Linking Human Services How Selected States and Counties Have Succeeded in Integrating Human Services Programs

Analyzes common factors in successful human services integration efforts. Linking Human Services describes different approaches taken by state and local program managers to address the many challenges of comprehensive service reform. Human service professionals have long expressed interest in moving from the fractured, redundant, and confusing model of separate human service programs to a more coherent system, often called service integration, to better meet the needs of poor families. Mark Ragan addresses the lack of real information about these attempts by analyzing a number of service integration efforts designed to reform the welfare system and by describing several critical success factors based on more than forty site visits conducted in twelve states. The book details the changing nature of welfare and shows that many families need multiple benefits and services, such as child care, job training, health Insurance, and counseling in order to succeed in the labor market. Linking Human Services also looks at new legislation that has given program administrators greater flexibility to design and implement systems that connect the myriad of human service programs at the local level. This combination of flexibility and the need to move families from dependence to self-sufficiency makes service integration not just wishful thinking, but a necessity.Ragan, Mark is the author of 'Linking Human Services How Selected States and Counties Have Succeeded in Integrating Human Services Programs' with ISBN 9781930912052 and ISBN 1930912056.