How Public Systems Can Strengthen Community Service Providers

“A recent­ly released report from the Cen­ter for the Study of Social Pol­i­cy (CSSP) high­lights the chal­lenges encoun­tered by com­mu­ni­ty-based pro­grams that serve cul­tur­al­ly diverse fam­i­lies. Fund­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, Cul­ture Is Heal­ing: Remov­ing the Bar­ri­ers Fac­ing Providers of Cul­tur­al­ly Respon­sive Ser­vices, pro­pos­es con­crete pol­i­cy rec­om­men­da­tions to address obsta­cles to the avail­abil­i­ty, financ­ing and sus­tain­abil­i­ty of these programs. 

“Com­mu­ni­ty-based providers have led the way on devel­op­ing cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive pro­grams that increase engage­ment, reten­tion and pos­i­tive out­comes for par­tic­i­pants,” says Sarah Bradach, a pro­gram asso­ciate in the Foundation’s Evi­dence-Based Prac­tice Group. ​“Draw­ing on the wis­dom of these providers, CSSP’s report makes rec­om­men­da­tions for pol­i­cy­mak­ers to unlock the trans­for­ma­tive poten­tial of these pro­grams to advance youth and fam­i­ly well-being in com­mu­ni­ties of color.”

“As ser­vice providers imple­ment much-need­ed pro­grams that respect com­­mu­ni­­ty-defined evi­dence of what works, they face numer­ous bar­ri­ers to suc­cess,” says Esi Hutch­ful, a senior pol­i­cy ana­lyst at CSSP and author of Cul­ture Is Heal­ing.

To bet­ter sup­port cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive ser­vice providers and the com­mu­ni­ties they serve, the report rec­om­mends sev­er­al actions that fed­er­al, state and local pol­i­cy­mak­ers can take.

Read the full blog post, appearing on the Annie E. Casey website, here.

Learn more about Culture is Healing: Removing the Barriers from Culturally Responsive Services:

		Culture is Healing: Removing the Barriers Facing Providers of Culturally Responsive Services FULL REPORT This brief lifts up the voices of those community providers, with the goal of highlighting and addressing the barriers that stand in the way of all families having the support they need.
		Culture is Healing: Removing the Barriers Facing Providers of Culturally Responsive Services WEBINAR In this webinar, community providers discuss the challenges they face in providing responsive services, including building evidence and operating in the context of restrictive “evidence-based” standards, as well as recommendations for actions state and federal policymakers can take to ensure all families have the support they need through expanding access and availability of programs that are developed by and for communities of color.