A Side of Hope

Side of Hope
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A SIDE OF HOPE PODCAST Stories of hope and grit: amplifying voices in human services If you are a human service professional, social worker or one in the making, you’re in the right place. We’re here to help you navigate the messiness of human services with inspiration, tools, and support.

  1. 3d ago

    Inclusion Isn't a Program. It's a Bridge You Build Toward the Rest of the World

    Human services has spent decades trying to build inclusion from our side. Lisa Drennan's 40 years in the field taught her the opposite: inclusion can only be built by the side of the bridge that isn't there yet, the YMCAs, the camps, the faith communities. Her work is teaching that side how to build it. Lisa Drennan is a nationally recognized speaker and inclusion advocate who has spent over 40 years helping individuals with disabilities experience deeper connection, belonging, and community. She challenges organizations to see inclusion not as an obligation, but as an opportunity. She founded MERGE Consulting, which helps YMCAs, camps, faith organizations, and libraries build genuinely inclusive spaces. Her path started in the 1980s at New England Village, a residential campus south of Boston, when the job title was simply "staff." Nearly 30 years later a YMCA posting for "Director of Inclusion," the first role of its kind in the country, led to the realization that shaped her career: inclusion has to be taught to the rest of the world, one relationship at a time. She founded MERGE in 2018. Lisa's framework runs access, inclusion, and belonging, in that order. Access means someone is genuinely invited in, not tucked into a special track on page nine of the brochure. Inclusion means being part of the class instead of the separate one running alongside it. Belonging is the goalpost, and it only shows up once the first two are in place. They also talk through the gap between being present and being valued. Lisa tells the story of an agency that described a Dunkin' Donuts drive-through trip as "getting out in the community." Her response: being physically present isn't the same as being part of something. Friendship gets its own section. Lisa tells the story of a boy she calls Kyle, asked to leave three camps before he came to a YMCA camp where Lisa was working. Kyle and another camper became friends over a shared love of Lego robotics and a specific way of eating a PB&J, cut into triangles, crusts off. That friendship led to Kyle's first birthday party invitation. They also get into language: why "wheelchair bound" and "high" or "low functioning" carry more weight than people realize, and why naming the actual support need fits better than labeling the person. Lisa closes with an invitation for every listener: an open mind and heart is 85% of the work. Topics covered: Why the community being included must build inclusion itselfThe access, inclusion, belonging frameworkSpecialized programming versus genuine inclusionFriendship as a measurable outcome of belongingHow DSPs can facilitate connection through shared interestsLanguage and how it shapes how we see peopleLisa's on-demand learning platform and Pathways to Friendship toolkit Lisa's on-demand learning platform launched the same week this episode was recorded. The first trainings are built for recreation and camp staff, with content for DSPs, agencies, self-advocates, and families coming later this year. Her first resource is a sensory kit guide. Guest: Lisa Drennan, Founder of MERGE ConsultingHost: Melanie Bazile Connect with Lisa and MERGE: Website: mergeconsulting.orgOn-Demand Learning Platform: mergeconsulting.org/on-demand-learningAbout MERGE and content library: available at mergeconsulting.org (add direct links when provided)Pathways to Friendship Toolkit, Building Friendships Between People With and Without Disabilities: Lisa co-authored the fifth toolkit in this Arc of Massachusetts series, for YMCA staff, camp counselors, faith organizations, and libraries More from A Side of Hope:linktr.ee/sideofhopepodcast

    Inclusion Isn't a Program. It's a Bridge You Build Toward the Rest of the World

  2. Aug 3

    Heart-Led, Head-Managed: Why Systems and Compassion Belong Together

    There's a word that makes a lot of people in human services flinch. Not burnout, not funding cuts. Sales. Melanie says it out loud in this episode, and she doesn't apologize for it. But the real tension she's sitting with is bigger than one word: how did 'corporate' become an insult in a field where the stakes are this high? And what tools have we walked away from because they felt like a betrayal of the work? Melanie isn't arguing that human services should become corporate America. She's asking a harder question: what if some of the structures we've rejected are actually the thing standing between our good intentions and the follow-through the people we serve actually need? She uses a specific example from her own department, a business certification tool called the Five Whys, originally a root cause analysis method from Lean Six Sigma, that she started applying with people receiving services, with her team, and in grant writing. If she'd written it off because of where it came from, she says, she would have lost a genuinely powerful tool. She also talks about being asked to write a business plan for the department she leads at Compass and discovering, mid-grumble, that the process forced her to get clear on something she hadn't wanted to admit: chasing every idea in the name of innovation had actually decreased her department's impact.

    Heart-Led, Head-Managed: Why Systems and Compassion Belong Together

  3. Jul 20

    Beyond the Diagnosis: How Cancer Taught Us to See Hope in Hard Places

    Most people, when they get a cancer diagnosis, think about survival. Lauren Huffmaster did too, until she realized that surviving and living are two very different things. Lauren Huffmaster is a metastatic breast cancer survivor and the founder of Adventure Therapy Foundation, where she's working to reimagine what the cancer experience can look like. Through her work as a speaker, author, and podcast host, Lauren invites others to find meaning, connection, and even joy in the midst of hardship. Melanie and Lauren first connected through a shared experience of moving through life with cancer, and that shared ground gives this conversation a depth that's hard to manufacture. Lauren opens with what it actually took to learn how to live with a diagnosis that never fully resolves, and how that process became the foundation for everything she now builds for others. Much of this conversation is about grief, and not in the way most of us have been trained to think about it. Lauren describes grief as something that layers through everyday life in ways people rarely stop to name: a future that no longer looks the way you imagined, an identity reorganized around a diagnosis, relationships that quietly shift or disappear. She calls these "pinpricks of grief," and makes the case that unacknowledged, they don't go away. They accumulate. Melanie draws that framework directly into the human services field, particularly for families of people with disabilities who carry years of unprocessed grief that the people supporting them rarely think to address. Lauren also introduces irrational optimism, kinship groups built around shared interests rather than shared diagnoses, and the story behind her children's book The Adventure Jar, written because cancer is never just one person's experience. Melanie closes with a reminder that lands for anyone doing this work: people are often grieving more than we can see, and presence, the genuine kind, is the work. Topics covered in this episode: Grief beyond loss of life: identity, future plans, and relationshipsWhat families of people with disabilities carry that often goes unaddressedIrrational optimism and why the stories we tell ourselves matterKinship groups and shared interest as a path out of isolationAsking for help when the need is long-termDreams, courage, and declaring what you believe in Guest: Lauren Huffmaster, Founder, Adventure Therapy FoundationHost: Melanie Basil Connect with Lauren: Adventure Therapy Foundation: https://adventuretherapyfoundation.orgPodcast — Adventure Found: https://adventurefound.org/podcast/Instagram: @Lauren Huffmaster | @adventuretherapyfoundation | @canceringcollective Lauren's Books: Cancering: Exploring the Seasons of Emotional Healing — https://www.amazon.com/Cancering-Exploring-Seasons-Emotional-Healing/dp/B0D6XCGMM320 Shades of Grief (contributing author) — https://www.amazon.com/20-Shades-Grief-Impacts-Experience/dp/1969864117Free Children's Book — The Adventure Jar:https://www.expose-mbc.com/free-mbc-childrens-book More from A Side of Hope:https://linktr.ee/sideofhopepodcast

    Beyond the Diagnosis: How Cancer Taught Us to See Hope in Hard Places

  4. Jul 6

    Staying When Everything Says Leave

    There are people in human services who have been showing up for years, not because it's easy, not because the system cooperates, not because anyone is watching. This episode is about what actually keeps them there. Melanie Basil is the Director of Innovation and Expansion at Compass and the host of A Side of Hope. With over 30 years in the human services field, she brings hard-won experience in direct support, leadership, and building systems that actually work for the people inside them. In this solo episode, Melanie gets personal about one of the most essential qualities in human services work: grit. Not the motivational poster version. The real kind, the kind that doesn't show up on any award or go viral, but keeps people in this field doing hard things for a long time. She opens with her own story of nearly failing lifeguard training as a young camp counselor who couldn't swim well, and what it meant to keep showing up anyway. From there, she connects that individual experience to what grit actually looks like in direct support work: walking alongside someone pursuing a driver's license when everyone else doubted it was possible, supporting families who are exhausted but still advocating, finding ways to serve people well in the middle of system barriers and shrinking resources. Drawing on researcher Angela Duckworth's work, Melanie defines grit as passion and perseverance for long-term goals, and she makes the case for why that definition hits differently in human services. Outcomes here don't happen overnight. Progress is often measured in inches, not miles. The long game requires something that raw talent and good intentions can't fully sustain. She also introduces the concept of "loaned grit," the idea that when the people we support lose hope, we hold it for them until they can hold it themselves. It's a reminder worth sitting with. Melanie closes with a direct challenge to listeners: grit should never mean running yourself into the ground. Healthy grit includes support, boundaries, and sustainability. Just because someone can keep going doesn't mean we should keep asking them to. Topics covered in this episode: The difference between grit, talent, and luckAngela Duckworth's research on grit as a predictor of successWhat grit looks like on the ground in direct support work"Loaned grit" and holding hope for someone elseThe GRIT acronym: Guts, Resilience, Initiative, and TenacityWhy grit without support can become burnoutHow Melanie uses grit as a lens in hiring and developing people Host: Melanie Basil, Director of Innovation and Expansion, Compass Referenced in this episode:Angela Duckworth — Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance (book and TED Talk)Simon Sinek — concept of the "infinite game"More from A Side of Hope:https://linktr.ee/sideofhopepodcast

    Staying When Everything Says Leave

  5. Jun 22

    The Whirlwind Isn't Going Away. Here's How to Lead Inside It.

    If you lead in human services, your day probably started with a plan. And then reality showed up. This episode is about building leadership structures that can hold up inside that reality, not in spite of it. Sunil Bhaskaran is a global community builder and the founder of Global Business Mastermind, where he helps entrepreneurs grow their reach and impact. With a network of over 200,000 business owners across the world, Sunil brings a perspective on systems, accountability, and intentional leadership that translates directly into the pressures human service leaders face every day. This episode is part of a mini series drawn from a longer conversation between Melanie and Sunil. If you've ever had a plan at the start of the day that was gone within the first hour, this one was made for you. Melanie and Sunil dig into the reality that overwhelm in human services isn't always about volume. A lot of it comes from invisibility: tasks that aren't named, tracked, or scheduled end up living in your nervous system instead of on a list. That low-level pressure doesn't clock out when you do.Sunil introduces the concept of workflows, not the assembly-line kind, but simple, reliable systems that let important things happen without depending on memory or heroics. In human services especially, where so much of the work is relational and urgent, having a clear path for things like onboarding new staff, responding to family concerns, or moving an incident report from discovery to follow-through isn't cold or bureaucratic. It protects people. Melanie gets honest about her own relationship with calendaring, including the irritation she felt when Compass leadership started blocking intentional deep work time and it suddenly became harder to get on their calendars. What she came to understand was that protecting capacity isn't selfish. It's how leaders stay present, creative, and emotionally available over the long run. Sunil's concept of "joyful calendaring" sounds unrealistic at first. Melanie thought so too. But the practice is more straightforward than it sounds: 15 minutes for triage in the morning, actual transition time between meetings, and stopping the habit of treating blank calendar space as open availability. The episode closes with a practical exercise around promises, naming them clearly, labeling which ones feel empowering versus burdensome, and rewriting the ones that are weighing you down into something more specific and manageable.Topics covered in this episode: Why overwhelm is often about invisibility, not just volumeWhat workflows actually are and why they matter in human servicesHow unclear systems push leaders toward "personal heroics" and poor boundariesMelanie's story of onboarding a new supervisor with no documented systems in placeThe "joyful calendar" concept and how to start practicing itProtecting capacity as a form of leadership stewardshipA practical exercise for naming and rewriting the promises you're carrying Connect with Sunil Bhaskaran:Website: https://sunilbhaskaran.comLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sunilbhaskaranspeaker/Book: More Money, More Time, Less Stress — https://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Time-Less-Stress/dp/1490408940Catch Sunil on the Compass Time Capsule Podcast — "The Early Guides Toward Greatness":Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/3t4qrJ06oLI74WuctYcDuz?si=3Bvvgr7BTnGWvLn1C0rP9AApple Podcasts: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-early-guides-toward-greatness/id1829765091?i=1000735311107Amazon Music: https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/362abef2-ea9e-4302-b229-632803d85abf/episodes/9349a760-ab00-43c5-b1b7-f08834753f42/compass-time-capsule-the-early-guides-toward-greatnessBook referenced:The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim Huling More from A Side of Hope:https://linktr.ee/sideofhopepodcast

    The Whirlwind Isn't Going Away. Here's How to Lead Inside It.

  6. Jun 8

    Promises That Heal: Rethinking Accountability in Human Services

    Episode Overview Most people in human services have a complicated relationship with the word "accountability." It tends to land like a warning, like someone's about to get in trouble. In this episode, Melanie revisits her conversation with leadership coach Sunil Bhaskaran and unpacks what accountability actually is. It's not punishment. It's how trust survives in environments where things change fast, staff call out, and people are already stretched thin. What We Cover Accountability means accounting for your promises. Not punishment, not performance management. When a commitment changes, communicate early and make a new one. It's a system, not a character judgment. Commitments are experienced as promises, whether or not you use that word. "I'll cover that shift." "I'll get that to you by Friday." When those commitments disappear without communication, trust bleeds out, and that affects retention, service quality, and whether people feel safe enough to speak up. Integrity is about wholeness, not fault. Instead of asking "who dropped the ball," ask "what's missing?" That question builds a learning culture instead of one where people hide mistakes. Clear commitments are a form of care. Vagueness creates anxiety. Being clear is being kind. A practical promise integrity system: Make clear commitments, including the ones you make to yourselfKeep commitments visible through shared trackers and regular check-insRenegotiate early and honestly when things changeAccountability is a two-way street. When someone doesn't follow through, bring the promise back into the conversation with curiosity, not blame. "What got in the way? Was this a clarity issue, a capacity issue, or something else?" Most of leadership happens in the in-between. Between the promise and the breakdown, between wanting to help and navigating the complexity of leading people. Managing that space honestly is some of the most important work a leader can do. Emotional intelligence is built into accountability. When a promise breaks down, ask two questions: what structurally needs to change, and what emotionally needs to be acknowledged? Episode Principle Promises are the currency of trust, and accountability is how we protect that currency. When done well, accountability doesn't make the work heavier. It makes leadership lighter, because responsibility becomes something a team holds together. This Week's Reflection Questions What structurally needs to change?What emotionally needs to be acknowledged?What conversations need to happen before frustration becomes disconnection?About Sunil Bhaskaran Sunil Bhaskaran is a global community builder and founder of Global Business Mastermind, with a network of over 200,000 business owners worldwide. In this episode, he brings his belief in connection and purpose into human services leadership, reframing accountability as something that protects trust rather than creates pressure. Resources and Links Connect with Sunil Bhaskaran Website: sunilbhaskaran.comLinkedIn: Sunil BhaskaranSunil's Book More Money, More Time, Less Stress: AmazonBook Referenced in This Episode The Four Disciplines of Execution by Chris McChesney, Sean Covey, and Jim HulingCatch Sunil on the Compass Time Capsule Podcast The Early Guides Toward Greatness: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Amazon MusicMore from A Side of Hope linktr.ee/sideofhopepodcast Coming Up Next The next episode takes on workflows and calendars, not as corporate efficiency tools, but as a way to reduce overwhelm and protect the human spirit behind this work. If this episode resonated with you, share it with another leader who might be carrying a lot right now. 🎧

    Promises That Heal: Rethinking Accountability in Human Services

  7. May 26

    Creating Futures, Not Just Managing Problems: A New Paradigm for Caregiving

    What if leadership wasn’t about keeping up with the chaos, but about creating a future your team can actually move toward? Sunil Bhaskaran is a global community builder and the founder of Global Business Mastermind, where he helps entrepreneurs grow their reach and impact. With a network of over 200,000 business owners across the world, Sunil is passionate about creating spaces where collaboration leads to real transformation. In this episode, he shares how connection, perspective, and purpose can unlock new possibilities in both business and life. Stay tuned for our next episode, where we’ll explore accountability as freedom, not punishment, and offer practical tools for supervisors and program managers. Sunil Baskharan: https://sunilbhaskaran.com/ Book https://www.amazon.com/More-Money-Time-Less-Stress/dp/1490408940

    Creating Futures, Not Just Managing Problems: A New Paradigm for Caregiving

  8. May 11

    Running Toward the Fire: Why Some Hearts Are Drawn to Human Services

    What makes someone choose a life of caring for others, even when it costs them something? Some people don’t run from the fire… they run toward it.In this episode, we step into the heart behind human services and the people who choose this work every day. Through a personal story of finding a path in recreation therapy, we explore what draws someone into a life of caring for others.But this work comes with a cost.We talk about the idea of the “wounded healer” and how empathy, compassion, and deep sensitivity can be both a strength and a weight to carry. When you feel everything, how do you keep going without losing yourself?This conversation also offers a perspective for leaders. If you’re leading people who care deeply, how do you support them in a way that protects both their heart and their sustainability?If you’ve ever wondered what drives someone to run toward the fire, or how to build a culture that truly supports those who do, this episode is for you.Listen now and be part of the conversation.For more resources and to connect with our community, visithttps://www.compasscares.com/a-side-of-hope-podcast-2/Subscribe and share if you believe in supporting the hearts behind the work.

    Running Toward the Fire: Why Some Hearts Are Drawn to Human Services
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A SIDE OF HOPE PODCAST Stories of hope and grit: amplifying voices in human services If you are a human service professional, social worker or one in the making, you’re in the right place. We’re here to help you navigate the messiness of human services with inspiration, tools, and support.

Information

  • Creator
    Side of Hope
  • Years Active
    2024 - 2026
  • Episodes
    31
  • Rating
    Clean
  • Copyright
    © Side of Hope
  • Show Website
    A Side of Hope

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