What is the "Welfare" System in 2019?

I started my academic career with a study of the welfare system;  my dissertation focused upon frontline conditions in public and nonprofit organizations in 1996 during the national debates about welfare reform.  Once the entitlement to cash assistance was eliminated and the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) Block Grant implemented, there was not much national attention to what actually happened.  My national fellowship with the US Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation allowed me to turn my attention to understanding current  welfare policy and practice.  

In fact, the origins of the Future Services Institute come from that work.  Re-engaging with social policy analysis helped me to see more clearly where we were stuck, and how support for innovation and reform was necessary if we were going to move to the next level.   Well, we just finished a policy report about conditions in the welfare system.   But we've also been working with county government to create a app to improve communication among service providers and families.  And there is an academic publication that came from that project as well (see the 'Library' part of this website. 

In the 21st century, public engaged scholarship has to have many distinct products if we want to be part of what helps improve public services.