i3 - Imagine.Ideate.Innovate

Part 1 of a 4 part series

One of the most consistent aspects in the profession of social services is that of ‘change’.  It is in our nature to resist change to maintain the status quo, especially in instances where professionals have found their comfort zone in the work that they routinely perform.  However, in our work, the only consistent variables that we experience are the ‘changes’ to policies, procedures, and processes that o...

In today’s episode Elton and April Oakley join us to discuss effective measures that they’ve implemented in their family to successfully foster and adopt children who have been placed in the South Carolina Child Welfare system.  The Oakley’s have been fostering for approximately five years and have had tremendous success in integrating foster children into their family. They are on a mission to encourage others to consider fosterin...

In this episode of our i3 podcast we talk with Sue Meyer, the Manager of Employee Trauma Support and the Employee Assistance Program (EAP) Coordinator.  She discusses the prevalence of Secondary Traumatic Stress (STS) in child protective services, the sources of STS and how it can wreak havoc on human services workers.  She goes on to talk about how the Employee Trauma Support Team is working with employees to lower the incidence o...

During this episode of i3 our guest, Dr. Anita Khetpal, discusses an important component of Self Care; namely ‘Mindfulness’.  Dr. Khetpal provides our audience with an understanding of what ‘Mindfulness’ entails and various strategies that we can incorporate into our lives each day to help us enjoy being present and not become overwhelmed thinking of past experiences or future expectations.  Dr. Khetpal gives insight regarding how ...

In this episode of i3 Lew Rogers shares strategies on professional development for leaders within the South Carolina Department of Social Services utilizing innovative approaches through the implementation of the agencies Coaching Model.  Lew discusses the methods in which he and his team brainstorm about ways to think of how to build leaders, develop those imaginative thoughts into ideas, and strategically implement them into inno...

This episode of the i3 podcast features Mr. Tim Mose, Director of Child Support Services.  Tim’s division has proven to be one of the most innovative areas within SCDSS over the past few years as they have implemented several new features to enhance their performance.  As a result, they have increased Child Support collections to a point where they are amassing over $300 million annually for children and families in South Carolina....

In this episode of our i3 podcast Dr. Suzanne Sutphin discusses the importance of ‘innovation’ as it pertains to her work in Quality Assurance and Continuous Quality Improvement.  Dr. Sutphin discusses how she’s used innovative approaches as the Director of QA and CQI at the South Carolina Department of Social Services in hopes of helping others use similar methods to improve their work in human services through examples that she p...

As Social Service professionals our goal is to provide quality services daily for individuals and families who are dealing with challenging, oftentimes, traumatic situations in their lives.  As a result, we rarely take the necessary time needed to intentionally focus on improving the strategies, policies, and procedures that guide the provision of these services. 

In this episode of i3 you will hear from the State Director of the S...