Welcome to our latest edition of WonkCast: People Power Policy.
Episode # 10: Brightpoint President & CEO Mike Shaver
We’re now 30 years post passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, the ‘96 welfare reform law that created the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, reshaped child welfare financing, and fundamentally renegotiated the U.S. safety net.
Thinkers across the ideological spectrum are increasingly elevating the ways that this policy from another era is now straining to meet the challenges of this one.
A central question if we’re serious about moving beyond platitudes is what’s missing in the debate about the role of cash assistance in safety net policy, and why does it matter?
So often this debate is flat and two-dimensional.
We hear broad arguments for cash assistance that gloss over complex factors driving poverty, and broad arguments against cash assistance that discount deprivation’s impact.
What’s more rare is a rigorous conversation about the role and limits of cash assistance, particularly in the context of child welfare involvement.
Today’s guest is a leader building the evidence to structure that policy conversation with rigor.
Mike Shaver is the President and CEO of Brightpoint, an IL-based provider of child and family services.
Under Mike’s leadership, BrightPoint is conducting a pilot program; “Empower Parenting with Resources” or EmPwR, which is testing the impact of a monthly cash stipend for families receiving family preservation services.
This conversation explores how policy flexibility fuels innovation, why economic instability constrains choices for families, and what’s missing from the policy debate about cash assistance.
If you’re dissatisfied with slogan solutions and interested in the kind of complexity required to actually get policy right, this conversation is for you.
If this is your first listen, check out Episode 0 here to learn more about the show, and subscribe through Apple Podcasts or Spotify.
Sponsorship Shoutout
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