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.

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

Steph Smith, 05/26/2023

Latest Releases

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

Belonging Is More Than a Buzzword: Deepening Our Commitment to Racial Healing and Belonging

Natalie Williams, 01/17/2023

Providing Data to Advance Racial Wealth Equity

Natalie Evans Harris, 01/12/2023

A Vision for Young Families: Introducing the System Alignment for Young Families Project

Lofaine Bradford, 01/06/2023

How Can Data Stop Homelessness Before It Starts?

Andrea Danes, 11/17/2022

Trauma-Informed Care: What Problem Are We Trying to Solve?

Molly Tierney, 10/14/2022

Pregnancy and Poverty: Forging a Path Forward for Families

Madison Doser, 09/26/2022

Gearing Up for the 2023 Farm Bill: Lessons Learned from SNAP Policy Planning Sessions with Health and Human Services Leaders

Michelle Fausto, 09/22/2022

Tackling Turnover: How Agencies Are Supporting and Sustaining Their Workforce

Laura Haffield, 08/31/2022

One Mental Health Hotline: How is Your State Addressing the 988 Mandate?

Pawel Walczuk, 08/11/2022

Child Care Reform: An Essential for Economic Recovery

Meg Dygert, 08/01/2022

Shifting Structural Power to Advance Race Equity—Part 3

Tracy Wareing Evans, 07/15/2022

Shifting Structural Power to Advance Race Equity—Part 2

Tracy Wareing Evans, 06/03/2022

Shifting Structural Power to Advance Race Equity—Part 1

Tracy Wareing Evans, 05/13/2022

Joining Forces Across the Atlantic to Celebrate World Social Work Day

Alfonso Lara Montero and Tracy Wareing Evans, 03/15/2022

2022 Action Plan: A Commitment to Outcomes

Tracy Wareing Evans, 02/17/2022

2022 TANF Modernization Series

Joining Families on Their Journey

Erin Oalican, 11/18/2022

Uncovering the Evidence for TANF Innovation and Modernization

Romuald Tassigne, 10/19/2022

Seven Ways to Improve TANF and Help Families Advance

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

A Tangible Illustration of the Promise of TANF

Justin Brown, 05/26/2022

TANF Agencies' Critique and Aspirations for the Future

Babette Roberts, 04/08/2022

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.

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.