Introduction I am a board member of the Greater Cleveland Food Bank and earlier this year I was saddened to learn of the passing of Dan Rourke, a client health specialist with the Food Bank’s Help Center. He was one of the guiding spirits of the Help Center and helped connect thousands of Food Bank...
Category: Strengthening the HHS Safety Net
June 10, 2019
Feds float idea of re-evaluating poverty measures: Why you should pay attention
Last month, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), issued a notice that it’s looking at various inflation measures and how those measures influence the Official Poverty Measure (OPM) and other Census Bureau income measures. What does this mean? Currently, the OPM is tied to the consumer price index (CPI). The CPI is an inflation measure...
May 28, 2019
Solutions that Chip Away at Racial Disparities in Criminal Justice
It is well-documented that black Americans, particularly black men, are arrested, charged and incarcerated at disproportionately high rates compared to white Americans.[1] The existence of this racial disparity in the criminal justice system has ripple effects in nearly every other system. For instance, having an incarcerated parent is considered an adverse childhood experience, which...
May 28, 2019
Multi-System Youth Frequently Asked Questions
May 20, 2019
Syringe services programs in two more Ohio counties
By: Melissa Federman, Treuhaft Chair for Health Planning Sam Sobul, Community Solutions Policy Intern In March, The Center for Community Solutions released a report on Syringe Service Programs (SSPs) in Ohio. The report profiles programs that were created since 2016, when we wrote on a new legal environment that allowed the services and programs to...
April 8, 2019
Where is the Justice? Addressing Racial Disparities in the Juvenile Justice System
This is the third blog in a series responding to the infographic report on racial disparities in Cleveland that I authored in December. You can go back and read the first blog on infant mortality and the second blog on racial disparities in childhood. It would be impossible (and irresponsible) to write anything about the...
March 26, 2019
Community Solutions’ Budget Priorities
February 25, 2019
Bridging the SNAP gap: How Ohio is mitigating the federal shutdown’s lingering impact on food assistance
A month ago, amid the backdrop of a prolonged partial shutdown of the federal government, I wrote about the extreme consequences Ohio would face if federal funding for food assistance were to run out before the shutdown was resolved. Thankfully, with the shutdown ending on January 25 and the recent passage of a spending bill...
February 25, 2019
Addressing racial disparities in Childhood: Opportunities in education
This is the second blog in a series responding to the infographic report on racial disparities in Cleveland that I authored in December. Click here to read the first blog. The existence of wide disparities between black and white children living in poverty is not surprising. Poverty is a measure of income relative to family...
January 28, 2019
Driver’s license suspensions disproportionately impact poor Ohioans
The Center for Community Solutions has written about the ways in which our current transportation policy choices affect health outcomes and Medicaid spending, including how access to transportation increases economic mobility and alleviates poverty. However, it’s important to highlight how a driver’s license is a near necessity for employment in Ohio, with the Ohio Department...