Public Administration Commons^™

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) Fy2023 Evaluation Report, Madhawa Palihapitiya, Karina Zeferino

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) is a comprehensive statewide program that provides free housing mediation services as a tool to increase housing stability with the intention of preventing homelessness created by landlord-tenant disputes. It is administered by the Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston and deploys the community mediation system infrastructure with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers) participating and serving all 14 counties of the Commonwealth to provide free conflict resolution services for tenants and landlords/property managers with housing disputes at any stage, from the earliest point a problem occurs, up to, and …

Increasing Housing Stability Through State-Funded Community Mediation Delivered By The Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (Hmp) In Fy2022, Madhawa Palihapitiya, David Sulewski, Karina Zeferino, Jarling Ho

Massachusetts Office of Public Collaboration Publications

This report presents findings and recommendations from an evaluation of the Massachusetts Housing Mediation Program (HMP) administered by the MA Office of Public Collaboration (MOPC) at the University of Massachusetts Boston in partnership with 11 Community Mediation Centers (Centers). The program is funded by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts and implemented in partnership with the Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). The program was initially part of the Governor’s Eviction Diversion Initiative (EDI), which ended in the latter half of FY2022 and is continuing as an intervention to support housing stability. The evaluation was conducted by MOPC’s research unit comprised …

Live Peabody: An Age-Friendly Action Plan, Caitlin Coyle, Beth Rouleau

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

The vision of the Live Peabody Initiative is to inspire change in the City of Peabody so that residents of all ages and abilities can thrive. The success of this initiative is dependent on the involvement of a dedicated and passionate group of residents and stakeholders that will proactively spearhead this age-friendly effort. These individuals will actively collaborate with civic, business and non-profit organizations as well as state and local government officials to heighten awareness of the age-friendly movement and implementation of the action items outlines in this report—all to spur positive change for the City of Peabody. This report …

Easthampton Council On Aging Planning Study, Caitlin Coyle, Jan Mutchler, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes collaborative efforts undertaken by the City of Easthampton Council on Aging (ECOA) and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging (CSDRA), within the Gerontology Institute at the McCormack Graduate School, University of Massachusetts Boston. Beginning in Fall 2017, these organizations partnered to conduct a study to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of the City’s residents age 55 and older. During this assessment, multiple approaches were utilized to compile information that could be used to plan and implement current and future services. We examined data from the U.S. Census Bureau and from projections generated …

Planning For An Age-Friendly Belmont, Jan Mutchler

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

Belmont is a primarily residential community of around 25,000 residents with a small commercial district. Public transit access to downtown Boston and neighboring Cambridge offers Belmont residents access to services, employment, and recreational activities outside of the town’s boundaries. With 22% of its population age 60 and older, Belmont is expecting to see an increase in the number of older residents in the coming years. Commissioned by the Belmont Council on Aging (COA), this report will serve to help the COA and Town to better understand Belmont’s current assets, potentials, and challenges and to plan for changing community needs.

The Silent Crisis Ii: A Follow-Up Analysis Of Latin@ Participation In City Government Boards, Commissions, And Executive Bodies In Boston And Chelsea, Massachusetts, James Jennings, Jen Douglas, Miren Uriarte

Gastón Institute Publications

This report provides an update on the participation of Latin@s in city government in Chelsea and Boston. Since 2001 several studies have documented a severe underrepresentation of Latin@s in policy-making bodies in government institutions that affect their lives (e.g., Hardy-Fanta, 2002; Uriarte, Jennings, & Douglas, 2014). The Silent Crisis, the 2014 study (Uriarte et al., 2014) commissioned by the Greater Boston Latin@ Network, found significant under-representation of Latin@s in the city governments of Boston, Chelsea, and Somerville. In each of the three cities, the representation of Latin@s in the population far outpaced their role in the municipal governments.

Needs Assessment For Belchertown Council On Aging, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle, Ceara Somerville

Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging Publications

This report describes research undertaken by the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging within the Gerontology Institute at the University of Massachusetts Boston, on behalf of the Belchertown Council on Aging, to investigate the needs, interests, preferences, and opinions of Belchertown’s mature population. The focus of this report is on two broad cohorts of Belchertown residents—those aged 60 and older, referred to here as “seniors” or “older adults,” and those age 50-59, who will be aging into the “senior” age range over the coming decade. The contents of this report are meant to inform the Town of Belchertown, …

The 2016 Election: Women In The Massachusetts Legislature, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

This Fact Sheet offers an analysis of female representation in the Massachusetts Legislature, as of the 2016 Election.

Policy Snapshot: Current State Efforts, Action, And Progress On Key Issues,, Center For Women In Politics And Public Policy, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Policy Snapshot created for the New England Women's Police Conference 2016: Ensuring Economic Equality for All Women and Their Families.

Testimony On The Equal Pay Act [H. 1733/S. 983], Ann Bookman

Publications from the Center for Women in Politics and Public Policy

Testimony on the Equal Pay Act [H. 1733/S. 983] by Ann Bookman, PhD, delivered at the Massachusetts State House, 2015 July 21.

Assessing Current And Future Needs Of Residents Aging In The Town Of Andover, Bernard A. Steinman, Ceara R. Somerville, Maryam Khaniyan, Hayley Gleason, Mai See Yang, Jan E. Mutchler

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report describes the collaborative efforts undertaken by the Town of Andover Division of Elder Services and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Beginning in Fall 2014, these organizations joined to conduct a needs assessment to investigate the needs, interests, preferences and opinions of the Town’s older resident population, with respect to aging in Andover. The focus of this report is on two cohorts of Andover residents—those who are age 50 to 59 (referred to as “Boomers”) and the cohort of individuals who are currently age …

The Silent Crisis: Including Latinos And Why It Matters, Representation In Executive Positions, Boards, And Commissions In The City Governments Of Boston, Chelsea, And Somerville, Miren Uriarte, James Jennings, Jen Douglas

Human Services Faculty Publication Series

The Silent Crisis: Involving Latinos in Decision-Making & Why Latino Representation Matters provides a measure of the economic, social, and political inclusion of Latinos at mid-decade in three cities of the Commonwealth where about one fourth of the state’s Latino population lives. Often wrongly referred to as a “new population,” Latinos have been present in Massachusetts since the end of the 19th century, arriving in large numbers beginning in the 1960s and 1970s and growing to nearly 630,000 persons (9.6% of the population) by 2010. That same year, they accounted for 62.1% of the population of Chelsea, 17.5% of the …

Massresults – Building A More Effective, Accountable, And Open State Government, John W. Mccormack Graduate School Of Policy And Global Studies, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Edward J. Collins, Jr., Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Russ Meekins, Amy Branger

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Through strategic plans, performance reports, and a program-based performance budget, the Patrick administration is using data to manage, making government more transparent and accountable. Working with the Executive Office of Administration & Finance, and partnering with the Commonwealth Performance, Accountability and Transparency office, the Collins Center at UMass Boston has been charged with implementing the MassResults program throughout the executive branch.

Massachusetts Municipal Performance Management Program (Mpmp), Michael Ward

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The mission of the MPMP is to make the ongoing, systematic use of data, measures, and goals a permanent feature of Massachusetts municipal government, and to accelerate the sharing of ideas among Massachusetts municipalities.

Through a team of highly-skilled Performance Management Analysts, each working directly with a portfolio of cities and towns, the MPMP provides on-the-ground support to Massachusetts municipalities on all aspects of data and analysis.

Evaluation Of The Jewish Community Housing For The Elderly Memory Support Initiative, Joan Hyde

Gerontology Institute Publications

Jewish Community Housing for the Elderly (JCHE) is a large, multi-campus organization that houses and serves 1,500 residents (80 market rate and 1,420 low income). The average age is 80 years old, with one-third of residents 85 and older. Three quarters of the residents are not native English speakers. Through HUD and other funding, JCHE offers a range of supports to these residents, including translators, interpreters and staff with language and cultural competence, meals, transportation and, through their Service Coordinators, facilitation of resident access to government benefits, home care and other services.

According to the Alzheimer’s Association’s 2012 special report …

Aging In Falmouth: Assessing Current And Future Needs Of Our Aging Population, Jan E. Mutchler, Bernard A. Steinman, Hayley Gleason, Caitlin E. Coyle

McCormack Graduate School Gerontology Faculty Publication Series

This report describes the collaborative efforts undertaken by the Town of Falmouth Council on Aging Senior Center and the Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging, within the McCormack Graduate School at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Beginning in Spring 2013, these organizations joined to conduct a needs assessment to investigate the needs, interests, preferences and opinions of the Town’s older resident population, with respect to aging in Falmouth. The focus of this report is on two cohorts of Falmouth residents—those aged 45 to 59 (referred to as “Boomers”), and the cohort of individuals who are currently aged 60 …

Review Of Proposed Plan For New Police And Fire Facilities, Carver, Ma, Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center For Public Management, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

The Edward J. Collins, Jr. Center for Public Management at the University of Massachusetts Boston was hired by the Town of Carver to perform an independent assessment of the Buildings Study Committee’s proposals for the construction/renovation of three new public facilities including a fire station, police station, and elementary school. Specifically, the team from the Center was asked to review: 1) the selected and considered sites for the facilities; and, 2) the funding plan recommended by the Buildings Study Committee.

This analysis has been divided into two components. This, first report presents the Center’s findings as they relate to the …

Managing Up: Managing Diversity In Challenging Times, Helen Levine

Commonwealth Compact

Commonwealth Compact is an organization formed to help make Massachusetts a location of choice for people of color and women in the belief that their contributions are vital to the region’s social and economic future. The need for an initiative such as Commonwealth Compact stems from a number of factors. As racial and ethnic diversity increases across the nation, business and civic leaders agree that it is critical to reverse the reputation that Massachusetts and Greater Boston, in particular, have not been seen as a welcoming, diverse place to live and work for people of color. Without a better reputation …

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Block Granting Medicaid And Other Retrenchment, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

On January 16, 2009, the Federal government approved Rhode Island’s application for a Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver whereby the state became the first granted permission to operate its entire Medicaid program under the state plan and a single 1115 “research and demonstration” waiver. The Global Waiver has been implemented in the context of Republican proposals to turn Medicaid into a block grant which would give states substantially more flexibility administering the program in exchange for receiving an upfront allotment from the Federal government. Proponents have held up the Global Waiver as a successful example of what might be …

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Rebalancing Long-Term Care Under The Affordable Care Act, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

Federal approval of Rhode Island’s Global Consumer Choice Compact Global Waiver in 2009 provided Rhode Island with greater flexibility to modify its Medicaid program. Because 96% of long-term care expenditures in Rhode Island were directed toward institutional settings, a primary goal was to facilitate the state’s efforts to shift the locus of long-term care to non-institutional settings. This study draws lessons from Rhode Island’s experience with the Global Waiver for the long-term care rebalancing provisions of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act of 2010. Data derive from 325 archival sources and 26 semi-structured interviews. Results suggest that prospectively documenting …

Implications Of Rhode Island’S Global Consumer Choice Compact Medicaid Waiver For Designing And Implementing State Health Reform, Edward Alan Miller, Divya Samuel, Susan Allen, Amal Trivedi, Vincent Mor

Gerontology Institute Publications

Provisions in the Medicaid statute permit states to apply for waivers from traditional program requirements. On January 16, 2009, the federal government approved Rhode Island's Global Consumer Choice Compact Waiver. In exchange for a cap on combined federal and state spending of $12.075 billion through 2013, Rhode Island received greater flexibility to adopt certain Medicaid program changes. This study analyzes the design and implementation of the Global Waiver to draw general lessons for health reform at the state-level, a key concern given ongoing state discretion to improve their health care systems under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. Data …

Aging In Hingham: A Community Affair, Jan Mutchler, Caitlin Coyle, Hayley Gravette

Gerontology Institute Publications

The purpose of this needs assessment is to investigate the needs, interests, and opinions of mature residents of Hingham, Massachusetts, relating to their aging experiences and needs for age-related services. This assessment was undertaken by the Gerontology Institute of the McCormack Graduate School at UMass Boston on behalf of the Town of Hingham Department of Elder Services (hereinafter referred to as the Department of Elder Services). The focus of this report is on Hingham residents aged 60+ (referred to here as “Seniors”) and residents aged 45-59 (referred to here as “Boomers”). Information about these two age groups was obtained both …

The Role Of Comparative Analysis In Borderlands Studies, Christine Brenner

Public Policy and Public Affairs Faculty Publication Series

The paper explores the question, “What global core competencies can public administration glean from the field of borderlands studies?” Borderlands studies have traditionally focused on the geographic area on or near the frontier demarcation between nation states. Borderlands also function as buffering or mediating zones where often markedly different countries develop complex networked administrative systems to permit the passage of peoples and products across territorial boundaries. In this way borderlands often shape the administrative and policy decisions made in the centers of national power. This paper employs content analysis to review ten years of the Journal of Borderlands Studies (2011 …

Activities And Achievements: Progress Report 2011-2013, Center For Governance And Sustainability, University Of Massachusetts Boston, Maria Ivanova, Craig Murphy, James Gustave Speth, Christiana Figueres, Alice Odingo

Center for Governance and Sustainability Publications

We joined the University of Massachusetts Boston in the fall of 2010 to develop a new doctoral program in global governance and human security, the first of its kind in the United States. In the spring of 2011, we launched the Center for Governance and Sustainability in an effort to bring academic rigor to real-world policy challenges in environment, development, and sustainability governance.

The Center is housed at the John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies, which takes pride in offering a world-class interdisciplinary education and engaging in values-driven research, demonstrating a deep commitment to making a …

Performance Management Recommendations For The New Administration, Shelley H. Metzenbaum

Edward J. Collins Center for Public Management Publications

Two simple tools—goals and measurement—are among the most powerful leadership mechanisms available to a President for influencing the vast scope of federal agencies. Goals and measurement are useless, however, unless used. They must be used not just to comply with mandated reporting requirements, but to communicate priorities and problems, to motivate through attention and feedback, and to illuminate where, when, and why performance changes. The President and his leadership team must focus their discussions to deliver results around specific goals and discuss progress and problems relative to them. Otherwise, the goals agencies articulate in written plans are likely to be …

Food Stamps: Available But Not Easily Accessible: A Study Conducted For Project Bread, Michelle Kahan, Elaine Werby, Jennifer Raymond

Center for Social Policy Publications

Concerned with growing hunger among Massachusetts families eligible for Food Stamps, and the paradoxical decline in the number of program enrollees, Project Bread asked the Center for Social Policy at the John W. McCormack Institute of Public Affairs, University of Massachusetts Boston (CSP) to study the process of securing and sustaining Food Stamp Benefits. Concurrent with the planning process for the study, the Massachusetts legislature, in an override of the Governor's veto in early December 2001, included language in the FY 2002 budget designed to expand access to the program. Among other requirements, the language requires the Department of Transitional …

A Policy Brief: Massachusetts (T)Afdc Case Closings, October 1993-August 1997, Donna Friedman, Emily Douglas, Michelle Hayes, Mary Ann Allard

Center for Social Policy Publications

When a DTA (Department of Transitional Assistance) worker assesses whether a family's (T)AFDC (Temporary Aid to Families with Dependent Children) case will be closed, s/he decides which one of 67 different codes best describes the reason cash benefits for the household will be stopped. To carry out the analyses, we sorted all of the 67 codes into clusters of codes that logically grouped together: Cluster I, Increased Income; Cluster H, Sanctions; Cluster III, Eligible Persons Moved; Cluster IV, Fraud; Cluster V, Client Request; Cluster VI, No Longer Eligible; Cluster VII, Other or Multiple Meanings. The Appendix displays a description of …

Eastward Ho: Issues And Options In Regional Development For The Metropolitan Boston Region, Robert C. Wood, Laura C. Ghirardini, Lori L. Prew, Aundrea Kelley

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

Conventional wisdom suggests that the basic job of public policy studies (and public institutions, for that matter) is to deal in a timely and practical fashion with pressing public issues of the day. The focus typically is on 'ripe' topics, 'hot' political problems. If a study can be ahead of the curve, in John Kingdon's apt phrase "an idea whose time has come," so much the better. But unlike more traditional academic research, where the focus is timeless — i.e., an explanation of previously inexplicable phenomena, timeliness is a prime reason for initiating a policy study.

In this context, analyzing …

Commonwealth's Choice: Results From The Massachusetts Public Opinion Survey, Barry Bluestone, Mary Ellen Colten, Thomas Ferguson

John M. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies Publications

From November 11 through December 4, 1989, the Center for Survey Research of the University of Massachusetts at Boston conducted a random digit dial survey of adults aged 18 and over in Massachusetts. A total of 423 individuals were interviewed in a sampling procedure that yielded a 63 percent response rate. In contrast to most media polls, this survey was carried out over a period of four weeks permitting extensive efforts at locating and interviewing difficult-to-reach, reluctant, or less interested respondents. This survey is likely to be more representative of the true population of Massachusetts than most state polls.

The Economic Status Of Older Women In Massachusetts, Elba Caraballo, Nita Goldstein

Gerontology Institute Publications

This report presents a list of current state legislative initiatives which directly or indirectly, affect older women in Massachusetts.

Despite the progress made by the Commonwealth in the area of elder services, a significant portion of this population continues to live in dire need. It is important that State Legislators, State Administrators, policymakers and community leaders understand the needs of this population and work to increase the financial resources and enhance the dignity of older women in the Commonwealth.