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February 2017
Policy&Practice
3
president‘s
memo
By Tracy Wareing Evans
T
he theme of this issue—leading change—is the
perfect place to set the stage for health and human
services in 2017. It illustrates the importance that leaders
at all levels of government and across the public and
private sectors have in advancing systemmodernization
and helping achieve the outcomes we want for all children
and families. As appointees of the new federal administra-
tion take office and the 115th Congress begins its work,
we are pleased to share our members’ report, “Creating
a Modern and Responsive Health and Human Services
System,”
1
which sets forth howwe can work together
and partner with federal policymakers to modernize and
strengthen the nation’s health and human services system.
We've highlighted our members’ core principles and
some of the key accelerators of change below. We hope
you will read the complete report and stand with us in
our commitment to develop new and innovative service
models that are evidence informed and accountable to
families, to our communities, and to the nation.
We Believe
All of us should have the opportunity to live healthy
lives and be well regardless of where we live, what our
histories are, or what our life experiences have been.
The Opportunity
We believe that the time is ripe for significant leaps
forward to create a modern, nimble health and human
services system that leads to stronger, healthier families
and communities.
Our Approach
We must evolve our health and human services system
from the traditional “regulative model” rooted in compli-
ance and programmatic outputs, to a “generative approach”
that works seamlessly across sectors and engages whole
communities in addressing the multidimensional socioeco-
nomic issues that individuals and families face.
We have developed guiding principles for this system
change that are captured in our members’
Pathways
2
initiative
and are utilizing a tool for charting progress—the Human
Services Value Curve (see
The Value Curve Gone Viral
, page 8).
We believe that in order to drive this change, there must
be four major outcome areas that require leveraging inte-
grated policy and fiscal levers:
Child and family well-being
Employment and economic well-being
Improved population health
Tools we need to be successful
Our Federal Partners
Modernization of the health and human services system
requires that, together, we identify the enablers and barriers
to drive better outcomes and generate an adaptable, nimble
ecosystem that can catalyze our collective efforts.
In order to
accelerate change, we need our federal
partners to provide leadership to:
Modernize and Reauthorize:
Employment, child well-being, and nutrition programs,
such as TANF and SNAP, to meet the real world
Creating Modern, Responsive Health and Human Services in 2017
See President’s Memo on page 30
Photo illustration by Chris Campbell
Leveraging
Integrated
Policy Levers
Maximizing
Modern
Platforms
Creating
Space for
Innovation
Investing
in Outcomes
Applying
Science
Partnering
for Impact