Human Solutions Puts the ‘Human’ into the Equation

Human Solutions Puts the ‘Human’ into the Equation

By: Caitlin Fanning

Giving a presentation in front of an audience is a hard task for many people.  Giving a presentation to an audience who is visually impaired is even more challenging.  This proved to be true as I found people willing to provide referrals to more people willing to provide referrals to even more people willing to provide referrals – it’s a relatively never-ending cycle.  But. I suppose I’m getting ahead of myself here.

My name is Caitlin Fanning, and I am a senior Girl Scout. What’s that?  Well, it’s one of the levels that follow after being a Daisy or a Brownie.  Something that accompanies that level of Girl Scouts is the Gold Award project.  Girls are challenged with living the “go make a difference!” of the Girl Scout experience.  For my Gold Award project, I chose to work alongside Community Association of the Blind (CAB) in creating career training workshops and a career resource day for their members who are blind or visually impaired.  Employment training and resources was a focused need that the members of CAB were requesting assistance with. In fact, this is an area that the community at large is in need of assistance.   That was where Human Solutions came in.

After pursuing a couple of futile leads, someone from an organization similar to CAB referred me to Human Solutions to teach several career training sessions.  After setting a date and time with Christina Harrington, reaching out to members to participate and reserving a hotel conference room, the day was set.  The first training workshop on interviewing skills was very helpful.  In fact it was so helpful, the members requested another workshop.  I invited Human Solutions to come back and teach a second, where I met Lisa Jordan.   Not only were both extremely knowledgeable, professional and polite, they focused on the human side of the equation.  They took in the perspectives of other people, the concerns of CAB members, while expertly answering every question thrown their way.  The training workshops were a huge success!  The comments and feedback were extremely positive.  These workshops provided us with a structure for future events.  The whole project was a wonderful experience that I will continue to grow and learn from.   We cannot thank them enough for their participation in our project, and we are indebted to them for all of their help.  

My Request to You:
Look for opportunities where you can make a difference.  There are many organizations out there that would benefit from YOUR expertise.  If you participated in our Call to Action last month, which was to identify one partner to strengthen your relationship with, you’re well on your way.  The holidays are an excellent time to connect or reconnect with a potential partner.  Now, get out there and take some action!