Capacity Overload: AI for Social Work

Episode description: If you run a small nonprofit and the AI conversation makes your eyes glaze over, this is the episode that brings it back down to earth. Luke Bassett, founder of Data Exchange in Fort Wayne, sits down with Jason Padgett and Oliver Belanger to talk about where mission-driven organizations should actually start, and why the best first step is usually the most boring one. Fort Way...

People rarely leave a good recovery program because they gave up. More often a barrier hits after hours, nobody's around, and by morning they've already started to drift. Justin Beattey has built this field from the inside, and in this episode he explains what peer recovery coaches really do, why lived experience is the part you can't train, and where purpose-driven AI can keep someone...

Cody Clark was diagnosed with autism at 15 months and told he might never walk or talk. Today he tours 45 states as a magician, speaker, and autism advocate. He sits down with Jason and Oliver to talk about the supports that changed his life, why autistic thinking is a natural fit for AI workflows, and where AI falls short for small businesses and nonprofits. Key topics covered: How the University...

Tippecanoe Senior Services delivers about 400 Meals on Wheels per day to seniors across Tippecanoe County, Indiana, and Amy Wood runs the operations behind that and four other programs. She joins Jason and Oliver to talk about what happens when government, healthcare, and even job applications go digital-first while the people her organization serves still use flip phones, and how she's using...

Episode description: GiGi's Playhouse Indianapolis serves families touched by Down syndrome from prenatal diagnosis through career readiness, and every program is free. Executive Director David Johnson sits down with Jason Padgett and Oliver Belanger to explain how a chapter with two full-time staff and roughly fifty volunteers actually pulls that off, and what it took to dig the chapter out o...

Federal rental assistance for housing nonprofits disappeared overnight, with no warning and no runway. In this first episode of Capacity Overload, Executive Director Marie Morse of Homestead Resources joins Jason Padgett and Oliver Belanger to talk about what that reality looks like for 1,500 families in Lafayette, Indiana, and what AI can actually do to help. Key topics covered : How federal fund...