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Gary MacDougal

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Make a Difference: A Spectacular Breakthrough in the Fight Against Poverty Kindle Edition

by Gary MacDougal (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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We now know the answers to helping long time welfare recipients become self-sufficient, and how to pry loose the dead hand of human service bureaucracies.

"I enjoy coming to work and learning different things...I really like my kids to know I work...This should have happened 10 years ago...I believe many of my friends wouldn't do no drugs if they had a chance for a real job." - Rebecca, a woman from Chicago's notorious housing projects, high school dropout and former welfare recipient now working at UPS.

The problems with welfare systems is not a lack of funds, but rather failure to connect the funds to families and communities in a way that makes a difference in people's lives. Through involvement with welfare recipients, community leaders, caseworkers and others, author Gary MacDougal and Illinois Governor Jim Edgar led the state government in its biggest reorganization since 1900, creating a model for the rest of the nation.

Print length

385 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publisher

Truman Talley Books
Publication date

May 1, 2005
File size

2837 KB
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About the Author

Gary MacDougal recently completed four years as Chairman of the Governor's Task Force for Human Services Reform in Illinois and is the former CEO of a Fortune 1000 corporation. He has served in Washington as Senior Advisor in the 1988 Bush Presidential Campaign and is currently Trustee of the Casey Foundation, a $1.3 billion foundation for children at risk. He resides in Chicago.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B00545H482
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Truman Talley Books; 1st edition (May 1, 2005)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ May 1, 2005
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 2837 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 385 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #3,722,076 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #4,133 in Economic Conditions (Kindle Store)
- #7,856 in Political Economy
- #12,384 in Economic Conditions (Books)

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Bob Faber

Behind the Curtain

Reviewed in the United States on April 20, 2015

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An informative and uplifting look behind the curtain of public policy formation revealing what it takes - and what is possible - when determined parties work together for the good of society.

MacDougal weaves together practical insights with personal recollections to paint a very human picture of what it took to achieve the first concrete steps in welfare reform. This book is a valuable primer for people at all places on the spectrum. Whether you are a concerned bystander, a worker in the system, or a spirited reformer bent on making progress, this book will help inform your next steps. Read it today!

Helpful

lynn

Hands on experience about how to address poverty from the bottom

Reviewed in the United States on June 20, 2019

I had read the book because of an interest to know the solutions for solving the long-lasting problem in the world nowadays. I have been particularly enjoying the book because of the four points below.

- It helps me get to know the root cause of poverty issues
There is a convenient idea that a lot of people hold about people who are in poverty, which is that most people on welfare are lazy and don’t want to work. Is it really the case? The book helps me think from the viewpoints of people who are in struggling and I feel that it builds up my empathy after I read it.

- Learn the author's life stories have been inspiring me to create my own stories
We all, at some point, question ourselves where we want to be going in our lives, so do I. The book starts with the author's own journey of searching for life meaning and shares his major life events along the way when you read. Things like how he reflected about life facing Himalayan mountains really opened my eyes and made me want to ask the big question again - where do we truly want to go in our lives?

The author also shares his most important life lessons along the way. One quote I particular likes a lot is "After becoming a CEO, I realized that 10 percent of problem-solving was knowing what to do, and 90 percent was implementation".

- Mind-blowing ways to solve poverty issues
The book not only explains how the top-down Washington designed programs are going to continue to fail, but also introduces many down-to-earth, flexible, and out-of-box practices to address poverty issues going on. It has open my mind by empathizing the importance of self-sufficiency through entry-level jobs for disadvantaged people, baby care for mon workers, basic transportation support, and so on.

It is definitely a book that makes you wise.

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Elsie Maio

Redeeming McKinsey? Here's how the smartest guys in the room can scale social good

Reviewed in the United States on February 25, 2012

I sweated over this review. So much inspiration, so little space. Bottom line: Make a Difference is an instructive reference book for problem-solvers who want to tackle today's social issues at scale - with compassion and grace. I consider it an important read for those who would fully engage their brilliance to achieve measurable results for people in need.

There are two main reasons to read it now: it shows how to fix our seemingly intractable social problems step by step; and second, it can help expand business leaders' sense of purpose and self-respect.

FIRST: READ IT AS A BLUEPRINT
This prescient book is a breakthrough tool for right now. Culturally, it models an heroic social role for the alpha overachiever in big business. And in Practical terms, its empathetic voice engages the will while describing a proven blueprint for action.

Make a Difference presages some of the happiest trends that animate social media and our larger imaginations today: young people's voracious appetite for social entrepreneurship, the birth of social impact investing, demand created by new products that do good for society as they do well for their manufacturers; and the scaled benefits of cross-sector collaborations.

In a warm first person narrative, Gary MacDougal quickly traces the evolution of a Chicagoan boy-next-door to McKinsey partner to high-EQ leader schooled on humble pie by his mentors, themselves captains of industry in the 1960s. But what jolts this story to immediate relevance in 2012 is this: hard results achieved with the utmost respect and compassion that equally benefit people in need and business in want. What are those results? And who gained? First, tens of thousands of people in Illinois employed who had long been deprived of the opportunity to work because they lacked the support systems to do so. Second, the employers who gained a highly motivated, sustained local workforce. Third, the political actors whose reputations took on the halo of a big win for their constituents and for the businesses in their communities.

SECOND: USE IT TO WAKE UP THE HIGHER ANGELS IN THE C-SUITE
For the reputation-beleaguered world of big business, this book is a timely step toward redemption. It demonstrates what world-class corporate savvy can achieve when focused on contributing to humanity in a material, sustained way. That's due in part because the author virtually represents the traditional C-Suite leader. He made his bones at McKinsey&Company (itself under a reputation cloud these days)and since has served on a number of high profile corporate and non-profit boards.

***
PS. It doesn't end. I discovered that since publishing this book, Gary MacDougal has been shopping the Illinois model around. It is now under consideration by the Governors of a number of other states. What next? His Foundation is extrapolating the learning to an even more ambitious challenge: bringing the opportunity of education to the Roma people in Bulgaria. Now that should make an instructive sequel. -- Elsie Maio, [...] founder Humanity, Inc./SoulBranding Institute

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Lauren E Burny

What really makes the difference.?

Reviewed in the United States on March 9, 2014

An inspirational and motivating book written with passion. The book attempts to be written from a different perspective but until you walk a mile in someone shoes…. but no matter where you are from your natural instinct is to work hard and participate. How you participate and who guides you along the way is what really makes the difference.

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Make a Difference: A Spectacular Breakthrough in the Fight Against Poverty Kindle Edition

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