Session 2: Establishing Guiding Principles

To build freely-given relationships across societal barriers, we need guiding principles that interrupt the default cycle of dependence on formal services.

No matter how innovative or well-funded a program may be, paid human service workers can never replace the care that family, friends, and community members provide.

In this session, you’ll explore why freely-given relationships are essential—and how the institutional assumption (the belief that a professional service should exist to solve every human problem) can unintentionally weaken what families and close-knit communities do best.

That’s why we need guardrails: to promote, protect, and sustain relationships within a supportive community.