"We need to institute holistic systemic change now."
That's the message from Michael Loo, CEO of Upbring, a Texas nonprofit that's been working to improve the lives of at-risk children since it was founded in 1881, per a press release.
But the state's child welfare system is in desperate need of such systemic change, Loo tells the Houston Chronicle.
"It pains me to see the institutional challenges and traumas that far too many children face today within systems that are designed to serve them," he says.
Among the issues are "archaic technology and data structures," as well as "the perceptions toward staff in the child wellbeing sector," Loo says.
But "we need to shift our focus toward delivering purposeful, innovative solutions with measurable outcomes that improve child wellbeing," Loo adds.
In the last seven years, Upbring has implemented "innovative and effective" programs that "often instituting operational, financial, programmatic, and structural improvements to optimize the programs we deliver to ensure the improvement of the lives of children," Loo says.
To that end, the nonprofit is now rolling out "innovative child wellbeing solutions" in areas such as technology, data structure, and "operational and financial inefficiencies," per the press release.
In addition, Upbring
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Ganesh Natarajan is the Founder and Chairman of 5FWorld, a new platform for funding and developing start-ups, social enterprises and the skills eco-system in India. In the past two decades, he has built two of India’s high-growth software services companies – Aptech and Zensar – almost from scratch to global success.