Policy & Practice December 2017

editor‘s note By Jessica Garon

Storytelling in Our Field

T hrough Policy & Practice we share your stories—successes, challenges, lessons learned—they all contribute to the pool of knowledge in our field. Unlike data and analytics—don’t get me wrong, they can change the face of human services—storytelling gets to the heart of the matter. Take, for example, our Deputy Executive Director’s feature article included in this issue, Structural Inequities in the Criminal Justice System: A Personal Account . This article provided Phil with an opportunity to recall, reflect, and report on his life-changing experience serving as a member of a grand jury. He describes this experience as being “woke” to the true injustice of racism and poverty. Does that mean he didn’t know these things already existed in our world? Of course not. But his experi- ence on the jury went deeper. Not all of us will be asked to serve on a grand jury, but through Phil’s first- hand account, we can gain insight on these issues. By sharing his personal story with a landscape view, we can shed a light on our country’s structural inequities and take this opportunity to work toward positive change. Here at APHSA, Phil’s experience helped initiate related strategies we’ll be advancing to address this issue. What else do we have in store? This year, we continued to apply the Human Services Value Curve to our work and desired future state. As this strategy is being adopted by human services agencies across the nation, we are examining services from the consumer’s point of view and real- izing the potential of our systems. We’re reaching beyond just individual families by focusing on communities, and in 2018, we’ll continue to widen our lens by focusing on ecosystems.

economic mobility for families and create thriving communities. This makes the theme of December’s issue—partnerships—extremely relevant and I look forward to part- nering with you in the coming year. I challenge you to be our next story- teller! Take a second to review our issue themes for 2018 (see page 4) and reflect on your past, present, and future. What story could you share with our readers that might provide new insight to our field, and ulti- mately, improve the lives of those we serve? As the popular saying goes, two heads are better than one.

As an editor and communications professional, I have an opportunity to read the latest and greatest from pas- sionate and dedicated leaders in the field, and from my perspective, eco- systems will be the future. As a Policy & Practice reader, you are probably familiar with ecosystems, espe- cially if you just read our President’s column in this issue. Just for good measure, here’s the definition from Antonio Oftelie, Executive Director of Harvard’s Leadership for a Networked World (LNW), “A set of intercon- nected organizations, machines, and services that can collaborate across boundaries, across silos, and design new solutions that address and solve root causes of individual, family, and community health and human services challenges.” In addition to our part- nership with LNW, APHSA is working closely with the Kresge Foundation to better understand how a focus on ecosystems can enable social and

Jessica Garon , Communications Manager at APHSA, can be reached at jgaron@aphsa.org.

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December 2017 Policy&Practice