people in today’s world to take leadership roles in the non-profit human services world. We are doing this by:
Spotlighting the vitality and contribution of civil society, especially the human services sector
Increasing awareness, understanding and commitment to building community
Informing, recognizing and inspiring future leaders to address today’s social problems
The Human Spirit Initiative Roadmap
Through our stories, based on historical events and published as monographs, we hope to spark new awareness and purposeful action in the minds and hearts of our readers. This will remedy and/or creatively address societal change and related problems by motivating individual Americans to:
Elect to serve in a voluntary capacity in building community – in a neighborhood, school, charitable organization or institution
Choose a career path in the non-profit health and human services sector
Speak out against poverty, crime, corruption, injustice, illiteracy, homelessness, apathy, finding a venue to be heard and looking for constructive solutions
Seek new knowledge in order to see and understand the world in which we live and each of its people from a wide perspective that ranges from the parochial to the global.
Take a courageous stance as a legislator, executive, teacher, citizen, student
Take action to right a wrong or expand human endeavor in a given area of need
Join with us in partnership to create the history of the health and human services sector and find ways to use this rich body of knowledge to inspire action – individually or collectively
Next Steps
Ideas, plans, and dreams for future Human Spirit Initiative action include:
piloting a town hall meeting concept to find ways to bring interested people together in a given community to discover and rediscover the impulse to care
developing a research partnership with an academic institution to further the research
building a sound database and providing tools for using our knowledge in educational and non-profit settings.
