A National Imperative: Joining Forces to Strengthen Human Services in America (Jan 2018)

like they do,” says Caroline McAllister, the head of the County DHS. “I wish we could do more. There are dozens of different programs and initiatives I’d love to fund with every dollar that passes through my door. But we have to make sure that the most essential needs of our clients are met, and that the most essential programs receive our support.” This pressure isn’t likely to go away. The need for services across the County has been increasing, and this need is only expected to increase in the future. Over the next 30 years, the population of adults ages 65 and older will double. Many of these adults will require transportation services and other forms of aging services and care in order to be safe and healthy. The rate of poverty in Freedom County has stubbornly hovered around 15%, and with the overall population experiencing growth, the number of residents experiencing poverty is also increasing. As rising income inequality squeezes the middle class, so does the American promise of economic opportunity and upward mobility. Behavioral health disorders are as prevalent as ever, and Freedom County joins much of the United States in being hard-hit by the ongoing opioid epidemic, seeing massive spikes in addiction rates and overdoses. At the same time, Freedom County’s human services ecosystem is stretched very thin. Government funding dramatically declined during the Great Recession and never quite bounced back. On average, for every $1 spent to provide critical services, human services CBOs are compensated for only 75¢ from DHS – and that’s without taking into account costs from general operating activities and investments in capacity and innovation. (Regulations, however, continue to pile up, introducing even more costs to the equation.) Private funders help to fill some of the funding gap, but they have also become more exacting in recent years – stipulating that funds must be used exclusively for direct services or that human services CBOs must rigorously evaluate the success of their programs and realize a “return on investment.” Without adequate funding to cover the costs of providing services, human services CBOs are unable to invest appropriately in their own operational strength. They cannot invest in technology to unlock operational efficiencies and determine more effective ways of providing services. They cannot afford to pay competitive salaries and attract strong talent. They cannot take risks, experiment, and innovate to find better and smarter ways of improving the lives of so many in Freedom County. Many human services CBOs in Freedom County are skating on very thin ice. More than 1 in 10 are insolvent, with liabilities exceeding assets. Nearly half do not have enough cash on hand to cover one month’s worth of operating expenses. And just as there is little funding available to build reserves and capital cushions, few human services CBOs have the resources to create and

14 |   A NATIONAL IMPERATIVE