We seek to provide action-oriented tools and guidance for our members, practitioners, and policymakers alike to promote and encourage best practices in our field. If you are looking for additional support, please contact
Jennifer Kerr, our Organizational Effectiveness (OE) Director.
Featured Resources
Human services agencies have been facing unprecedented shifts in practice as a result of the public health emergency and are balancing staff health and safety, implementation of new technology to facilitate virtual service delivery, and overall staff well-being. APHSA has worked through its full membership and with national experts to advance policy and practice that recognizes and supports the role of human services professionals as a part of the nation’s critical health and safety infrastructure. Here you will find a 5-part video compilation of on addressing workforce wellbeing during emergency response, into recovery, and beyond.
Toolkit for Supporting Young Families Through Human Services (December 2020) : Millions of children across America live with young parents ages 18-24. While maneuvering the joint responsibilities of early adulthood and parenthood, these young parents face an array of obstacles such as access to childcare, comprehensive health care, and quality housing options. Despite these challenges, young parents are uniquely motivated by their children, can be exceptionally resilient, and have the capability to navigate systems often designed without their experiences in mind.
APHSA is pleased to announce the newly released Toolkit for Supporting Young Families Through Human Services. This toolkit links to a multitude of resources to help health and human services leaders critically evaluate their programs to ensure young families’ success. Additionally, the toolkit includes two brand new resources:
Designing Better Programs for Young Parents & Families: Insights from The Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents & Families – This report, coauthor by Third Sector and APHSA, highlights lessons learned from phase one of the Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents and Families, focused on interagency collaboration and community engagement. For questions on the cohort or this report, please contact Joel Straker.
Funding Programs for Young Parents & Families – This APHSA brief provides a summary of potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to support programs specifically targeted towards young families. While this list is not exhaustive, it highlights major sources that can serve as a starting point for braiding and blending of funding to create comprehensive programming to serve young families.
Should you have any question regarding the toolkit or APHSA’s work in this area, please contact
Mary Nelson.
Human Services Value Curve: Human services is experiencing many of the same challenges that all modern systems face, including rapidly changing economic forces, social structure, demographics, communications, and technology. A key framework developed by Harvard’s Technology and Entrepreneurship Center’s Leadership for a Networked World is the Human Services Value Curve. This model, along with related tools APHSA has developed, is designed to provide a roadmap for improving human services outcomes. Read about our toolkit and access the various tools and templates we have successfully tested in helping systems advance through the Value Curve stages.
Earned Income Tax Credit and Child Tax Credit Information and Resource Hub for Health and Human Services Professionals: – This hub was created in 2021 to host information and resources on tax filing for health and human services agencies that serve families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The EITC is a tax credit available to workers and families with low- to moderate-incomes. The CTC provides financial support to families with children.
SNAP E&T Third-Party Partnerships Resource Clearinghouse: – The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) Third-Party Partnerships Resource Clearinghouse is a collection of resources for current and potential SNAP E&T third-party providers, state agency program staff, and state policymakers seeking information to develop and broaden organizational capacity in SNAP E&T programs.
Aligning for Young Families - The System Alignment for Young Families (SAYF) Project: – The System Alignment for Young Families (SAYF) Learning Community brought together six state and local teams made up of cross-programmatic leadership and parent leaders with lived experience. SAYF worked to map essential inroads to system alignment for young families accomplished in partnership with parents and families. The materials serve as resources that highlight the work done so far by our site teams and aid other jurisdictions in launching similar work.