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Chronicle Quotes Valentine in “The Nonprofit Hiring Crisis”

June 7, 2022

Victor Valentine, NHSA Executive Director, was quoted in The Chronicle of Philanthropy article titled, “The Nonprofit Hiring Crisis.” The article examines the nonprofit workforce issue across the country and hones in on some key issues for the human service sector.

Excerpt: “Health and human-service groups have always had a hard time recruiting people for low-paying direct-service positions. The low wages are often the result of government contracts and grants that fail to pay for the true cost of delivering those services, says Victor Valentine, executive director of the National Human Services Assembly. Because their funds are often locked in years in advance, groups are unable to adjust to the tight labor market and inflation, even for trained professionals like social workers and therapists.

If groups can’t offer services, needs in communities won’t be met. Valentine says that in some places, for example, a lack of youth programs is leading to increases in dropout rates and interactions with the criminal-justice system. ‘We don’t have enough people to stand in the gap.'”