In turning its bail system around, New Jersey has shown a capacity for evidence-based policy innovation that's likely to serve as a national model.
Read moreMeeting the Management Challenges of Reunifying Families
Timely housing assistance is crucial, but it can be tricky to overcome institutional barriers.
Read morePhilanthropy’s Real Value to the Public Sector
It can catalyze government to take risks, move quickly and pay attention to neglected issues.
Read moreLessons for Program Design From a Food-as-Medicine Experiment
The spread of an innovative program piloted in Philadelphia is the result of persistence, rigorous study and evaluation, along with efforts to avoid common pitfalls.
Read moreA Powerful Tool for Getting Citizens Involved
By engaging residents on issues of climate and weather, it demonstrates how program design can be improved and strengthened.
Read moreShaking Up Sleepy Bureaucratic Processes
It's called 'service design.' The idea is to combine behavioral science with a participatory approach to making public services work better.
Read moreA Transformative Shift for Juvenile Justice
The accelerating move away from punitive detention recognizes a critical factor: Adolescent brains are different.
Read moreThe Promise and Perils of ‘Moving the Boxes’
Reorganizing a government's agencies and services -- whether consolidating them or breaking them up -- isn't easy. There are some important things to keep in mind.
Read moreWhat Plumbers Can Teach Public Managers
When a program is dysfunctional, the problem is often in the pipes and valves it flows through.
Read morePublic Policy and the Blame Game
Instead of working to solve problems like underfunded pensions, too often we spend our time and energy pointing fingers.
Read moreThe Complex Challenges of Measuring the Impact of Social Programs
As efforts to evaluate housing programs illustrate, it's difficult to make precise comparisons. But it's worth the effort.
Read morePublic Leadership and the Gift of Time Well Spent
Civic innovation can improve the way government works, but it needs a long runway.
Read moreHow Philadelphia Is Watering Community Creativity
A project to fix the city's stormwater problems has blossomed into so much more.
Read moreCan Comprehensive Collaboration Improve Outcomes for Students?
Experiments in the Seattle area that involve an array of organizations have ambitious goals.
Read moreAn Intriguing New Approach to Funding Social Programs
Pay-for-success programs seem to hold promise as a way to find the up-front investments for programs that save money in the long run.
Read moreThe Public-Administration Quandary: ‘Who’ vs. ‘What’
In the end, it's usually better to define what a service should be before deciding who should deliver it.
Read moreWhen a Public Agency Is Badly Broken
What happened to the VA can happen to any government institution. New leadership is just the first step on the road to reform.
Read moreHow a Community's Culture Can Make or Break Government Reform
The story of Italy's effort to decentralize its governmental functions offers lessons for innovators everywhere.
Read moreGovernment Programs and the Challenge of Proving Downstream Savings
The assertion that a program will save more money than it costs in the long term is a difficult one to demonstrate.
Read moreWhen Connection is the Innovation in Human Services
A journal launched by two Philadelphia social services entrepreneurs is going a long way toward spreading the word about what works and what doesn't.
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