New Community Model Discussed

Human service providers in and around Portage gathered at stride place yesterday, to discuss a new community model. Doctor Chad Nilson gave the presentation.

"The Hub model is an opportunity where human service providers get together in a very disciplined process and they detect risk among clients before harm occurs," says Nilson. "They offer services to those individuals and they try and mitigate some of the risk factors that lead to the broader social problems in Portage."

Nilson explains instead of dealing with the aftermath of a crisis, we should work toward preventing the crisis altogether. He says this will save us money in the long run.

"Why is our system designed to wait until people fail, wait until people are hurt, and then help them? Why don't we help them upstream and save ourselves a lot of money and a lot of effort, and more importantly, a lot of pain, when we don't need to have that?"