TRUST YOUR HEART by Kate Usaj, LISW

12/24/2025

Social workers… NEVER underestimate your magic 😌

12/24/2025

Good morning 🙏❤️

12/22/2025

Before the year ends, pause.

Not to rehash the goals you didn’t hit… but to actually see everything you carried this year.

You showed up on days you almost didn’t.
You supported people through moments they’ll remember forever.
You kept learning, adjusting, and choosing the work even when it felt heavy.

You did more than you realize.
You held more than most people know.
You made a difference, even on the days you felt stretched thin.

If you could write a one-line “thank you” to yourself for this year, what would it say?

12/19/2025

If 2025 felt like survival mode, then let 2026 be the year you build — with intention, support, and strategy.

My supervision groups are designed to help you:
• Strengthen your identity as a social work leader
• Build confidence in complex cases
• Earn more without burning out
• Create a career on your terms

You don’t need another year of “just getting through."

You deserve a plan.
You deserve support.

Apply now and start 2026 with clarity and confidence.

12/19/2025

In a forward-thinking city, homeless individuals are given the opportunity to clean the streets for pay, providing them with not just work, but a chance to regain dignity and self-sufficiency. The initiative has helped 70% of the workers move from homelessness into permanent housing.

This innovative program reflects a compassionate approach to homelessness, offering more than just temporary relief. It allows individuals to rebuild their lives and reintegrate into society, one step at a time.

It’s a story that demonstrates how addressing societal issues with empathy and practical support can lead to real change. 🏙️💪

12/19/2025

John Steinbeck once hid in a migrant camp under a fake name — just to see if America would treat him like one of its own. It didn’t.
It was 1936, the middle of the Great Depression. Steinbeck had been hearing whispers about thousands of Dust Bowl families flooding into California — farmers turned refugees, sleeping in ditches, working for pennies. Newspapers called them “Okies.” Politicians called them a nuisance. Steinbeck wanted to see for himself. So he borrowed an old car, dressed in worn clothes, and disappeared into the San Joaquin Valley.
For weeks, he lived among the workers — sleeping in tents, eating scraps, listening to mothers sing lullabies beside dying campfires. He watched children pick rotten fruit from the ground and men beg for jobs that paid five cents an hour. “You have no idea how terrifying hunger sounds when it cries,” he later wrote in his notebook. “It changes the shape of a man’s face.”
He kept his identity secret. To the people around him, he was just another drifter. But every night, he scribbled pages by lantern light — sketches of families, dialogue, fragments of rage and grace. Those notes became The Grapes of Wrath. When the book came out in 1939, it shocked the country. Politicians denounced it, growers burned it, and churches banned it. But migrant workers wept when they read it, because for the first time, someone had written them as human.
The world saw him as a literary hero, but the government saw him as a threat. The FBI opened a file on him, labeling his work “communist propaganda.” He received death threats, and the Associated Farmers of California put men outside his home to watch him. When a friend asked if he was afraid, Steinbeck answered, “No. I’m ashamed it took me this long to pay attention.”
He won the Pulitzer, then the Nobel, but he never forgot the camps. “I am not a writer of escape,” he said. “I am a writer of the people who cannot escape.”
John Steinbeck didn’t just write about the American Dream — he went looking for it in the dirt, and what he found was both its cruelty and its courage.

12/17/2025

A German startup has developed a portable emergency shelter that folds into a backpack by day and transforms into an insulated, weather-proof bed by night. Equipped with solar panels, the unit can power small devices and built-in LED lighting, giving unhoused individuals warmth, safety, and a crucial way to stay connected. Designed for durability and dignity, this mobile micro-home offers immediate relief while supporting long-term stability through connectivity and protection from the elements.

12/17/2025

It's December, and for social workers, this time of year often brings holiday stress, heavy caseloads, and the needs of those around us.

Here’s an important reminder: your year matters too.

Take a moment to reflect on the following:
👉 What did I survive?
👉 What challenges did I overcome?
👉 What quiet accomplishments did I achieve, even when they went unnoticed?

This is your invitation to honor the version of yourself that continued to show up, even when things were difficult.

Please share one thing you’re proud of from this year.

12/16/2025

12/16/2025

12/15/2025

Along Greece’s coastline, towering wind harps are transforming sea breezes into gentle music while quietly producing clean electricity. Each movement of air becomes a note, and at the same time, hidden turbines inside the structures generate power for streetlights and nearby public spaces. When night falls, the harps glow with the very energy they created during the day.

These installations combine art, renewable energy, and urban design in a way that feels almost poetic. They turn ordinary wind into sound, light, and sustainable power, showing how cities can blend technology with beauty instead of separating the two.

12/15/2025

When you reflect on your experiences earlier in 2025, what truly changed you? Consider not the major headlines, but the subtler moments that had an impact:

The client who surprised you

The boundary you finally upheld

The supervisory insight that clicked

The day you remembered why you chose this field

These are the moments that shape a career. Don’t overlook them.

Share one lesson that 2025 taught you.