Over the coming year HSC will continue to develop and implement strategies to drive change for New York’s human services organizations. We seek systemic shifts that will result in a vibrant and financially sound system of delivering human services.
Over the coming year our priorities include:
- Coordinating the “Human Services Advancement Strategy Group,” a coalition comprised of eleven membership organizations developing and implementing advocacy strategies to end city contract and payment delays, ensure the adoption of a sound and funded approach to indirect rates, and ensure new RFPs reflect real program costs and include adequate escalations.
- Engaging in and Monitoring the Work of the Nonprofit Resiliency Committee, a process launched by Mayor de Blasio and charged with identifying, designing, and launching solutions to support the sector in the areas of administrative processes, service and program design, and organizational infrastructure.
- Co-leading Statewide Strong Nonprofits for a Better New York Campaign, to ensure nonprofits have access to state funds for infrastructure and additional human services workforce investments are made, including funding to address increases in employment costs related to labor and tax law changes.
- Participating in the State Nonprofit Contracting Advisory Committee, statutorily charged with making recommendations to the Governor on improving contracting procedures with nonprofits; issues of focus include prompt payment, indirect reimbursement rates, and master contracting.
- Holding Government Accountable, by continuing to rate RFPs for risk and grade government performance via HSC’s GovGrader tool and using the results of each to push for changes to government practices in relation to nonprofit partnerships.
- Supporting the Integration of Health and Human Services, by taking steps to facilitate paid relationships between healthcare payers and human services CBOs through strategies aimed at moving forward the recommendations outlined in our report “Integrating Health and Human Services: A Blueprint for Partnership and Action.”
- Fostering Disaster Resiliency and Preparedness, by supporting disaster readiness, response, and recovery coordination among nonprofits, working collaboratively with government to ensure the sector is incorporated into its planning and effectively supported and leveraged for disaster readiness, response, and recovery efforts, and ensuring individual nonprofits have their own emergency plans.
- Coordinating Federal Roundtable, to raise New York’s human services’ voice against national cuts and problematic policies and keep the sector informed of the potential impact of national policy changes, including ways in which the sector can support a robust response to the 2020 Census.
- Addressing Issues of Equity, by working in collaboration with likeminded partners on the creation of a racial equity framework to infuse equity assessment in our work both internally and externally and by fostering conversations among human services leaders about the importance of adopting strategies focused on the dynamics of intersectionality with a particular focus on race.
- Training Members on Messaging and Advocacy, by continuing to champion an evolving messaging strategy designed by the Frameworks Institute that aims to shift language and challenge problematic perceptions of human services and through Advocacy Institute led trainings designed to improve nonprofit advocacy knowledge and techniques.
- Keeping Members Involved and Engaged, through our six active workgroups which influence HSC’s approach to advocacy and set our priorities; and our Priority and Strategy Council, a decision making body that serves as a broad forum for discussion of cross-cutting sector wide issues and trends.
- Convening and Networking, by continuing to convene leaders across human services subsectors to ensure effective coordination and offering a variety of opportunities for providers with different areas of expertise and focus to meet.
- Providing Access and Analysis, by creating opportunities for key policy makers to obtain feedback from nonprofit leaders, acting as a hub of information sharing between providers, government, and other stakeholders, and offering our analysis of budgets and policies impacting the sector.
HSC aims to ensure New York has strong and financially sound nonprofit human services institutions that have the margins to take innovative risks, can compensate those under its employ well, and ultimately deliver high quality services to communities. We will continue to highlight the value of human services and expose inadequacies in the funding model. We look forward to continuing to aggressively advocate for the needs of providers and setting a vision for a sustainable long term approach to the provision of human services.
