37 / 78
August 2016
Policy&Practice
37
employers provide employees with the
tools and resources to work in a har-
monious environment that promotes
health and well-being and is supportive.
TED-style speakers provided real-life
examples of the ways in which state
and local programs are moving up the
Human Services Value Curve, by inte-
grating state-level health and human
services, dealing with employment and
economic well-being, and addressing
the needs of children from households
with significant problems.
Breakout session topics ranged from
program integration, child and family
well-being, the world of work and its
impact on clients, the social determi-
nants of health, ways in which food
and nutrition programs can better
incorporate job training and placement
activities into their programs, 2Gen
approaches to handling family issues,
better coordination between workforce
development and TANF programs,
proven strategies for recruiting and sup-
porting foster and adoptive families,
data analytics as a tool to move up the
Human Services Value Curve, and Pay
for Success, to name just a few.
Neil Bomberg
is the director of Policy
and Government Affairs at APHSA.
association
news
I
n an attempt to be more integra-
tive, generative, user friendly, and
outcome oriented, what had been
previously known as the APHSA Policy
Forum was transformed, this year,
into the National Summit for Health
and Human Services, held May 21–25
in Arlington, VA, just minutes from
downtown Washington, DC.
With more than 350 attendees and
a range of general sessions, TED-
style talks, and breakout sessions,
the conference covered a wide
range of subjects following APHSA’s
Pathways
agenda. The theme—
“Inspire, Innovate, Impact”—focused
conversations on ways to work differ-
ently, better, and with more impact.
Together, varied perspectives allowed
conference attendees to better under-
stand the Human Services Value Curve
and how they and their organizations
can move up that curve from a regula-
tive to a generative state.
With its focus on health and human
service integration, child and family
well-being, and employment and
economic well-being, the summit
provided all attendees with an oppor-
tunity to learn, explore, and consider
new and multiple ways of addressing
client needs.
The summit opened with an
enlightening keynote address by Nat
Kendall-Taylor of the Frameworks
Institute. He spoke about the potential
that framing has on the way others
think about our programs and the work
we do. For example, it is not enough
to show empathy or compassion for
the clients we serve. That approach,
Kendall-Taylor argued, only mires you in
a swamp of prejudiced and value-laden
views. It is critical, in his view, that we
frame these efforts in the larger social
and cultural milieu in which we operate.
Thus, talking about solving individual
Moving Up the Value Curve Through the National Summit
By Neil Bomberg
and family problems in the context of
opportunity and success helps people
better identify with the people we serve;
talking about the services we provide in
construction terms helps people under-
stand that our aim is to ensure that
everyone is safe, protected, and able to
withstand the storms of life that all of us
may experience.
Over the course of the summit,
attendees heard from other keynote
speakers about the history of U.S.
human services and the importance
of using brain science to better ensure
that human service employees have the
supports and protections they need to
do their jobs successfully. Dr. Antonio
Oftelie of Harvard University spoke
about the long and storied history
that undergirds the nation’s human
service system, and that even during
the most trying of times human service
programs continued and moved
forward, focusing on their purpose—
the individuals and households the
system was designed to serve.
Dr. Beth Cohen of the University of
California explained how the brain
works at times of conflict, stress, and
harmony. Therefore, it is critical that
human service staff have the ability to
maintain a sense of harmony, and that
Susan Dreyfus, left,
President and CEO
of the Alliance for
Strong Families
and Communities,
receives the 2016
APHSA Lifetime
Achievement Award
for her contributions to
the field of health and
human services.