In response to the profound impact the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the field of child welfare, the Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) issued a call for child welfare experts, practitioners, families, advocates, and others to share insights into the opportunities, challenges, and innovations resulting from the global crisis. CWLA sought essay contributions exploring, in part, “how communities are exposing and addressing challenges, reawakening a sense of connectedness, and taking steps needed to advance the goal of the National Blueprint.”

In 2021, PCG will be working with the Child Care Services Association (CCSA) to start planning and developing North Carolina’s Early Childhood and School-Age (EC/SA) workforce registry. The registry will be a valuable resource for states to communicate with the EC/SA workforce during the COVID-19 pandemic and other emergencies.

The concept of person-centered planning has been at play for decades, yet the publication of the Home and Community-based Services (HCBS) Settings Final Rule (“Final Rule”) in 2014 was the first time person-centeredness was explicitly tied to ongoing funding of home and community-based settings under the various Medicaid waiver authorities. As states work to comply with the Final Rule, agencies and service providers should embrace the important role they play in a state’s ability to make the shift to person-centeredness.

Tracy Bell, Public Consulting Group (PCG), became involved with the Kresge Foundation in July 2019. He was contacted by leadership to become a volunteer Advisory Committee member for the foundation’s Human Services Division. Mr. Bell works with other committee members to evaluate funding opportunities for local and state government agencies that meet certain criteria set forth by the foundation.