LIFT Client Profiles, call for suggestions

[Danielle Bainbridge]

Hello Friends!

As I mentioned in last week's biweekly meeting my Student Director project is conducting interviews with clients for client profiles. A client profile is a short, informal interview with a client where we sit down and discuss his or her LIFT story. This can include: they're struggles/experiences with poverty before and after coming to LIFT, what kind of work they've done with us, how they feel they've grown and any tangible outcomes they've had as a result of working with our (brilliant!!!) volunteers. The profiles are used during LIFT outreach events, publications (e.g. on our website) and during new volunteer recruitment and training.

I've begun to scour CORI for clients who might be good to profile, but I still need your help! It's a bit impossible for me to get a good sense of a client solely from their online notes and (as I'm sure you all know) not every success story is one that has a clearly defined outcome/benefit. Things like improved quality of life, expanded social network, renewed feelings of hope etc are impossible to measure online but so crucial to what we do here. I want to find a diverse group of clients to interview for our profiles. With that in mind I'm appealing to you, the volunteers, to give me suggestions for any client you feel would make a great client profile. You know your clients the best so your input is super crucial! See the list below for things to keep in mind when making suggestions for profiles. 

Things to look for in a good client profile:

1) Is the client willing to be interviewed?

2) Has this client grown significantly as a result of their work with LIFT?

3) Has the client had a positive outcome as a result of his or her work with a LIFT volunteer (e.g. finding a job, getting approved for benefits, etc.)?

4) Is this a long time client (new clients are fine as well but I've been finding that returners have the highest success rates and the strongest connection to our organization) 

5) What about this client's story is inspiring/should be told?

6) Do you think this client would make a good client profile for any other reasons not listed above???

I look forward to hearing all of your feedback. Like frosted flakes, you guys are great!!!

Thanks,

Danielle