During my career, which now spans four decades, there have been leaders from both major political parties at various times at local, state, and national levels. We’ve worked well with both Democratic and Republican administrations.

Goodwill is fortunate to have a mission that transcends politics and has appeal across political lines. Our employees, members of our boards of directors, donors, shoppers, students, and others we assist have political leanings that cover the entire spectrum. However, as we go about our work, we tend toward the practical rather than the ideological. We agree on a goal, find common ground around the means to achieve the goal, work together, and accomplish a lot. We’re mainly interested in what works – as long as the means are consistent with our values and basic principles, some of which are:

• Every individual has value, and we strive to treat everyone in a respectful manner.
• Work adds meaning and purpose to life.
• Goodwill offers opportunities, not charity, and fosters development, not dependency.

Opportunities we offer include employment for people who have had limited options because of a disability or other barrier. We also offer opportunities through our Excel Centers for adults who want to earn a high school diploma and begin work on a post-secondary credential that will enhance their employment options.

During the recession of the early 1980’s, we concluded that nothing would help our organization or the people we assist more than a strong, growing economy. That continues to be the case. Also, it seems to us that the better we develop the potential of our people – especially by increasing education attainment levels – and provide conditions that enable people to productively use their talents, the stronger the economy is likely to be.

As our organization has evolved, on numerous occasions we’ve redeployed resources from efforts that were marginally effective to initiatives that showed more promise. Over time, this shifting of resources, combined with a substantial increase in our pool of talented people – our human capital – has enabled the organization overall to grow not only in size, but in long term impact.

Unfortunately, over the last forty years, we’ve seen in our society negative trends in a lot of social indicators, including poverty rates, education attainment levels, incarceration rates, and a lot of health-related issues, despite a lot of well-intentioned programs that have cost enormous amounts of money (see my July 6, 2011 post). Fortunately, there have also been a few programs that randomized controlled trials have shown to be highly effective in preventing problems and developing potential. One of those is Nurse-Family Partnership, which Goodwill is implementing in Indianapolis.

In the face of massive federal deficits, it would seem reasonable to reduce or eliminate funding for programs with marginal effectiveness and increase support for evidence-based programs that produce significant long term impact. The future economic and social benefits could be enormous.

Reasonable people can and will disagree over many things, including how best to reduce social problems and generate a higher rate of growth in the economy. However, in the face of such disagreements, reasonable people must try to find common ground and not allow their view of the perfect to be the enemy of the good. My hope is that enough of our elected leaders in both major political parties would resolve to overcome and move beyond a toxic political atmosphere and resulting gridlock that have been preventing steps that might lead to a stronger, healthier, more civil and economically vibrant society that would benefit all citizens, including those we assist at Goodwill.