Both the PASSING tool (manual) and the PASSING workshop are high quality resources that can help to make SRV theory concrete, practical and ‘implementable.’ For example, the PASSING tool (manual) includes 42 distinct ratings, and PASSING workshop teams typically study, review and assess each of these ratings one by one. This repeated study and practice within a workshop can inculcate a habit of evaluating human service practices from multiple angles, in terms of both image enhancement (27 ratings) and competency enhancement (15 ratings). This skill is more realistic than, for example, assessing services practices as an amorphous whole, or confusing a part of a service for the whole.
Thinking concretely about each specific rating can also help servers to think in terms of making incremental changes on a range of fronts, rather than becoming overwhelmed about where to start. What can we do (as an agency, program, etc.) about the imagery of the external setting? What can we do about the competency enhancement potential of the interactions between servers and served? And so on.
Another example: each PASSING rating is evaluated along a continuum from negative to positive, from level 1 to level 5. This structure reflects a more realistic mindset of how to assess the relevance and the potency of a particular service practice. What could be a little better, a little more relevant, a little more potent, a little more image enhancing, a little more competency enhancing, a little better at opening the door to the ‘good things of life’ …
Rather than getting stuck because a socially devalued group or individual does not have an ideal situation, SRV and PASSING teach servers to think about taking steps, big and small, to improve a devalued group or individual’s access to the ‘good things of life’ which a particular society has to offer.