Policy and Practice August 2016

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August 2016 Policy&Practice 17
case-planning framework that is rooted
in financial planning and economics
but is accessible, using plain language.
Tools for Constructing Well-
Being: The Self-Sufficiency
Financial Calculator and the
Financial Cliff Forecaster
For all of us, financial stability is
essential to reach our potential and
thrive. Stresses like job and income
loss or family health emergencies make
everything harder. Many families lack
the resources necessary to weather
large, or even small, shifts in their
financial stability. Even short-term
hardships can quickly strain resources
and capabilities, negatively affecting
an individual or family’s social, emo-
tional, and physical health. In fact,
63 percent of Americans do not have
enough savings to cover a $500 emer-
gency.3 Chronic poverty generates
even greater stress. Over time, it drains
mental bandwidth, reducing space
for problem solving and planning for
future self-sufficiency, as well as for
parenting, household management, job
performance, and other important life
responsibilities.
In many instances, agencies issue
benefits to address these symptoms
and miss the opportunity to identify
and address significant root causes.
The current system reacts to, and
provides, “defined benefits” or “treat-
ment” for symptoms. The current
system of benefits eligibility and dis-
tribution does not use a standardized
self-sufficiency scale to categorize
the actual degree of need (i.e., crisis,
at-risk, safe, stable, thriving) that
would make it possible to put federal,
state, and local funding to work to
offer each family an individualized
forward path toward self-sufficiency.
Benefits are also not currently struc-
tured in a way that acknowledges the
way in which a challenge in one area
of life affects another (e.g., the role of
affordable child care in achieving job
stability). By addressing root causes
and better aligning investments,
improved outcomes can be achieved.
When issuing benefits, the human
service system is not structured in an
agile way that promotes recipients’
financial empowerment or literacy. As
a result, unsustainable financial situ-
ations can result in individuals and
families needing to access emergency
benefits repeatedly.
The Local Council proposes strategi-
cally adjusting the current entitlement
and eligibility-based methodology
for distributing financial supports to
increase the likelihood of improved
overall outcomes for individuals,
setting them on a path toward greater
self-sufficiency. The Local Council has
joined to design self-sufficiency tools, a
Self-Sufficiency Financial Calculator
and a Financial Cliff Forecaster that
caseworkers and clients can use to
flexibly manage and distribute indi-
vidualized benefits tailored to the true
self-sufficiency needs of the family.
These tools create the capacity to assess
and evaluate a family’s self-sufficiency
“financial readiness” in an “as-is” state
and then develop the ability to apply
financial assistance modeling and
related investments across the social
determinants of health in order to
affect the overall self-sufficiency plan.
The Role of Housing in
Constructing Well-Being
Lack of access to affordable housing
is likely to be one of the most difficult
barriers to eliminate. Coordinating
integrated health and human service
systems is critical to the success of
these efforts. Many local members
participate in state and national efforts
to reduce homelessness, with some
success. In communities where cost
burdens are high or there is rapid
growth, however, many local members
continue to see growth in family and
youth homelessness. To break the
cycle of intergenerational poverty and
give these young families and their
children a chance at becoming gainfully
employed and self-sufficient, there must
be wrap-around services to provide
themwith social and emotional support
and eliminate the barriers to housing,
child care, health care, child support,
and food insecurity. Many have also
aged out of the child welfare and may
need specific supports targeted toward
their unique trauma-related needs.
The power of APHSA’s local members
is the opportunity to demonstrate
an evidence-based approach across
diverse localities nationwide. The goal
of local members is to test and spread a
two-generation approach focusing on
young, homeless families, specifically
disconnected youth and their families
in multiple local jurisdictions simulta-
neously. To accomplish this, they plan
to:
� design and implement a set of
targeted interventions
� identify and remove federal, state,
and local policy barriers
� simultaneously create new braided
and blended funding streams in
order to scale up these services
across our diverse communities
Anchoring this work in universal,
holistic, family-focused assessment
tools like the Self-Sufficiency Matrix,
Self-Sufficiency Financial Calculator,
and Financial Cliff Forecaster will
create a comprehensive and viable
approach that will be scalable and
flexible across jurisdictions.
Local agencies are natural labora-
tories for generating transformative
change that can achieve improvements
in service response more quickly,
along with supports to families.
Local agencies are among those at
the forefront, developing and testing
models and tools to generate a more
viable environment by strengthening
families’ capacities and foundations.
This article is an excerpt from the Local
Council “A New Pathway to Prosperity and
Well-Being” vision document. For more
information about the Local Council vision,
or to learn how you can get involved, contact
Christine Tappan, APHSA Local Liaison, at
Reference Notes
1. For information is available at
.
2. Leadership for a Networked World.
The Human Services Value Curve: A
Framework for Improved Human Services
Outcomes, Value, and Legitimacy. http://
HSVC%20Guide.pdf.
3. McGrath, Maggie. “63% of Americans
Don’t Have Enough Savings to Cover a
$500 Emergency. Forbes, January 6, 2016.
Retrieved from
sites/maggiemcgrath/2016/01/06/63-of-
americans-dont-have-enough-savings-to-
cover-a-500-emergency/#33acc5e66dde