Social Current, Author at Social Current

Through COA Accreditation, a service of Social Current, we seek to empower organizations to implement best practice standards to improve service delivery and achieve better outcomes for individuals and communities. COA Accreditation provides a framework to help organizations manage resources, incorporate best practices, and strive for continuous improvement.

We believe there is rich expertise in our field, so we ground the COA Accreditation process in our human and social services community. Our volunteer peer reviewers conduct our site visits and finalize accreditation decisions.

We are proud to spotlight the latest Volunteer of the Quarter: Shelley Huseman.

About Shelley Huseman

Shelley Huseman began her social service career in juvenile probation and corrections. After a difficult internship, however, she realized her calling was not with the probation department, but rather working with children and families. After the internship concluded, she accepted a position supervising visitation between parents and their children who were living in foster care.

While this work was more fulfilling to her, Shelley wanted more influence over outcomes. She became a child welfare specialist with a large agency and worked for several years assisting children, parents, and foster parents. Reunification was always desired when safe, and she worked diligently with parents to achieve this goal. Shortly after, Shelley was offered a supervisory position to assist other child welfare specialists in attaining reunification when possible.

Although graduate school was not on her radar, a degree was required for this supervisory role. As a new mother and full-time employee, Shelley went back to school to achieve her master’s in human services. She reflects on this time in her life saying, “while this was the most difficult time in my career, I would not change it.”

During this challenging time, Shelley attended a Family Focused Treatment Association (FFTA) Conference in Orlando, Fla., and it was there she became acquainted with COA Accreditation. She was inspired by the message and vision of COA Accreditation and knew she wanted to be a part of it.

After obtaining her master’s degree, she applied to become a peer reviewer and attended the training. She completed as many site visits as she could while working full time and became familiar with the standards for the social sector. Later, she was asked to become a team leader and commissioner and says, “it was an easy decision.”

She worked as a regional director with a state-wide agency until 2022, and she now serves as a public service administrator for the State of Illinois.

Q&A

What are your strongest beliefs about the value of COA Accreditation?

Every social service agency should be accredited with the highest possible standards, within a process that assists the agency and staff in becoming the best possible resource they can be.

What advice would you give someone interested in being a COA Accreditation volunteer?

Make sure you have the desire and ability to work with other professionals who are doing things differently than you. Remain open to learning different ways of addressing social services and embrace those differences. This is not an adversarial process and should never be entered into as one. We are here to assist agencies in providing the best possible services and it is our duty to provide the framework for them. Being a COA Accreditation peer reviewer is a very rewarding experience that allows the reviewer to learn and grow while providing a critical service to other professionals.

Share a memorable place, person, or experience from a site visit.

My most memorable experience on a site visit was when I got to meet and work with Social Current’s Director of Volunteer Engagement, Darrell Woodliff, for the first time. This experience even overshadows my visit to Hawaii, if you can believe that. I was instantly drawn to his kindness, knowledge, intensity, and humor. He gave me the standard of reviewer that I wanted to someday become, and I am still working on it 14 years later. I have had the pleasure of working with him since then and reach out to him often; he has never let me down.

What excites, surprises, and/or challenges you the most about the work you do as a COA Accreditation volunteer?

I love working with professionals from other agencies and states. I learn so much from each visit and utilize much of what I learn in my own management. I have also made many friends within the COA Accreditation peer team. I find it challenging when an agency does not agree with the standards. While this has only occurred on a few occasions, I believe in the standards COA Accreditation has established and know they assure the best possible practice from accredited agencies.

Learn more about how to become a peer review volunteer and apply online.

Reports highlight findings in multi-year effort to develop strategies to reduce child abuse and neglect.

WASHINGTON, DC – Child Safety Forward (CSF) today released the final evaluation report of its four-year demonstration initiative funded by the Department of Justice (DOJ) with technical assistance led by Social Current. CSF, which was launched in October 2019 by the DOJ’s Office for Victims of Crime, engaged five sites across the U.S. in the demonstration initiative, which included research, planning and implementation around strategies aimed at reducing child injury and fatality from abuse and neglect.

The CSF demonstration sites include: The Indiana Department of Health; St. Francis Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut; Cook County Health in Illinois; the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services; and the Sacramento County Child Abuse Prevention Council. Final reports from the sites are available here.

Through CSF, the five demonstration sites received technical assistance from a team of national experts to help plan and implement an all-systems approach to respond to and reduce child maltreatment fatalities and child crime victimization. Technical assistance focused on collecting and analyzing data using a safety science approach; developing strong community collaboratives; engaging persons with lived experience; developing and implementing a communications strategy; addressing systemic bias, racism, and issues of power; and using a developmental evaluation approach.

“Each of the strategies identified and implemented by the five sites were unique and specific to their communities,” commented Amy Templeman, director of Within Our Reach and senior director of child and family well-being at Social Current. “However, they all shared a common trait – they all pivoted away from an approach that only took into account risk factors and broadened their focus to protective factors, which is ultimately at the heart of a public health approach that engages voices of those with lived experience as experts in finding the solutions that will make all lives better.”

Demonstration sites conducted retrospective reviews of child fatality data and/or collected additional community-level and system-level data to inform their implementation plans. The following summarizes the key strategies and learnings from each site:

Cook County Health in Illinois: Cook County Health launched a collaborative that engaged representatives from children’s advocacy centers, youth and family services, hospitals, local and state government, local school districts, and family-serving nonprofits. The strategy was developed from a retrospective review and a needs assessment by Cook County Health with key actors in the child welfare system in Cook, Peoria, and Vermillion Counties. Findings revealed gaps in the child welfare system and highlighted the need for better coordination and collaboration around identifying and managing child abuse cases, improved parenting education, and greater access to prevention services. The resulting project strategies included the use of simulation training to improve skills of child welfare investigators and law enforcement; multidisciplinary team training around collaborative skills and improved decision making; the use of geospatial risk analysis mapping to identify neighborhoods for targeted planning of service implementation, participation in a safe sleep campaign; and the development of a parent education curriculum focused on protective factors.

Saint Francis Hospital and Medical Center in Hartford, Connecticut: The Hartford team launched a Parent Engagement Work Group, made up of individuals with lived experience with child- and family-serving systems. Challenges with accessing data from state agencies led them to focus on qualitative interviews with child protective agencies, law enforcement, educators, community members, impacted parents, and youth. They also used publicly available data about child fatalities. The resulting data revealed several issues with current practices, including a lack of trust by underserved communities of providers, especially of CPS, and their recommendations; cultural practices in the community that reflect global perspectives on child-rearing; and the punitive framing and lack of preventive supports, such as parenting classes and car seats. The resulting project strategies emphasized grassroots organizing to connect with parents, others with lived experience, and community groups to learn about the risks for child maltreatment. They also identified cultural strengths and protective factors in underserved populations and parent and community perceptions of both Child Protective Services (CPS), which led to the development of a new parent curriculum.

The Indiana Department of Health (IDOH): IDOH launched a five-year data retrospective of child deaths in the four counties that experienced the highest number of child fatalities in the state. They also conducted interviews with practitioners and families in the systems involved with child death, including child welfare, public health, education, criminal justice, and others to learn about barriers and enablers that relate to identification and prevention. Findings from this review highlighted the fact that 27% of child deaths were sleep-related infant deaths (SUIDs) and children of color were overrepresented in 38% of these deaths. This led to a focus on improving processes around the child fatality review (CFR) process, greater cross-system information sharing, policy changes, and development and implementation of improved data. Over the course of the initiative, IDOH was able to improve the quality of the CFR process, increase cross-system collaboration, and develop and launch a data-informed statewide infant safe sleep campaign. The impact of these changes has been significant, with a 60% decrease in SUID rates, a 28% decrease in child fatalities due to external injury, passage of two new state laws to reduce child fatalities, and more than 1.5 million views for the statewide infant safe sleep campaign videos.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS): In partnership with the Michigan Public Health Institute (MPHI), MDHHS utilized a broad and diverse advisory body comprised of nontraditional partners including those with lived experience to guide data inquiry and development of their initiative. Using this novel approach, the results of the data inquiry led to the conclusion that 20% of cases had been classified as Category III (evidence of child abuse or neglect but low risk of future harm to the child) and that more could be done to follow up with families to prevent a future fatality. A retrospective review of these cases revealed that support provided to families during Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations was varied and inconsistent. In response to this finding, the site’s strategies leveraged aspects of collective impact to improve strategic communication and build learning capacity and information-driven decision making with critical partners. Efforts focused on improving safety planning across the child welfare systems by building capacity to engage families and support immediate safety needs and expanding access to a Family Resource Center network across Michigan.

The Sacramento County Prevention Council in Sacramento, California: Sacramento County had an existing foundation for successful multisystem partnerships, and this served as a springboard for the CSF project. CSF helped grow the CSF Sacramento County Prevention Cabinet and developed strategies to support their overarching vision to eliminate child abuse and neglect deaths and critical injuries by 2030. The Prevention Cabinet leveraged the collective impact model for this collaborative, as well as partnership experiences from other projects and initiatives in Sacramento County. As a critical step in the work to more intentionally and authentically center community voice and share power, the community engagement subcommittee instituted the recruitment of community representatives to contribute to the work and add lived experience to the Cabinet. The Prevention Cabinet now consists of more than 30 cross-systems leaders that come from public systems, private nonprofits, and the community who are developing and implementing a strategic plan focused on systems change. In July 2023, the Sacramento Child Safety Forward team secured a grant from California Accountable Communities for Health Initiative (CACHI) to continue to support their work and share their findings with the field through December 2025.

Some of the key lessons learned and takeaways from the initiative include:

Importance of communications: Sustained communications strategies that widen the media’s reporting lens and shift traditional ways of thinking about child abuse and neglect are critical for achieving positive outcomes for children and families. Effective communications break down existing siloes and helps all system actors work together to unify their messaging and outreach efforts. Sustained communications are built on strong, collaborative relationships between agency leaders, funders, media, and community.

Access to better data: Across the country, data infrastructure to identify child fatalities and understand its causes is insufficient. While states collect relevant data, in many cases, information is broken up and isolated in different systems that don’t share it with other providers, creating gaps in our understanding of the challenges, potential solutions, and even the systems that work to address them. To reach a stronger child and family well-being system, we need a strong data culture, where all practitioners involved have a sense of stewardship of the data, and a shared accountability for collecting good data and using it in their decision making.

Use of Developmental Evaluation: Developmental evaluation is an evaluation approach that supports innovation and guides adaptation to emergent and dynamic realities in complex environments. Developmental evaluation was used in the CSF initiative as a method to help sites understand the landscape and context in which they were working, collect and make sense of data, and test possible approaches to address community needs and system gaps. As sites ran into barriers, the full technical assistance team offered tools to help reflect on what they were learning, shift their thinking, realign existing partners, and bring in new ones, and explore innovative approaches. This flexibility to learn and incorporate new partners was fundamental and served as a pathway to child safety through the approaches sites took, which were novel, responsive, and systems-focused.

Equity, Power Shifting, and Parent Engagement: While data shows that child fatality rates are disproportionately experienced by people of color, many of these deaths could be prevented by addressing unjust conditions rooted in systemic bias, racism, and intersectional inequities. Fostering a system that successfully promotes family and child well-being across populations requires eliminating the adversarial relationship between systems and parents that is largely attributed to inequitable power dynamics.

Parent engagement strategies often end up being transactional and unidirectional. To address this, we must unlearn, test new infrastructures and ways to building partnerships with parents, and relearn as a system how to effectively address the existing power imbalance that makes it difficult for the system and parents to be united in their commitment to keeping children safe and at home.

“Child Safety Forward’s ability to evolve over time is one of the keys to its success,” noted Stacy Phillips, Victim Justice Program Specialist with the Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) within the U.S. Department of Justice. “The technical assistance team worked to create a culture of learning around the many strategies developed by the sites and were able to support sites in building flexibility into their approach. OVC was proud to support this work and contribute toward an extensive community of learning across the field with regard to reducing child maltreatment and fatalities.”

About the Within Our Reach Office

Within Our Reach is an office established within Social Current to further the recommendations of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities. The goal of Within Our Reach is to equip policymakers, practitioners, and advocates with the tools they need to fundamentally reform child welfare. Based on the commission’s national strategy, desired reform includes a proactive public health approach—a shared family and community responsibility to keep children safe. Within Our Reach is made possible through collaboration with Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve, and prevent the need for foster care.  

Disclaimer: This product was supported by cooperative agreement number 2019-V3-GX-K005, awarded by the Office for Victims of Crime, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this product are those of the contributors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

On Thursday, the House of Representatives went on recess without passing a single funding bill—just 10 days before the federal government is scheduled to run out of money. Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) tried and failed twice last week to pass a defense spending bill, all with the hope of building momentum in the chamber to pass a short-term continuing resolution that would fund the entire government. His latest overture to the hard-right members of his caucus included an 8% reduction in domestic spending, more stringent immigration laws, and establishment of a fiscal commission to recommend changes to entitlement spending. His proposed spending level was $1.526 trillion, $64 billion less than what he agreed to with President Joe Biden earlier this year and a non-starter in the Democratic-controlled Senate.

Despite these concessions, members of the far-right scuttled the defense spending bill, sending the entire process into chaos. With time ticking toward the Sept. 30 deadline, it is unclear how Speaker McCarthy intends to pick up the pieces and avoid a disastrous government shutdown that, by some estimates, would cut GDP by 0.2 percentage points for each week in duration and could force the economy into a recession.

Democrats Introduce Bill to Save Child Care

On Sept. 13, leading Democrats in the Senate and House of Representatives introduced the Child Care Stabilization Act, which would fend off an impending catastrophe in the child care sector by funneling money to providers. The bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Patty Murray (D-Wash.) and Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) and Representative Kathryn Clark (D-Mass.), would dedicate $16 billion per year in mandatory funding for the next five years to child care providers, keeping the sector afloat after a series of tumultuous years during and after the pandemic. On Sept. 30, $24 billion in stabilization assistance, which has been a lifeline to the sector, is set to expire.
According to one analysis from The Century Foundation, if no additional funding is found, 70,000 child care programs would shutter, 3.2 million children would lose care, 232,000 workers would be out of jobs, and states would lose $10.6 billion in tax and business revenue. The Child Care Stabilization Act would continue this much-needed funding stream and ensure child care centers can provide high-quality and affordable child care.

HUD Announces New Awards to Tackle Youth Homelessness

On Sept. 20, The Department of Housing and Urban Development announced $60.3 million in awards for efforts to end youth homelessness in 16 communities. The program, called the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program, funds a variety of services depending on local needs, including rapid rehousing, host homes, and transitional housing. During the awards process, HUD engaged youth who had experienced homelessness, eliciting their feedback on applications.

Award recipients will use the funds to tackle their communities’ unique challenges, with a special focus on equitable approaches to disproportionately affected groups, including BIPOC, LGBTQIA+, and differently abled youth. Each community is required to create Youth Action Boards, which are led by youth with lived experience and strive to design and improve programs. In total, 110 communities have received $440 million through the Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program. In preparing this round of recipients, HUD worked closely with the Department of Health and Human Services, the Department of Education, and the U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness to support development of the program. YHDP is part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s All In initiative, which seeks to reduce homelessness by 25% by 2025.

New Initiative Focuses on TANF and Child Welfare Collaboration on Prevention

The Office of Family Assistance and the Children’s Bureau, within the Administration for Children and Families, announced a joint initiative called Families Are Stronger Together (FAST), which will create a new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) learning community built around collaboration between TANF and child welfare agencies, with a special focus on prevention. Because one of TANF’s goals is to ensure children are supported in their own home or in the home of relatives, TANF has a large role to play in providing economic assistance to struggling families. The learning community will develop new strategies for coordination between TANF and child welfare agencies that support families and prevent poor outcomes for children. Over the 12-month initiative, 10 teams made up of TANF and child welfare agencies from different states will work with coaches, attend in-person gatherings, and receive technical assistance.

Subscribe to the Policy and Advocacy Radar to receive our biweekly policy roundup, which includes commentary on issues in Social Current’s federal policy agenda, opportunities to take action, and curated news and opportunities.

On Aug. 30, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) proposed a new rule that will directly impact overtime pay policies in the social sector. The social sector must have a seat at the table as the Department considers implementing its changes.

The Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) mandates minimum wage and overtime pay for eligible employees. An exemption known as the “white-collar,” or executive, administrative, or professional (EAP) exemption exists for certain employees, which is subject to specific criteria set by the DOL.

The proposed changes to the EAP exemption include:

Setting the standard salary level at the thirty-fifth percentile of weekly earnings for full-time salaried workers in the lowest-wage Census Region, currently $1,059 per week.
Establishing the highly compensated employee (HCE) total annual compensation threshold at the eighty-fifth percentile of full-time salaried workers nationally, currently $143,988 annually.
Maintaining the simplified standard duties test while updating the salary level to account for earnings growth and recent rulemaking experiences.
Ensuring fewer lower-paid white-collar employees performing nonexempt work are exempt while retaining the exemption for many lower-paid, white-collar employees.
Increasing salary levels in U.S. territories, except for American Samoa.
Updating the special base rate for employees in the motion picture industry.

The proposed changes aim to better define who qualifies for the EAP exemption by aligning salary levels with contemporary wage data. These updates are based on the DOL’s commitment to regularly review and adjust salary thresholds to keep pace with changing wages.

The Department estimates these changes could affect 3.4 million employees who would gain overtime protection and 248,900 employees affected by the HCE total annual compensation increase. The estimated direct employer costs over the first ten years would be $664 million, with $1.3 billion in annualized income transfers from employers to employees.

The proposed adjustments to the EAP exemption aim to ensure it remains relevant and effective in distinguishing between exempt and nonexempt employees while considering economic impacts on employers and employees.

Here are relevant resources to better understand the new rule:

Please read these resources and learn how it would impact your organization.

The DOL has opened the new rule to public comment for 60 days. Social Current is seeking feedback from the network to inform our response, which we will submit to the DOL by the deadline on Halloween. We also encourage network organizations to submit their own comments.

Please get in touch with our Government Relations Team at babelle-kiser@social-current.org and dkiernan@social-current.org with questions or feedback on the rule.

You can also submit feedback through this form.

New Nonprofit Workforce Shortage Crisis Report from NCN

The National Council of Nonprofits recently released its annual report 2023 Nonprofit Workforce Survey Results: Communities Suffer as Nonprofit Workforce Shortage Crisis Continues. The report, based on 1,600 survey responses from all 50 states and the District of Columbia in April, paints a stark picture of the social sector struggling to recover from the pandemic. Nearly three quarters of respondents reported job vacancies in their organizations, with 75 percent of respondents citing vacancies in program and service delivery positions, and 41 percent in entry-level positions. Almost 52 percent said they have more vacancies than before the pandemic, and 28 percent said they have longer waiting lists for services. The main staffing challenges are related to salary competition and budget constraints. 72 percent of respondents cited competition with other sectors as a barrier to recruitment and retention, and two-thirds referred to budget constraints/insufficient funds as a significant issue. About half of respondents named stress and burnout as an obstacle. Ominously, over 70 percent of nonprofits expect less or the same level of charitable giving in 2023.

The survey also asked respondents to mention solutions to the staffing difficulties they are facing. Four policy solutions topped the list, including reform of government grants and contracts, implementation of charitable giving incentives, support for the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program, and funding for child care.

Possible Government Shutdown

With the deadline to pass the federal budget by Sept. 30 rapidly approaching, lawmakers in Congress are desperately trying to cobble together a continuing resolution that would avoid a debilitating government shutdown. Only three out of the twelve bills that constitute the federal budget are even close to passage in the Senate, and the House is nowhere near passing a single bill. Leaders on both sides of the aisle have agreed that a continuing resolution, which would fund the government at current levels for a short period of time, is necessary to buy time to reach a deal on the FY 2024 budget.

However, stark disagreements have emerged over supplemental funding for Ukraine and disaster aid many wish to see attached to the continuing resolution. The Senate supports President Joe Biden’s request for $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, but members of the House GOP are pressuring House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R- Calif.) to drop it. In response, McCarthy is considering exchanging Ukraine aid for stricter border policies on immigration and asylum that the Freedom Caucus supports. Theoretically, McCarthy has enough votes from House Democrats and moderate Republicans to pass a clean resolution; however, he has felt intense pressure from far-right caucus members to give in to their demands.

Ultimately, a government shutdown would be disastrous for the country, as job growth slows, interest rates rise, and policymakers work to avoid a recession.

HHS Proposes New Rule to Bolster Anti-Discrimination on the Basis of Disability

On Thursday, the Department of Health and Human Services proposed a rule that would strengthen anti-discrimination provisions for people with disabilities. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 prohibits discrimination on the basis of disability in access to health and human service programs that receive federal assistance. The rule would update and clarify Section 504 in light of the changing legal landscape of disability discrimination. It would prohibit medical professionals from using stereotypes and biases about individuals with disabilities, as well as judgments about their value and burden on others, as bases for making medical decisions. The proposal would also create enforceable standards for accessible medical equipment and require access to integrated, community-based settings when appropriate for people with disabilities. Finally, the rule clarifies non-discrimination provisions in the child welfare space, when it comes to areas, such as parent-child visitation, child removals and placements, as well as foster and adoptive parent assessment. The public has 60 days to register comments on the rule.

A recent study from Deloitte Research Center revealed workforce well-being has continued to decline since last year, leaving more employees feeling exhausted (52%), stressed (49%), and overwhelmed (43%). In fact, a significant percentage of employees say their job has negatively impacted their physical (33%), mental (40%), and social (21%) well-being.

“Executives have an opportunity to rewrite this story—for their employees, for their managers, and also for themselves. Work shouldn’t be the reason people feel exhausted, stressed, and isolated from friends and family,” notes this article about the study. “Employees should feel that they’re able to take time off and disconnect, and managers should feel capable of providing the support their team members need.”

Despite these alarming trends, the study also identifies solutions for supporting a healthy, thriving workforce:

Empower managers to support workforce well-being
Hold executives and the organization accountable
Embrace the broader movement of human sustainability

“Human sustainability” is defined by the study as the “creation of value for current and future workers and, more broadly, human beings and society.” According to Deloitte, 82% of employees report they would be more likely to take a job that is advancing human sustainability.

Though working in human services can be particularly challenging, organizations can tap into people’s desire to be connected to a greater societal purpose by keeping them connected with and engaged in their mission and impact.

How Social Current’s Work Aligns with Findings

Social Current’s workforce resilience approach is based on four core learning concepts that are deeply rooted in equity and brain science for long-term organizational impact. This approach works to enhance and embed human sustainability at the individual, organizational, and collective levels by:

Advancing Brain Science and Regulation

Deloitte’s study revealed a lack of capacity for workers, managers, and executives to accomplish their workloads while remaining accountable for their personal and organizational well-being. Social Current’s approach to workforce resilience uses brain science to offer tangible tools for increasing regulation, allowing for increased connection, accountability, and trust.

Building Psychological Safety

The practice of psychological safety is built into the workforce culture over time and requires leaders to respond to staff challenges by modeling authenticity, accountability, and compassion, creating space for sharing and listening. Deloitte’s study, however, revealed that although most managers (73%) believe they should be modeling healthy behavior, they do not feel empowered to do so (42%). Social Current’s experts provide guidance to empower organizational leaders to embrace and embody these concepts.

Prioritizing Positive Workplace Culture

This year, 60% of employees and 75% of executives were considering quitting their current jobs in search of better well-being outcomes. Resilience at work is highly dependent on a positive culture that reflects the organization’s stated values and beliefs. Social Current’s approach makes culture a priority to prevent and mitigate workforce concerns such as secondary traumatic stress and burnout.

Increasing Connection

Nearly a third of employees reported feeling like their manager did not care about their well-being in Deloitte’s study, and only 35% of managers reported being open about their well-being with their employees. We are hardwired for connection, and an organization is more likely to thrive when employees feel connected. Social Current’s approach models practices, such as frequent check-ins, peer mentors, normalizing discussions around mental health and EDI, and finding shared purpose to build meaningful connection.

If you are ready to take accountability for your organization’s workforce well-being, contact us to learn more about next steps, or register for our upcoming four-part “Building a Resilient Workforce” webinar series.

On Tuesday, the Biden administration began accepting applications for a new student debt program called SAVE (Saving on a Valuable Education). This income-driven repayment plan will determine monthly payments based on income and family size, rather than loan balance. The administration says that many eligible borrowers will pay nothing in monthly payments, while others will save about $1,000 per year. These individuals will pay about 5% of their discretionary income, down from 10% previously. This low-income repayment plan comes after numerous recent setbacks for the administration in their work on student debt relief. As part of the budget deal with House Republicans earlier this year, the administration agreed to end the pandemic-era pause on student loan payments by Oct. 1. Furthermore, the Supreme Court shot down the administration’s far-ranging student debt relief plan earlier this summer. The SAVE program is another attempt by the Biden administration to help borrowers in need. According to the administration, it has cancelled $116 billion in student loan debt held by 3.4 million Americans.

Federal Budget Negotiations Roll On

This week, Speaker Kevin McCarthy told House Republicans that Congress will likely need to pass a stopgap bill, also known as a continuing resolution. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer confirmed Wednesday that he and McCarthy had recently agreed to pursue the resolution, a short-term government funding bill that could help Congress avoid a shutdown. When members of Congress return in September from their month-long August recess, there will be just a few weeks left to decide on spending bills if no resolution is passed. The continuing resolution would keep the government funded past the Sept. 30 deadline, giving the Democrat-led Senate and the Republican-led House more time to decide on the 12 spending bills that constitute the federal budget.

Congress must resort to a continuing resolution even though President Biden and Speaker McCarthy agreed earlier this year to a budget deal that would fund the government for an entire fiscal year. Since then, House Republicans proposed a budget that is $100 billion less than the brokered deal, while the Senate proposed spending $13 billion more. Leaders of both parties are urging their caucuses to drop unrealistic provisions and come to a compromise. Congress will hopefully overcome this impasse by the expiration of the continuing resolution, perhaps around Christmas. Social Current will continue to monitor the negotiation process and advocate for appropriations that are of vital interest to the social sector.

HHS Announces New Funding for Mental Health

On Aug. 23, the Department of Health and Human Services dispersed over $64 million in funding to help communities deal with the national mental health crisis. $59.4 million was made available as part of the $250 million for FY 2022-2025 in the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which Congress and President Biden signed into law last year. Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra said, “With these critical investments, states and territories will be able to continue to serve as an invaluable safety net for mental health services for some of the nation’s most vulnerable populations, including those impacted by gun violence, disasters, and other emergencies.” The remaining $5 million in awards will support Mental Health Awareness Training grants, which provides training for individuals and communities in responding appropriately to people with mental health challenges. These grants will help first responders, teachers, and others care for people with mental health or substance use challenges and refer them to appropriate service providers.

HHS Reports Inflation Reduction Act Reduces Health Care Costs

The Department of Health and Human Services announced that, with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) on Aug. 16, 2022, millions of consumers are already spending less on health care. The IRA extended subsidies for health insurance purchased on HealthCare.gov and state-based marketplaces, which led to a record enrollment of 16.4 million people during the 2023 open enrollment period. Of all signups, 90% are receiving subsidies toward their monthly premiums. The IRA also made significant changes to Medicare. Monthly insulin payments are capped at $35, saving 1.5 million seniors an average of $500 per year compared to costs in 2020. Also, more vaccines are available cost-free, including shingles, and hepatitis A and B. Finally, the IRA will implement a new out-of-pocket cap on prescription drugs in 2024, which will drop to $2,000 annually in 2025, saving almost $400 per year for more than 18.7 enrollees in Medicare Part D.

Social Current announced today that Arabella Pérez, DSW, MSW has joined the organization as Chief Operating Officer. Social Current is a network of more than 1,800 human/social service organizations and partners that work to support, elevate, and expand the work of the social sector through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence.

Dr. Pérez is a licensed clinical social worker of 30 years and former board member of Social Current and the Council on Accreditation (COA). Prior to joining Social Current, Dr. Pérez was the vice president of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) for the National Association of Social Work and a social work professor at the University of New England. From 2005-2015, she served as a system of care director, leading three grant projects for the state of Maine funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). She is the founder and former chief executive officer of THRIVE, a nonprofit, technical assistance center for trauma- and culturally informed care. Additionally, she is a graduate of the Hanley Leadership Program and was named a teaching scholar on justice, diversity, equity, and inclusion for the Maine Educational System.

Dr. Pérez is a certified cultural competency educator and has consulted with states and communities on the development of behavioral health systems through federal site monitoring and coaching for SAMHSA. Her private consultation practice has focused on leadership and trauma-informed organizational change management in the private and not for profit sectors. She is a sought-out presenter and has published on the topic of trauma-informed care and culturally empowering education. She received her MSW and DSW from Tulane University.

“Dr. Pérez brings a passion for our mission and a demonstrated track record of social sector excellence to her work at Social Current as our inaugural COO,” commented Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “Her efforts to promote systemic change and experience providing technical assistance in equity, diversity, and inclusion and trauma-informed care aligns perfectly with our mission and vision to ignite change for an equitable society where all people can thrive.” “I am excited to join an organization of people who are committed to making positive and lasting impacts in our communities,” commented Dr. Pérez. “I look forward to working together with the staff and management team at Social Current to tackle major social issues and to work collaboratively across the social sector with our many partners and colleagues.”

The Biden administration has begun publicly pressuring states to reevaluate internal processes that are leading to massive decreases in health care coverage across the country. In April, states started to make determinations about whether beneficiaries enrolled in Medicaid during the pandemic could stay in the program – a process known as Medicaid unwinding. According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, almost 4.3 million people have lost Medicaid coverage since April, and 74% of disenrollments occurred for procedural reasons, like failure to fill out paperwork in a specific timeframe, rather than ineligibility based on income. There are widespread concerns that many beneficiaries abandon attempts to re-enroll due to long wait times at call centers, language barriers, and arduous bureaucratic processes that states force them to go through. Last week the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) sent letters to states asking them to address procedural challenges that are stopping eligible people from continuing coverage. The letters recommended states make call center enhancements, use non-English language materials, and opt for automatic over manual renewals. CMS also urged states to implement ex parte renewals, which draw data from sources like the Internal Revenue Service, Social Security, and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to confirm income eligibility, rather than waiting for paperwork from beneficiaries.

FDA Approves Pill to Treat Postpartum Depression

On August 4, the Food and Drug Administration approved the first pill meant specifically to treat postpartum depression. The pill, Zurzuvae, is taken once daily for 14 days to treat severe depression following pregnancy, a condition that affects about 1 in 7 new mothers. The pill could be commercially available as soon as October and appears to provide more immediate relief than antidepressants. While the cost is not yet known, experts call it a “hopeful step forward” in making treatment more accessible. Currently, the only other FDA-approved treatment on the market is a $34,000 IV treatment.

Treating postpartum depression can prevent child fatalities and advance child safety and development. Social Current’s efforts to improve child welfare, such as the establishment of the Within Our Reach office, reflect the importance of parental mental health treatment in promoting child safety. This includes recommendations for postpartum depression screening to be conducted at pediatric appointments, a practice that could now lead to mothers being diagnosed and offered a more accessible treatment if Zurzuvae proves to be successful.

President Biden Touts Value of CCBHCs

In recent weeks, President Biden has been boosting mental health care. After proposing new rules that would reinforce the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and ensure equal access to both mental and medical benefits, the president addressed the role that Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinics (CCBHCs) play in eliminating barriers to mental health care. In remarks from the White House, Biden said, “These clinics provide a range of services, including crisis support available 24 hours a day and seven days a week, and they serve anyone who needs care, regardless of ability to pay.” In the six years since the first CCBHC opened, over 500 others have sprouted up across the country, offering access to mental health care for low-income communities. CCBHCS work in tandem with the new Crisis and Suicide Lifeline, immediately connecting people in crisis to care. In addition to the impact of health and well-being, CCBHCs led to the creation of 11,000 new behavioral health jobs across the country.

DOE Audit Finds Room for Improvement in Charter School Grant Oversight

An audit released on Aug. 3, entitled “The U.S. Department of Education’s Processes for Overseeing Charter Schools Program Grants to Charter Management Organizations for the Replication and Expansion of High-Quality Charter Schools,” aimed to assess whether the U.S. Department of Education supervised grants in such a way as to ensure accurate annual performance reports and program spending in line with grant requirements. The Department and the Charter School Programs (CSP) office had designed processes to ensure accurate grantee reporting and proper fund utilization. Generally, these processes were followed, but there were shortcomings. For example, the CSP office failed at times to comprehensively fill out Academic Performance Review (APR) forms or communicate concerns with grantees, leading to less than reliable data. The CSP office also lacked proper record-keeping, resulting in the inability to locate a significant number of APRs.

The audit recommends that the Assistant Secretary for Elementary and Secondary Education take several actions:

Monitor CSP program officers to ensure accurate completion of APR review templates and effective communication with grantees about issues.
Implement procedures to complete corrective action plans, detailing recommended actions and their implementation by grantees.
Establish a system for retaining records that demonstrate grantee compliance with corrective actions for fund usage issues.

Social Current’s Strategic Industry Partners offer specialized products or services to benefit our network. We are proud to spotlight our Gold Strategic Industry Partner Your Part-Time Controller. (YPTC).

For over 30 years, YPTC helps to build stronger nonprofits. With over 1,400 nonprofit clients from coast to coast, YPTC assists with their financial management needs—from internal, grant, and board reporting, to forecasting, budgeting, and cash flow management, and from bookkeeping and monthly financial statements to the development of customized dashboards.

How YPTC’s Services Benefit the Social Sector

At YPTC, they help to build stronger nonprofits, one accounting department at a time. They provide the accounting and financial management services that help chief executives and board members in the social services sector determine how effectively and efficiently their organization is accomplishing its mission and provide them with the timely, accurate information needed for decision making.

YPTC Services

Accounting and month-end close
Financial reporting
Analysis and recommendations
Data visualization
Scenario planning and cash flow forecasting
Board meeting attendance and training
Policies and procedures
Forecasting
Budgeting
Grant proposals and ad hoc reports
Grant management
Audit turnaround
Federal awards grant writing and tracking

Why YPTC Partners with Social Current

“YPTC works with many types of social service organizations, whose missions are important to the communities in which we serve, and to our staff who serve them,” said YPTC Manager Sandra Magri. “Social Current works to strengthen the social services sector. YPTC partnering with Social Current makes perfect sense!”

Free Webinar from YPTC: Budget Essentials for Everyone

Ensure your organization is ready for budget season. Invite your program directors and department heads to join YPTC to see the their free webinar Budgeting for Impact: Nonprofit Budget Essentials.

Visit the YPTC website for news, webinars, and resources and to work with them.

Meet YPTC in person at SPARK 2023, Oct. 16-17 in Bethesda, Maryland.

To learn more about partnering with Social Current, please email us.

Last Wednesday, the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs marked up the Streamlining Federal Grants Act of 2023, which was introduced by Sens. Gary Peters (D-Mich.), James Lankford (R-Okla.), and John Cornyn (R-Texas) on July 17. In his introductory remarks, Sen. Peters thanked Sens. Lankford and Cornyn for their hard work on the bipartisan bill. He lauded the bill’s potential to help nonprofits apply for and manage grants, reduce government waste, and promote language access. After a series of amendments were introduced and voted down, the bill passed out of committee, clearing the way for a vote before the entire Senate in the months to come.

Social Current has been a strong and outspoken champion of the bill, which would simplify the grant application process for the social sector, particularly nonprofits, which face the most challenges in applying for grants. After the bill’s introduction, Social Current President and CEO Jody Levison-Johnson said:

“I am thrilled to see the introduction of the Streamlining Federal Grants Act of 2023 in the Senate, which reflects in part the Relief4Charities policy asks to strengthen and support the nonprofit sector. This legislation will greatly improve access to federal grants for underserved communities and streamline the application process.”

The bill would create a Grants Council with representatives from all federal grantmaking agencies, which would guide reforming complex and outdated procedures. Proposed reforms include everything from streamlining the application, administrative, and reporting processes to enhancing user experiences and soliciting grantee feedback. The legislation also requires federal agencies to seek input from non-federal agencies, including nonprofits, in the development and implementation of their agency plans. Finally, funding opportunities will be required to provide short, clear, and accessible summaries, so that potential applicants can readily understand them.

Social Current will continue to advocate for the passage of the Streamlining Federal Grants Act of 2023 and to keep the network updated on its progress through congressional negotiations.

Learn more about the legislation’s provisions that benefit charitable nonprofits in this one-pager from Social Current and the National Council of Nonprofits.

Institutions for Mental Disease (IMD) Compromise Passes the Energy and Commerce Committee

On July 19, the House Energy and Commerce Committee voted unanimously to pass H.R. 4531, the Support for Patients and Communities Reauthorization Act. The bill included a compromised version of H.R. 4056, the Ensuring Medicaid Continuity for Children in Foster Care Act, which would grant federal Medicaid coverage to children in foster care receiving treatment from Qualified Residential Treatment Programs (QRTPs) classified as Institutions for Mental Disease (IMDs).

A QRTP is typically classified as an IMD if it has over 16 beds. Currently, states cannot receive federal Medicaid payments for services provided to individuals in an IMD setting. This means that while a Medicaid-eligible child in an IMD does not lose their Medicaid benefits, states must bear the total cost. The classification of large QRTPs as IMDs aims to discourage congregate care for foster children and encourage states to increase the use of family and foster family care, which has been shown to have significantly better outcomes for children.

H.R. 4056 aimed to remove this IMD exclusion for children in foster care and allow states to draw from federal Medicaid funds to pay for their treatment while in a QRTP, regardless of whether it is classified as an IMD. The compromise, Sec. 304, would permanently lift the IMD exclusion for substance use disorder and permit QRTPs to bill Medicaid for health care services outside these facilities’ walls. Essentially, the compromise allows QRTPs to bill Medicaid for the treatment a child receives elsewhere, such as doctor appointments, but still does not allow a QRTP to use federal Medicaid funds to pay for in-house treatment provided by the QRTP. While Reps. Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.) and Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), sponsors of H.R. 4056, both made it clear that they do not believe this compromise goes far enough to support QRTPs, they described the move as a step forward.

HHS Proposes New Rules to Achieve Parity for Mental Health Care

On July 25, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed new rules to ensure people seeking coverage for mental health care and substance abuse disorder can access these services as quickly and affordably as people can access coverage for medical treatments. The Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act was enacted in 2008 and built on the Mental Health Parity Act of 1996 to lessen the barriers faced by those seeking mental health care. However, these barriers still exist 15 years later. To combat illegal restrictions on mental health and substance abuse treatment benefits, the U.S. Department of Health and Human proposes that plans and issuers make NQTL (Non-Quantitative Treatment Limitations) comparative analyses available to the Department of Treasury, the Department of Labor, the Department of Human Services, and eventually to Congress. If enacted, these new rules would be added to the Mental Health Parity and Addiction Equity Act and ensure plans and issuers are not putting unnecessary barriers in the way of receiving coverage for mental health care.

Family First Prevention Services Clearinghouse Posts New Ratings

The Family First Prevention Clearinghouse has posted new ratings for nine prevention services. Seven were found to be “promising,” and two were rated as “does not currently meet criteria.” The programs included mental health and in-home parent skill-based services. So far, 148 programs and services have been reviewed, and 76 have been rated as promising, supported, or well-supported. The new ratings are:

Attachment-Based Family Therapy: “Promising”
Child-Centered Group Play Therapy (Re-review): “Promising”
Child-Parent Relationship Therapy (Re-review): “Promising”
Narrative Exposure Therapy: “Promising”
Smart Beginnings: “Promising”
Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Adolescents: “Promising”
Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Middle Childhood: “Does not currently meet criteria.”
Treatment Foster Care Oregon for Preschoolers: “Does not currently meet criteria.”
Video Interaction Project: “Promising”

Proclamation Will Establish Monuments to Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley

Last week, on what would have been Emmett Till’s 82nd birthday, President Joe Biden signed a proclamation to establish a monument honoring Till and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley. The racially motivated murder of 14-year-old Till and the subsequent activism of his mother played key roles in the civil rights movement.

The monument, the fourth national monument designated by the Biden administration, will span three sites in Illinois and Mississippi that hold historical importance. The first site will be in Graball Landing, Mississippi, where Till’s body was discovered in the Tallahatchie River. The second site will be Roberts Temple Church of God in Christ in Chicago’s Bronzeville neighborhood, where Till-Mobley held her son’s open-casket funeral. The monument’s third site will be the Tallahatchie County Second District Courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi, where an all-white jury acquitted Till’s killers.

In his remarks at the proclamation signing ceremony, Biden raised the importance of understanding our country’s history of racism as a means for moving toward social justice and rejected moves, such as those in Florida, to erase and twist it.

Biden noted, “At a time when there are those who seek to ban books, bury history, we’re making it clear — crystal, crystal clear — while darkness and denialism can hide much, they erase nothing. They can hide, but they erase nothing.”