The Catalyst | APHSA Blog

Welcome to the APHSA blog! The Catalyst encourages the exchange of creative ideas and promising initiatives to strengthen the human services sector and accelerate our collective impact.

Featuring content from members, partners, and staff, our blog posts focus on what it takes to build well-being from the ground up. Organized around areas of impact as well as a variety of special series, our goal is to spark new ideas and accelerate the spread of promising approaches that help realize our shared vision for thriving communities built on human potential.

Improving Economic Mobility for Older Workers Through SNAP E&T

Andrew Schramm, 03/28/2024

Latest Releases

How Leaders Establish a Culture of Well-Being

Lofaine Bradford, 03/08/2024

Black History: Past, Present, and Future

Natalie Willams, 02/13/2024

A Guide to Co-Creating with People with Lived Experience

Lofaine Bradford, 02/07/2024

Understanding and Enhancing Our Ability to Reduce Food Insecurity

Jeri Culley, 01/26/2024

3 Lessons States Can Learn From Medicaid Unwinding: Self-service, Automation, and Integrated Eligibility

Walt Sedlazek, 01/19/2024

Celebrating the Vision of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

Natalie Willams, 01/12/2024

Making Connections to Advance Environmental Justice: #WhatEJMeansToMe

Alex Clermont, 01/05/2024

Nurturing Childhood Success Through Food Access: Improving SNAP Access to Benefit Students and Schools

Chloe Eberhardt, 12/22/2023

A Reflection on Case Work: Leveraging Virtual Reality Learning for Effective Behavioral Change in Child Welfare

12/12/2023

Reimagining Child Welfare: How Purpose-built Technology Can Help a National Caseworker Crisis

11/17/2023

Co-creating Solutions: Community Engagement as a Strategy for CBO Success

11/08/2023

What Farmers Markets Mean to Me, My Family, and My Community—The Farm Bill Series Part 4

Available in English and Spanish
Zurisaday (Zuri) Robbins Briz, 10/24/2023

The Need for a Human-Centered Approach: New Report Links Expanded Benefit Access to Increase in Online Enrollment

Walt Sedlazek, 09/27/2023

The Critical Role of SNAP for College Students: Spotlight on University of California, Irvine

Sandra Cuyuch, 09/13/2023

Maintaining Social Infrastructure in The Face of A Changing Climate: #WhatEJMeansToMe

Alex Clermont, 08/28/2023

Outlining the Interconnections of Environmental Justice and Racial Equity for Human Services

Molly Pifko, 08/24/2023

Announcing THRIVE: The New APHSA Learning Management System

07/25/2023

The Power of Social Capital in Advancing Family Economic Mobility

Romuald Lenou Tassigne and Mary Goble, 07/21/2023

Meeting Modern Workforce Needs: A Discussion with OE

06/22/2023

Providing Modern Support for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Programs

Andrea Danes, 06/16/2023

Thinking Outside the Box: MAHUBE-OTWA’s SNAP E&T Partnership Journey

Steph Smith, 05/26/2023

Reflections from a Reentry Journey, Part 2 of The Farm Bill Series, Making the Sauce

Quiana Brifu, 05/19/2023

Advancing Promising Practices to Support Transportation Needs of Families in TANF

Romuald Lenou Tassigne, 03/31/2023

Strengthening Performance, Capacity, and Impact: An Introduction to the APHSA Organizational Effectiveness Practice

03/24/2023

Modernizing Technology for Change (Part 3): Technology-Enabled Change

APHSA, 03/17/2023

SNAP Agency Priorities for Program Success

Linda Schroeder, 03/07/2023

Modernizing Technology for Change: Solving Modern Program Needs with Enabling Technology

APHSA, 03/03/2023

Modernizing Technology for Change: Leadership and a Shared Vision

APHSA, 02/17/2023

2022 TANF Modernization Series

TANF Agencies' Critique and Aspirations for the Future

Babette Roberts, 04/08/2022

A Tangible Illustration of the Promise of TANF

Justin Brown, 05/26/2022

Seven Ways to Improve TANF and Help Families Advance

Susannah Rodrigue, Matt Lyons, and Mary Nelson, 08/22/2022

Uncovering the Evidence for TANF Innovation and Modernization

Romuald Tassigne, 10/19/2022

Joining Families on Their Journey

Erin Oalican, 11/18/2022

Posts by Impact Area, Series & Year

Productive National Narrative

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Promoting productive narratives that facilitate finding common ground and advancing locally adaptable solutions centered on the whole family.

Modern Human Services Policy

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Advancing policy at federal, state, and local levels that is human-centered; rooted in the context of what it takes to be healthy and well in a community; and focuses on achieving social and economic mobility across generations.

Evidence-Informed Investments

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Supporting a culture of evidence in human service organizations and generating opportunities for building and spreading services that have been shown to work.

Data
Optimization

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Integrating and leveraging data while building the analytical capacity of human service agencies to inform sound policy and practice.

Agile Human Services Workforce

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Focused on the critical role of the workforce and enhancing the well-being and overall capacity of workers at all levels to deliver on the agency’s mission.

Healthier Ecosystem

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Creating thriving communities by understanding the enabling conditions for social and economic mobility through the lens of social determinants of health; whole family and multi-generation approaches; and Value Curve progression.

COVID-19 Pandemic

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As we continue navigating the uncharted waters of the COVID-19 pandemic, we will use this special section of our blog to highlight relevant topics.

#WhatEJMeansToMe Series

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A multi-part blog that looks at environmental justice.

2023 Farm Bill Series

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A multi-part blog that looks at the impacts of the 2023 Farm Bill.

Organizational Effectiveness Series

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Topics written and shared by APHSA's Organizational Effectiveness (OE) Team.

TANF Modernization Series

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A cutting-edge blog series getting to the core of modern TANF reform.

American Rescue Plan Series

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A multi-part blog that looks at the American Rescue Plan and discusses how to leverage it to strengthen the resiliency of our public human services infrastructure and substantially move the needle on social and economic mobility for long-term family success.