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Jan 9, 2025
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, “Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.” " --Fred Rogers
The algorithm says crisis. The social worker says trust.
Los Angeles County social workers are getting a little help from an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system to identify people at risk of losing their housing using digital warnings such as “repeated emergency room visits, mounting unpaid bills, food stamp applications that suddenly stop.” It is a shift in social work that helps identify people before a crisis, whereas, traditionally, they have to wait for people to seek help after a crisis. The system is very accurate though not perfect, and there are privacy concerns. Yet, the Outreach Program Manager says, "Our clients are so grateful and so happy to be connected to someone who understands where they might be at, who is open to listen to them, who holds their hand for the duration." While AI helps, preventing homelessness and helping people still relies on the personal touch: “a social worker reaching out, a connection made, trust built one conversation at a time.”
BE THE CHANGE
Find one way to help someone in your community, and show some love to the "helpers" who give a little hope every day to those in need.
