November 13, 2013 - The role of human services in addressing key social issues has become increasingly marginalized and financially fettered. In this new research report, FrameWorks argues that improving public support for human services work will require shifting the public narrative from one focused on individual causes and solutions to an emphasis on better aligning social solutions to the structural barriers impeding a satisfactory quality of life for all citizens.

Based on a recent series of in-depth interviews, FrameWorks compares the perspectives of experts and public informants on the function of human services and the meaning of well-being. The findings reveal a chasm, suggesting that the public views well-being as determined by individual failings and thus resolved by individual effort -- while experts emphasize upstream causes and the need for strategic, community level social intervention. "Handed to Them on Plate": Mapping the Gaps Between Expert and Public Understandings of Human Services, examines the challenges and needs of humans services work. Sponsored by the National Human Services Assembly (NHSA) with support from the Kresge Foundation, the report is part of a larger multi-method collaborative project designed to reframe the human services field.