The Child Welfare League of America publishes a bimonthly issue of Children’s Voice, a magazine that features a wide array of topics that encourage public discussion and debate among those who are committed to helping children and families. In their first issue of 2023, Social Current leaders were among those voices in two different feature articles:

Read both articles and consider purchasing the rest of the Children’s Voice issue to learn from what others are doing in the sector.

By: Jody Levison-Johnson and Amy Templeman

All families need help sometimes, and to deliver that help, we must understand the external conditions that impact their lives. The human and social services sector is at the forefront of an evolutionary change, one that aims to realign social services to be more preventative with greater upstream resources that focus more directly on addressing the social determinants of health (SDoH) to achieve better outcomes.

While we have increased our understanding of the importance of addressing external conditions, including social and economic opportunities, access to community-based resources and supports, greater health equity and more, our nation’s investment in place-based supports has not kept pace.

For example, the COVID-19 pandemic has shed a harsh light on the public health disparities in our nation. Communities of color are more at risk of getting sick and dying from COVID-19 (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2022), demonstrating that ZIP codes are still the top determinant of how we live, work, and play (Ducharme & Wolfson, 2019). The opportunities lie in examining the discriminatory practices that undermine well-being so that systems can better address root causes.

The potential to improve health outcomes and more fully address SDoH through greater investments in human services could transform a range of systems, including health, education, welfare, and criminal justice systems and ultimately result in greater well-being for all families.

To achieve this will require a tremendous shift in resources, both at the federal funding level to redirect funding to more front-end resources, through policies that adapt to a more preventative approach, and in the way that place-based services are delivered by community-based organizations. Too many of our social systems were structured to respond only after harm occurs; by realigning our nation’s social service delivery systems and reimagining the power and impact of the social sector, we can deliver on the promise of equitable access to health and well-being for all people.

Our Nation Under Invests in Social Services

The Commonwealth Fund recently released a report that ranks the United States last in health care systems among 11 of the wealthiest countries in the world, despite having the highest percentage spending of its GDP on health care. The United States spends twice as much on health care as other developed nations and yet, fares the worst in key health metrics, such as life expectancy and maternal and infant mortality. In fact, a recent report from the CDC found that the United States has the highest rate of maternal death of any developed nation (Kekatos, 2022).

How can that be? According to data from the Bassett Healthcare Network and University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute, only 20% of health outcomes are attributable to actual health care while 80% are attributable to SDoH, including environmental, behavioral, and socioeconomic factors (Bassett Healthcare Network, n.d.).

It’s telling that our nation’s investment in human services that address SDoH is among the lowest in developed nations (Alliance for Strong Families and Communities, 2018). Researchers have begun to draw a direct linkage between that investment disparity and health outcomes, noting that “states with higher ratios of social to health spending had better health outcomes one and two years later” (Bradley et al., 2016).

The pandemic helped us all understand that no family is immune to stress or challenges. Stress can overload families and contribute to greater risk of adversity. Times of turmoil often pave the way for key societal shifts. Today, we have the opportunity to shift our focus more toward addressing social determinants and realign our systems to better support all families.

Supporting the Shift from Child Welfare Systems to Child and Family Well-being Systems

A blueprint for this can be found in the shift from child welfare systems to child and family well-being systems that offer families the support they need to prevent harm before it occurs. The transformation that we see today is moving away from the idea that it is solely the function of the child protection agency to keep kids safe. Instead, CPS is one component in a shared, community-wide responsibility for child and family well-being with an emphasis on prevention and a public health approach that addresses SDoH.

For our child welfare system to truly move to a preventive approach, upstream resources must be rooted in community and not tied to intervention by a government system to access them. This would require communities working in partnership with funders (often governmental entities) to identify their specific needs and design supports that effectively respond to them.

In fact, in December 2021 researchers from Tufts Medical Center found that incidents of child abuse actually dropped during the pandemic at the start of the lockdown, despite many pundits suggesting that incidents would rise due to children being isolated at home (Sege & Stephens, 2021). Evidence suggests that while the pandemic increased familial stress for many, it also afforded families access to additional financial supports and increased time at home contributing to enhanced parent-child attachment. These factors, the researchers believe, potentially account for this drop in abuse and maltreatment.

We are at a unique moment in history. Our deepening understanding of what it takes to weather the storms of a global pandemic is resulting in a shift in the way we think about supporting families. In fact, we are more primed than ever before to think about economic and family supports and to tackle child welfare in a way that emphasizes supporting families over penalizing them.

And that thinking is supported by an ever-growing body of research. Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago recently released a brief on the impact of concrete economic supports for families and its correlations to reducing involvement with the child welfare system (Wiener et al., 2021). Their research identified poverty as a key driver of child welfare system involvement and suggested that even modest economic supports could help stabilize families and prevent the need for removing children from the home.

Systems Transformation is Complex but Achievable

Reshaping child welfare systems into child and family well-being systems that can address SDoH will require a broad focus on system transformation. With shared values focused on equity, diversity, and inclusion, we must modernize child welfare systems through redesign with parent and youth partners, drive cross-system integration and operations, provide sustainable financing, and remove systemic and structural barriers upholding racist practices and policies that contribute to poor health outcomes.

In 2021, with those goals in mind, key leaders in the social service sector and Social Current convened a group of human service sector leaders to develop guiding policy principles for the social sector’s work through the lens of SDoH. The group identified seven guiding principles that are critical to addressing SDoH across the child welfare sector. They are:

Partnering with the Entire Health Ecosystem

Changing Power Dynamics

People-centered Focus

Addressing Root Causes

Anti-racist Approaches

Forming and Scaling Solutions

Prevention and Early Detection

System transformation is never easy, but these guiding principles can be applied as a roadmap for change and help transform a broad range of social sector systems in a way that is responsive where it needs to be and fair in its treatment and decision-making for children and families. And these lessons are applicable across the entire social and human-serving ecosystem, including child welfare, health care systems, juvenile justice, education, and more.

Jody Levison-Johnson is the President and CEO of Social Current, an organization focused on advancing the work of the social sector through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence. Jody is a longstanding champion for systems change that helps individuals and communities thrive. Over several decades, her career has crossed a variety of settings including private providers and state and local governments. Jody holds a MSW degree from Syracuse University and a MA and PhD in Leadership and Change from Antioch University.

Amy Templeman, a kinship and adoptive parent, is the director of Within Our Reach and director of practice excellence at Social Current. In these roles, she works to support families and promote equity. Before joining Social Current, Amy served as executive director of the federal Commission to Eliminate Child Abuse and Neglect Fatalities, leading the effort to produce a report to the president and Congress. Amy helped to establish the Office of Well Being at the District of Columbia’s child welfare agency. She gained research experience at The Urban Institute and Johns Hopkins University.

References

READ PDF VERSION

This article was originally posted in CWLA’s Children’s Voice Magazine – Vol. 32 #1, 2023. To read through the entirety of Vol, 32, purchase the issue on the Child Welfare READ of America’s website.

By Karen Johnson and Kelly Martin

A mid our day-to-day work to partner with families and children, especially during an ongoing pandemic, it often is challenging to stay apprised of and incorporate the advancing knowledge, research, and evidence around brain science. However, brain science holds great promise in helping us to increase equity, support all families, and strengthen our workforce. The science is clear—adversity and toxic stress can change the brain’s architecture—and preventing and mitigating both are critical in every facet of our work (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2005/2014).

The Texas Change in Mind initiative, convened and led by Social Current, supports 10 community-based organizations that are working to create impact through intersecting levels of change (Social Current, n.d.). Funded by the Episcopal Health Foundation, The Powell Foundation, St. David’s Foundation, and an anonymous donor, the initiative uses a learning collaborative model that allows the organizations to learn from one another, Social Current, and other experts. The Texas organizations are using brain science and equity practices to effect transformative change by promoting the foundations of safe, stable relationships; positive childhood experiences; healthy development; and individual and collective resilience.

This work is guided by the Texas Change in Mind initiative’s theory of change that includes six key areas: Brain science, racial equity, organizational resilience, community impact, communications, and evaluation. Through a wide array of learning engagements over two years, the teams are incorporating new knowledge into their own organizational theories of change and determining their paths forward.

Staff and Organizational Resilience

As the initiative launched in spring 2021, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, many of the participating organizations noted this opportunity could not have come at a better time. They already had been working to embed brain science and equity and were eager for additional support in building capacity and resilience in their workforces.

“So many staff have experienced firsthand inequities regarding COVID-19 in their families and personal lives,” said Nadine Scamp, CEO of Santa Maria Hostel. “We have been thinking about how we can support our staff so they can support our families. Change in Mind is an opportunity to put thought and resources behind this question.”

To equip staff with resilience-building tools, organizations are teaching them brain science concepts, including executive functioning (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child, 2020), and the sequence of engagement: regulate, relate, reason (Perry, 2020). These concrete strategies are being integrated into work with families and helping staff to stay regulated, build psychological safety, and engage in conversations that advance equity practices.

Hand in hand with embedding brain science principles, the Texas organizations are advancing their equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) journeys by administering the Intercultural Development Inventory® (IDI®; see www.idiinventory.com) to key staff. This cross-cultural assessment of intercultural competence is a first step in developing a plan for personal growth. In addition, the organizations’ executive leaders are receiving consultative support from Social Current’s EDI experts on advancing their organizational efforts. This work is stretching teams to, “reach across the organization, be inclusive of staff and team up with cultural proficiency and inclusion folks,” noted Dr. Teri Wood, a Trust Based Relational Intervention (TBRI) clinician and coordinator with the Austin Ed Fund, which supports the Austin Independent School District (AISD).

“Working to grow our EDI skills can be uncomfortable at times and is often hard, but we know you can’t have trauma-informed, brain-based learning/services without EDI. They are interwoven,” said Karen McWhorter, director of development at Family Service Center of Galveston County, who is seeking funding to expand administration of the IDI® across the organization.

Children’s Museum Houston (CMH) has been advancing the work of its Diversity, Equity, Accessibility, and Inclusion (DEAI) Committee, which was started before the pandemic and seeks to make improvements to how it designs and provides programs. The CMH team is adding brain science modules to its new employee onboarding and equity training and regularly engaging with all staff in advancing racial equity.

Texas Change in Mind

“We think of this as a journey—a process. It’s called “Change in Mind” for a reason—it’s really a shift. It makes us put things in perspective,” said Lisa Williams, director of gallery programs at CMH. “Children in this pandemic have suffered in a way that we don’t even know at this point. We are trying to position ourselves to give our families and communities what they need from us.”

Child and Family Well-Being

By focusing on supporting staff, building capacities, and strengthening organizational resilience—all through the lens of brain science and a commitment to equity and justice—the participating organizations are already seeing positive impacts in organization culture shifts and their ability to support children and families.

“We have appreciated the intentionality of bringing the equity, diversity and inclusion conversation into brain science conversations,” said Scamp. “Having the space for staff to wrestle with their perceptions and to support participants in moving beyond stigma and bias regarding their substance use and mental health challenges is foundational change.”

Santa Maria Hostel primarily works with mothers who are experiencing the interwoven challenges of substance use, housing insecurity, and mental health concerns. Santa Maria Hostel’s recent work has focused on supporting healthy relationships between parent participants and their infants and toddlers. They also are building out-of-schooltime programming to focus on school age children.

Originally this looked like a traditional afterschool program. However, given what the team is learning about brain science and intentionally centering families in their children’s development, the program is morphing into a family-based afterschool program with an emphasis on strengthening attachment and serve-and-return communication (National Scientific Council on the Developing Child., n.d.).

The multi-generation approach, a hallmark of brain science-based strategies, is also being used by the Austin Independent School District. As Becky Murillo, LCSW and TBRI clinician, said, “This is going to make our support to schools, students, and families even stronger.” They are working with a group of parents to help them learn about brain development and how they can support their children’s cognitive, social, and emotional development. “Parents understand how it better equips them as caregivers and as parents,” said Murillo. “As they learn, they say, ‘We need to get more parents at this table!’ It feels like an empowerment model to me.”

As the work of the initiative continues, NORC at the University of Chicago (see www.norc.org) is overseeing multiple evaluation objectives, including evaluating the effectiveness of the Change in Mind learning collaborative model in helping sites achieve positive results at individual, organization, and community system levels; building the capacity of sites to use developmental evaluation; and assessing the uptake of racial equity at organizational and community network levels.

We will know more about impact of this work as evaluation results come in. For now, we can attest that the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative is an exciting opportunity to accelerate the application of brain science and equity into systems change efforts in the communities served by the 10 participating organizations. These leaders are being supported to rethink, reflect, and reimagine at all levels of their work—personally, organizationally, and systemically. They’re sharing ideas, supporting each other, and creating a ripple effect in their networks. As Dr. Wood says, “This has brought life, excitement, and hope to our work. Our team is excited for every meeting and asking, ‘What can we do next?”

Karen Johnson, MSW, LCSW leads the development of Social Current’s Change in Mind Institute (see https://www.social-current.
org/engage/change-in-mind-institute/) and the Texas Change in Mind Learning Collaborative.

Kelly Martin, MS, is the Director of Practice Excellence at Social Current. Her work focuses on applied developmental psychology,
educational success, policy, and advocacy, and supporting the work of the Change in Mind Institute.

References

READ PDF VERSION

This article was originally posted in CWLA’s Children’s Voice Magazine – Vol. 32 #1, 2023. To read through the entirety of Vol, 32, purchase the issue on the Child Welfare League of America’s website.

One of the many things that excites me most about the incredible potential for Social Current is the power of our network. Our network is comprised of a truly diverse group of organizations, serving varied and distinct communities, which is what makes it so strong. With that diversity, we realize that there will be times when some of our organizations, including those who are accredited, may have differing views than our own or each other. We recognize, respect, and rely on those differences. We believe that society is improved through honest, respectful dissention and discourse and welcome the opportunity to listen to all voices. We welcome all conversations that facilitate dialogue, growth, and increased understanding—this is the only way we will be able to move forward to collectively impact societal change and create an equitable society where all people can thrive.

I also wanted to take a moment to clarify our position when it comes to the statements we issue as Social Current. As we are a national nonprofit and not a membership organization, our public statements are not made on behalf of our network organizations or partners. The views expressed by Social Current are our own and made only after careful consideration to ensure alignment with the mission, vision, values, and policy agenda principles of our organization. We recognize that as a new organization, this might not yet be clear to all external constituents and are committed to ensure that we more intentionally communicate this moving forward. It is also important to note that COA Accreditation is an important part of Social Current and that our standards and accreditation processes will continue to be research-based and field-informed.

Thank you for being part of our network, for openly and candidly sharing your thoughts with us, and for the important work you undertake each day to impact change in the communities you serve. We are stronger because of you, and we are stronger together.

In a statement from Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current, a network of more than 1,800 social sector organizations, she commented on the recent shootings in communities across our nation:

“Highland Park. Tulsa. Uvalde. Laguna Woods. Buffalo. These senseless tragedies have robbed our nation of too many precious lives. According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), 100 people die in the U.S. every day from gun violence. There have been 27 school shootings just this year and 102 mass shootings since Uvalde. What is clear is that gun violence in America is an urgent public health issue across our nation and we must do more to address the underlying conditions that lead to these tragedies. In short, we must do better.

As a network of more than 1,800 social sector organizations, our mission is to advocate for and implement equitable solutions to society’s toughest challenges through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence. We believe that community-based organizations, supported by public policy and adequate funding, have the tools to help reduce incidents of gun violence. While it is up to our nation’s leaders to pass common sense gun laws that can reduce the accessibility of weapons of war, there are also community-based and federal public policy initiatives that we believe can reduce the epidemic of gun violence in our nation and prevent future tragedies. These include:

  1. Development of community-based violence intervention efforts that can reduce the cycle of community gun violence, address the underlying causes of gun violence, and promote health equity.
  2. Expansion of positive youth development programs, and other prevention models supported by evidence.
  3. Increased federal funding for research on gun violence.
  4. Advance trauma-informed and brain science-aligned principles in policy, including the RISE from Trauma Act.
  5. Expansion of place-based initiatives that use holistic approaches to community impact/development to create safe and vibrant neighborhoods and make employment opportunities, affordable housing, and other basic needs a reality across the nation.
  6. Address the youth mental health crisis by advocating for prevention programs; supporting the Mental Health Services for Students Act of 2020; and providing more funding to school and community-based mental health programs that build awareness of trauma, train appropriate staff to identify and screen for behavioral health challenges, and incorporate positive behavioral health interventions, family engagement, and treatment.

Reducing gun violence and the horror of mass shootings will require a robust public health response that emphasizes proactive, preventative strategies that build community resilience and well-being. We have the tools at hand to strengthen communities and reduce these senseless deaths. We call on Congress and our nation’s leaders to meet this moment with the political will to change the status quo and pass common sense policies that reduce the epidemic of gun violence and support the ability of every individual, family, and community to thrive.”

View this compilation of resources for tools and guides related to talking to children about shootings, providing psychological first aid, coping with grief, and more.

Note: Revisions have been made to this statement since it was originally published on June 1, 2022.

The time is now to SPARK bold and brave conversations—and it begins with you. 

Social Current is seeking workshop presentations for its SPARK 2022 conference, to be held Sept. 13-14 in Baltimore. This event will activate our collective power to spark and elevate bold thinking and new conversations around some of our sector’s most vexing challenges. We will provide participants with an innovative forum to learn, refuel, connect, exchange ideas, and be inspired. 

The deadline to submit presentations is April 13. 

Social Current’s mission is to advocate for and implement equitable solutions through collaboration, innovation, policy, and practice excellence. This conference will convene and unite our diverse community from across our network and sector to share their expertise and drive toward an equitable society where all people can thrive. 

We welcome all presentations that will engage, challenge, educate, and inspire participants to act. While emphasis will be placed on the core areas below, we welcome submissions that address other current issues affecting and important to our sector. Social Current will not accept proposal submissions intended to market or sell a product, consultant, or program. 

Core Areas of Focus 

Brain Science
Sessions should discuss advancing the integration and alignment of brain science and trauma-informed knowledge, skills, and strategies into organizational and systemic practices and policies. Consider how the application of brain science can be used to prevent and mitigate toxic stress and build child, family, and community health and well-being. 

Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Sessions should address how organizations can create a more just, fair, and inclusive organizational culture and society through policies and practices, organizational leadership, and programs and services. Consider inequities experienced in health, education, systems involvement, the workplace, and more based on race, sexual orientation, age, gender, and ability. 

Organizational and Service Delivery Innovations 
Sessions should discuss innovative programs and solutions that contribute to organizational excellence and/or help all individuals and communities thrive. Consider examples of cross-sector collaboration, practices that advance financial sustainability, programs that support integrated care or address the social determinants of health, and more. 

Workforce Resilience and Leadership
Sessions should address how to recruit, retain, and support a workforce so that it can stay healthy and well amid ongoing change and uncertainty. Consider approaches that promote brain-science awareness, equity, and hiring from the community; build positive organizational culture; support healthy workplace relationships; and mitigate the effects of vicarious trauma, moral injury, and other workforce concerns. 

Submission Requirements 

Address all the following submission requirements in your presentation proposal. SPARK workshop sessions will be 90 minutes.

All workshop proposals must be submitted by April 13 through our online submission form.

Every day, community members across the country miss out on educational, employment, and social opportunities simply because they do not have access to clean clothes. The laundry services children, youth, young adults, families, and older adults receive through community-based organizations in the Social Current network play an important role in helping them manage through a challenging moment in their lives.

At IMPOWER in Orlando, the appliances help residential treatment program staff and youth.

To help respond to this critically important need for clean clothes, Social Current collaborates with CSC ServiceWorks Inc. (CSC), the industry leader in laundry solutions, by participating in its national effort to donate commercial-grade washer and dryer equipment and in-kind maintenance services in 40 communities throughout the U.S. They seek to lighten the load of community members around the country.

“We’re thrilled about the impact our partnership with CSC ServiceWorks is having on community-based organizations and people across the country. Their unwavering belief that laundry is an essential service has helped to improve people’s lives and strengthen the infrastructure and operations of organizations within the Social Current network.” said Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current.

In 2021, CSC ServiceWorks donated hundreds of washers and dryers as well as ongoing maintenance services to provide reliable laundering operations for organizations and their beneficiaries. This year, the partnership will continue to expand into new markets and offer additional services such as air vending and ongoing machine maintenance.

“When our teams were made aware of the challenges that neighbors face in accessing laundry services and community centers have in maintaining washers and dryers, we jumped into action,” said Rick Martella, executive vice president at CSC ServiceWorks. “We are honored to partner with Social Current to bring laundry services closer to home and show our neighbors we care about their success. This is part of CSC’s ongoing mission to provide critical services that enable people to succeed.”

Through its CommunityWorks initiative, CSC ServiceWorks helps people be ready for school, work, and life. The company applies its resources, and skills to spotlight this mostly hidden laundry challenge and rally others to take action.

The impact of these donations is being felt far and wide. One participating organization, PB&J Services in Albuquerque, New Mexico, is using its new commercial laundry machines in its pre-K class and community center. “We now have access to reliable laundry equipment that can be used to clean masks, children’s dirty clothing, towels, and other supplies. We also are providing clean clothing for clients, which removes a barrier to confidently accessing employment, education, and community services and improving overall self-image and well-being,” said Tashi Swierkosz, development & communications manager at PB&J Services. She went on to share, “The CSC employees made the installation process as smooth as possible. They were very responsive, compassionate, and enthusiastic about supporting PB&J and our families.”

At Lexington Bell Community Center, in Cleveland, the new laundry equipment supports their COVID-19 protocols.

PB&J is one of 20 organizations that have received equipment in 2021. A few other beneficiaries include:

To facilitate this laundry initiative, Social Current connects local CSC teams with community-based organizations to assess laundry operation needs and install new equipment. If your organization is interested in exploring a potential relationship with CSC ServiceWorks for donated commercial laundry equipment and service, air vending service and volunteer engagement in 2022 please contact Emily Merritt, corporate relations manager at Social Current, to determine your eligibility.

About CSC ServiceWorks
CSC is the leading consumer services platform company in North America that delivers technology-enabled laundry services in the multifamily, academic, and hospitality markets and tire inflation services in the convenience store and gas station space. We work to make life easier by providing seamless experiences and world-class service to millions of consumers, property managers, and owners every day. Our engaged team members continue to innovate and lead our industry as we find new ways to deliver value to our customers and the communities we serve.

Social Current has collaborated with Prevent Child Abuse America on a new toolkit to help community-based organizations understand how to advocate for and access funds available through recent opioid settlements with pharmaceutical companies. The prevention and treatment services that community-based organizations provide are essential to addressing the ongoing opioid epidemic.

After a lengthy legal process to hold companies accountable for downplaying the addictiveness of opioids, 47 states have settled with opioid manufacturers, pharmaceutical distributors, and pharmacies for $26 billion. Separate opioid settlements are in process or concluded in the remaining states as well as additional localities. Though the funds resulting from the major settlement are temporarily in limbo because of legal action taken by the family that owns Purdue Pharma, these resources will ultimately be used to address the opioid crisis, and it is critical that community-based organizations begin preparing now to ensure that these funds are used not just for treatment, but also for prevention.

The settlement funds, proposed to be disbursed over the next 18 years and frontloaded at the beginning, will go to states and localities for the purpose of addressing the opioid epidemic. As these funds flow to entities across the nation, community-based organizations must have a seat at the table to decide how these funds are spent locally. These will be significant investments in the kinds of services our sector provides. The deep impact of the opioid epidemic has made it clear that a major part of the solution will be strengthening communities with upstream resources and supports.

This guide offers tools and resources to help community-based organizations navigate the complex legal and legislative process. Organizations should reach out to relevant stakeholders immediately, as these decisions are being made now in many states.

Download the toolkit from the Policy Action Center.

Download Toolkit

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, just passed by Congress, includes several provisions of importance to the charitable nonprofit sector, yet curtails essential relief enacted earlier this year. The nonprofits listed below celebrate many helpful aspects of the law and urge Congress and the administration to quickly take action to enact further #Relief4Charities:

“The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act includes several priorities that will assist nonprofits and the communities they serve. We are glad to see the inclusion of a Nonprofit Energy Efficiency pilot program that awards $50 million in grants for charitable organizations to make upgrades to their facilities and $65 billion to support broadband access for all.

“We are disappointed however, that the bill eliminated the Employee Retention Tax Credit for the fourth quarter of this year. The ERTC, which has been a lifeline for many nonprofits, is a refundable payroll tax credit for nonprofits and small businesses designed to provide a financial incentive for employers to keep employees on their payrolls and continue to deliver important services during the pandemic and in its immediate aftermath. It has allowed them to retain critical employees in the face of the economic challenges caused by the pandemic. Tens of thousands of organizations are now counting on fourth quarter 2021 access to an ERTC to support the financial decisions they made to bring employees back on the payroll and increase operating capacity to serve their communities.”

“As Congress and the White House continue negotiations on the best ways to support American families and the economy, we encourage them to prioritize continued support for ERTC allowing charitable nonprofits to access the ERTC during the Fourth Quarter of 2021; extending nonprofit eligibility for the ERTC through 2022 to help ensure a strong economic recovery from the pandemic; and, amending the definition of nonprofit “gross receipts” for the ERTC program to better reflect revenue available to support nonprofits amid the pandemic.”

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American Alliance of Museums
Association of Art Museum Directors
Boys & Girls Clubs of America
Catholic Charities USA
Dance/USA
Girl Scouts of the USA
Girls Inc.
Goodwill Industries International Inc.

Independent Sector
Jewish Federations of North America
League of American Orchestras
National Council of Nonprofits
Network of Jewish Human Service Agencies
OPERA America
Social Current (formerly Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation)
Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America
YMCA of the USA

Washington, D.C. – Social Current, formerly the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities and Council on Accreditation, announced today a cooperative agreement with the Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime (OVC) for Fostering Resilience and Hope: Bridging the Gap Between Law Enforcement and The Community. The agreement will support a three-year demonstration initiative that will infuse hope theory to assist law enforcement officers with addressing trauma and adversity in order to repair and rebuild relationships within the community. Social Current will receive $1 million to oversee technical assistance to two sites with the full grant totaling $4 million. Selected sites will be announced at a later date.

“The Department of Justice is committed to advancing work that promotes civil rights, increases access to justice, supports crime victims, protects the public from crime and evolving threats, and builds trust between law enforcement and the community,” commented Stacy Phillips, Victim Justice Program Specialist for the Office for Victims of Crime for the Department of Justice. “This program furthers the Department of Justice’s mission by advancing law enforcement policies and practices that promote justice and healing for all victims.”

“The award of this cooperative agreement reflects recognition of our expertise in helping support organizations in their equity, diversity, inclusion (EDI), and racial justice journeys, as well as our work in engaging victim-centered organizations in multidisciplinary, national scope technical assistance projects to accelerate innovation and knowledge,” commented Jody Levison-Johnson, president and CEO of Social Current. “The work of Social Current is to facilitate collaboration and innovation and advance policy and practice excellence within organizations and across systems. We believe this initiative will play a significant role by creating a learning community and building a body of knowledge around resilience and community engagement.”

“Building hope is about honoring, trusting, respecting, valuing, and amplifying opportunities within communities,” noted Dr. Chan Hellman, a respected expert in hope science and training and founder of Chan Hellman LLC. “We believe that hope may provide a simple shared language that can be useful to the community as they work to move past awareness status into actionable goals and pathways aimed to dismantle systemic oppression and racism.”

The initiative will include training, capacity development, advocacy, and outreach with a goal of repairing and rebuilding trust between law enforcement and the communities they serve and enhancing law enforcement officers’ ability to effectively engage with community members. Additionally, the effort is geared to increasing the likelihood that the community will assist in investigations to make communities safer and hold those responsible accountable. The goal is to increase the likelihood that crime victims will report their victimizations to the police, reducing the likelihood of re-victimization, and helping to build safer communities, where all residents thrive.

The program builds on a previous initiative known as the Healing Justice Alliance Initiative, which explored demonstrated strategies for implementing a trauma-informed and collaborative approach to build trust between communities of color and law enforcement agencies. Informed by young men of color who are survivors of violence, the project’s outcomes improved lives, by pointing to ways to manage trauma, and focusing on changing community conditions that produce trauma.

Romero Davis, senior program manager for Practice Excellence at Social Current will head the technical assistance team. He also serves as senior program manager for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion and Engagement at Social Current. Romero is a mentor; an award-winning leadership, professional development, and life coach; published author; and an advocate of safe communities and families. Romero has been active nationally working with agencies in areas such as poly-victimization; trauma in families; equity, diversity, and inclusion; juvenile justice; and domestic violence. Romero previously served as program manager for agencies focused on sexual assault and domestic violence.

Romero will be joined by Social Current colleagues Undraye Howard, Amy Templeman, Karen Johnson, Kelly Martin, Rehana Absar and Phyllis Richards who bring a range of expertise and experience to the team. They will be joined by a talented team with diverse expertise that includes Dr. Chan Hellman and T/Cpl Meghann Holloway.

Key elements of the technical assistance will include:

Media Notes: For more information or to request an interview, please contact Jennifer Devlin at 703-966-3241 or jdevlin@social-current.org.

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