The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee met on January 18th, 2023 to consider seven different contracts to begin the new legislative term. The contracts involved numerous issues of importance to health and human services in Cuyahoga County. Child and Family Services David Merriman, Director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Health and...
Council On Older Persons maintains advocacy for older adults in 2022 and into 2023
As the calendar has turned to 2023 and the policy focus shifts to state and county budgets, it is important to reflect on what was a very busy 2022 for The Council On Older Persons (COOP). COOP is the last remaining advisory group from the predecessors to The Center for Community Solutions, the Welfare Federation...
Community partners key to equity in mpox vaccine access
Last fall, we watched friends and loved ones face the outbreak of an infectious disease that was then called monkeypox (now referred to by the less stigmatizing term “mpox”), fearing a repeat of the pattern of restricted resources, misinformation, and medical mistrust that hits hardest in Black and Brown communities. Fortunately, we already had a...
Showing our work: does Community Solutions use ChatGPT?
ChatGPT is a powerful language model developed by OpenAI, capable of generating human-like text based on input prompts. It has been used in a wide range of applications, from generating news articles to creating personalized responses in chatbots. However, despite its impressive capabilities, ChatGPT has several limitations that must be taken into account when using...
Village of Healing: Where Black Moms Matter
Upon making the decision to prioritize improving the dire maternal and infant health crisis our state is facing, Community Solutions committed itself to ensuring said efforts are rooted in the lived experience of the families and professionals in our communities. Thus far, these collaborations have come in a myriad of forms, including engaging with practicing...
Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services, and Aging Committee Address Multiple Contracts
The Cuyahoga County Health, Human Services, and Aging committee reconvened on September 21, 2022 after a lengthy recess. Because of the break, the county had to hear and consider several contracts, some of which required lengthy presentations and review. The following is a summary of those presentations. Additionally, several of the funding proposals would be...
Building Intentional Disability Community
The way we interact and connect with other people has been continually changing since early 2020. With the abrupt onset of COVID-19 many of us physically isolated ourselves from contact with anyone outside of our immediate living space. We collectively learned how to meet virtually and socialize in ways that did not require sharing air....
Celebration 2022: Three hours of genius
Continuing an 80-year tradition of community education and celebration, the 2022 Celebration of Human Services was held on October 21 at the Intercontinental Hotel. The morning session featured a discussion between Ohio Senator Matt Dolan and Franklin County Commissioner Erica Crawley: “Making Policy to Improve Infant, Maternal, and Adolescent Health.” Marcia Egbert, Program Director for...
Improving Infant, Maternal and Adolescent Health: October 21 Celebration Forum
Maternal and infant health is a Community Solutions priority that we spend a lot of time researching and exploring, especially in the past year. The result is always the same: significant disparities exist for mothers, babies, and families: and there are steps that Ohio could take to make improvements. For example, Ohio recently took advantage...