It’s been a busy few weeks (months…years….?) in the Ohio legislature. Last we checked in, the Governor’s version of the state budget—House Bill (HB) 33—was making its way through the House of Representatives. The House Finance Subcommittee on Health and Human Services, along with the other issue area subcommittees, heard testimony from a diverse set...
Pandemic EBT Extends to Virtual and Homeschooled Students for 2022-2023 School Year
By: Rachel Cahill, Visiting Fellow, Public Benefits Sofia Charlot, Co-author Since the launch of the Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer (P-EBT) program in the spring of 2020, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services (ODJFS), the Ohio Department of Education (ODE), and thousands of Ohio schools have worked tirelessly to ensure that federal funds help...
How can we lift an Invisible Child out of poverty?
The Pulitzer Prize-winning book by Andrea Elliot Invisible Child: Poverty, Survival & Hope in an American City follows one homeless family in New York City during the 2010s. The book describes experiences of Dasani and her family as they navigate school, shelters, and the social service systems which are meant to be the safety net...
Ohio Multi-System Youth Coalition State Budget Policy Priorities
By: Tara Britton, Director of Policy; and Sarah Hudacek, Advocates for Ohio’s Future The Ohio Multi-System Youth Coalition consists of families, providers, researchers, advocates and stakeholders from across Ohio committed to better outcomes for multi-system youth (MSY) and their families. The Coalition has continually worked on issues related to youth and families since 2016, with...
Governor Mike DeWine’s Health and Human Service State Budget Highlights
Ohio’s two-year state budget is the single most important policy document that state policymakers will consider while in office. A state budget demonstrates values and illustrates priorities. It translates lofty campaign promises into dollars and cents. This budget proposal is no different. A state budget demonstrates values and illustrates priorities. New! Department of Children and...
Community Solutions’ 2022 audience survey results are in!
The social services safety net and basic needs like food and housing is the most important health, social, or economic issue confronting the state of Ohio, according to the latest Community Solutions audience survey. Economic development, job training, and employment fell to the lowest level since we started asking the question a decade ago, landing...
PEP: Interrupting disparities in the behavioral health pipeline
For many, 2020 was a year of struggle and difficulties, especially dealing with a pandemic and community unrest. But for an 8-year-old child with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, 2020 would also be the year they were handcuffed by police making them the youngest person to be handcuff by Ohio’s Cleveland Division of Police. Over the years, we,...
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...