This study tests the effectiveness of a global all-payer payment model combined with multi-sector community health teams in improving health and social outcomes for Vermont residents. The Vermont Blueprint for Health initiative is among the most ambitious statewide health financing reforms now underway in the U.S. The study uses quasi-experimental methods to estimate the reform's effects on relationships among health and social service organizations, access to needed health and social services, healthcare utilization and costs, and equity in health outcomes.

The prolonged activation of stress response systems among children responding to adversity such as homelessness, hunger, or neglect, is a predictor of poor health and continued poverty among low-income families. To study the health and economic impacts and systems implications of integrated services provided by the Pennsylvania Department of Human Services and Drexel University’s Center for Hunger-Free Communities, the principal investigators are evaluating the Building Wealth and Health Network (The Network) intervention, designed to reduce health inequities by aligning Medicaid coverage for behavioral health services and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) education and training services.

Lack of coordination of health and community services with individual agencies working in isolation leads to wasted resources and poor outcomes for the most vulnerable in our nation’s neighborhoods. One method of addressing this lack of coordination is by adopting a place-based system integration model where providers of services collaborate and work together to improve the health and well-being of the populations they serve.

Members of the homeless population bear greater risk than other populations for many preventable diseases but are less likely to access healthcare systems. These individuals need to be engaged by multiple systems to access services and support related not only to stable housing but also to reliable transportation, employment opportunities, and a healthy family environment. This one-year developmental study will evaluate the US Department of Housing and Urban Development’s initiative, the Continuum of Care (CoC) system, which addresses homelessness through cross-sector collaboration.

Children affected by the opioid epidemic need a complex array of services and supports to safeguard their health and wellbeing, including child protective services, legal representation, educational services, comprehensive physical and mental health care, and often foster care placement coupled with family reunification strategies. Timely access to these services is especially difficult in rural areas. A research team led by Ohio State University will examine strategies that use regional, multi-sector governing boards to help organizations work together in coordinating services for children and families in rural areas.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, evaluates the feasibility of a modified Church-based home visiting program that aims to align health and social services for households with young children and dismantle forms of structural racism faced by these households. The program to be modified and tested is delivered by Shiloh Baptist Church in Trenton New Jersey, a predominantly Black congregation, with the goal of reducing adverse childhood experiences (ACES) and promoting positive childhood experiences within historically marginalized families and communities.

This study, funded as part of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Systems for Action research program, will assess the feasibility, acceptability and potential impact of participatory budgeting (PB) as a mode of civic engagement to improve health outcomes and advance equity for racially and ethnically marginalized communities, using “The People’s Money” initiative as the first city-wide test of a participatory budgeting intervention for New York City. The intervention allows community residents to decide how to spend allocated Mayoral funds on projects to address prioritized needs within communities.

Arons, A., Alban-Acuna, P., Simon, M. et al. Social service organizations report improvements in social services-health care integration in survey during California’s medicaid initiative (“CalAIM”). BMC Public Health 25, 2234 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-025-23419-3 Journal Article: Click...

The Systems Alignment Innovation Hub (SAIH) launched the Equity Capacity Building Grant program in early January, 2025 to offer low-barrier grant opportunities to organizations who needed financial support and technical assistance to build the capacity to engage in systems alignment research...

The James Humphrey Jr. Foundation (JHJF), serves Black, Brown, and Indigenous (BBI) youth in Oklahoma and Arkansas. Their systems alignment challenge is to inform public health, behavioral healthcare, and social service sectors of the support that BBI college bound students need to succeed in...