What Our Readers Have Said
Nadia Duguay
Co-founder, Exeko, and CKX Fellow
“With The Trampoline Effect, Gord Tulloch and Sarah Schulman show us that, to get where we need to be, we have to start by deconstructing the equipment we used to build the very idea of the other—whether that idea is hidden in our interpersonal relationships, our structures, our ethical postures, our practices, or our policies. Rarely have I come across the perseverance, thoroughness, and intellectual honesty I witness as these authors iterate, dissect, analyze, convey, explore, hijack, dismantle, and weave new avenues to shape a world that has meaning only through the prism of equality.”
Lara De Sousa Penin
Co-founder, Parsons DESIS Lab, and author of Designing the Invisible
“This ground-breaking book is for everyone working in social and public interest services. The Trampoline Effect captures the essence of services as caring for others, and bravely addresses critical service tensions between the push for efficiency of systems and the need to recognize people with affection and respect as full individuals. Sarah Schulman and Gord Tulloch share the insider stories and deep engagements that inform their invaluable insights on how systems need to change to become more human. This is a book to be read, shared, and taught.”
Christian Bason
CEO, Danish Design Centre, and author of Leading Public Design: Discovering Human-Centred Governance
“The Trampoline Effect is a hugely personal book, deeply grounded in professional experience and pursuing the bold ambition of making social systems more human. It puts the reader into the lived experience of the people social services seek to help, and demonstrates convincingly why current theory and practice is failing. By suggesting twelve thoughtprovoking ‘stretches,’ Gord Tulloch and Sarah Schulman invite us to embrace the tensions inherent in the system, rather than shy away from them. The result is a major contribution to social work and the emerging field of social design.”
Alex Ryan
Senior vice president, partner solutions, MaRS Discovery District
“The Trampoline Effect is a deeply authentic, contextualized, inspiring, and pragmatic guide to reorienting social systems toward human flourishing. In their ambitious collaboration to humanize Canada’s disability system, Gord Tulloch and Sarah Schulman do not offer silver-bullet solutions. They offer something better: possibilities.”
David Dunne
Senior Lecturer Emeritus of Marketing and Co-Director of Rotman Teaching Effectiveness Centre
“Tulloch and Schulman’s clear, thoughtful prose traces the history of the social service sector and why it seems to have strayed from its caring mission. They propose a vision of care that goes beyond basic needs for physical subsistence, to encompass beauty and love: “we are all made of water, not stone”. Tulloch and Schulman have produced a book that, if it gets the attention it deserves, could transform the social sector, the lives of those who depend on it, and our society as a whole”
Darcy Riddell
BC program director, MakeWay
“Standing out from a sea of statistics in the social services, The Trampoline Effect tells a story that is both honest and hopeful. Part field guide and part reflection, it offers insight from the authors’ own innovation journey, illuminating not only the need for purpose and healing in those who experience social stigma, but also the same need in each of us. This book points to a new frontier of social services that is capable not only of keeping people safe, but also of feeding people’s souls.”
Zaid Hassan
Co-founder, Reos Partners, and author of The Social Labs Revolution
The Trampoline Effect is finely spun strategic gold forged in the red-hot heat of deep practical experience on the ground. Reading this book will make you wiser.
Aaron Johannes
Faculty member, Department of Child, Family and Community Studies, Douglas College
“Through a beautifully woven blanket of storytelling and data, The Trampoline Effect tells the journey of changemaking initiatives, the people involved in them, and the authors themselves as they rise to greet old challenges in new ways. I am sharing this book with the organizations I support, the schools I am working with, my students, my friends with disabilities, and my family—I want it to generate new conversations everywhere I go.”
Tim Draimin
Senior advisor, McConnell Foundation
In their excellent book, Gord Tulloch and Sarah Schulman offer a new way of thinking about needs, fulfillment, and community involvement. By distilling their insights from deep front-line social service experience into twelve accessible ‘stretches’ that can be used by anyone who is working to meet community needs, the authors give hopeful aspirations a very practical place to start.