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"Building capacity for customer-centered health, human services, and labor systems aligment. Allign capacity-building efforts across state agencies."

San Diego-based Total Communicator Solutions Inc., a leader in mobile brand management, announced today the use of the Gimbal™ context aware and proximity platform integrated with its Spark Compass platform in a pioneering research project in workplace wellness. The project, named Project Boundary , has been conceptualized by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) IDEA Lab and the Office of the National Coordinator. It is a research project undertaken in the spirit of exploring new concepts and ideas in workplace wellness that will benefit the American workplace, and to spark further innovation in this space. “Our project is...

Government wants ‘social media analytic tool’ for ‘ongoing monitoring’The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is seeking a “social media analytic tool” that will give the government access to “full Twitter historical data,” according to a solicitation released on Tuesday. The agency is seeking feedback for a “possible future acquisition to provide near real time social media analysis.” HHS said it wants to use the tool for “ongoing monitoring” of public health issues. HHS provides a long list of requirements, including “access to real-time social media posts,” and “access to full Twitter firehose.” The agency requires an archive that...

LANSING — Michigan has made several changes to its Foster Youth in Transition Program in light of an audit that found it spent thousands of dollars on iPods, prom dresses, senior trips and a traffic ticket. The audit, released last month, found that the Michigan Department of Human Services did not effectively evaluate and monitor the payments and services it provided to youth transitioning out of foster care. The program is 80 percent funded by federal funds and 20 percent with state general fund dollars. State representatives questioned DHS officials about the audit and changes made during a House committee...

Many nonprofit organizations will be getting less money from state and federal governments.

A pair of local child care workers are suing the state over their mandatory inclusion into a union. Following a December 2008 notification letter from the state, child care workers began paying union dues to the Child Care Providers Together Michigan, an arm under the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and United Auto Workers, because they receive subsidy checks from the Michigan Department of Human Services for caring for children of low income families. But Petoskey residents Sherry Loar and Dawn Ives said they never asked to be part of a union and contacted the Mackinaw Center...

Walla Walla's County Board of Commissioners is now engaged in a Priorities of Government (POG) exercise, asking the question: What is the most efficient way to ensure citizens receive human services? To answer this question, commissioners authorized a study to find out the effects of competitive bidding the Department of Human Services' (DHS) functions to a non-governmental, non-profit entity. The study concluded that without a decrease in service, competitive bidding of DHS services would reduce the size of county government by 46 full-time, benefited employees and 22 part-time and on-call employees. The county also would move from direct to indirect...

The Chronicle for Higher Education is reporting that the National Academy of Sciences has published a paper on how terrorists could kill tens of thousands of people by dropping a few grams of botulinum toxin into a milk truck or storage silo. The Academy published the paper over protests by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The paper, authored by two Stanford University researchers, was scheduled to have been published in the academy's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a month ago but the academy had held the paper because of the concerns leveled by HHS. The...

Plan may cut food stamps for some. Chicago(AP) - More people will fall off the federal food stamp rolls if the state follows through with a plan to close 25 regional offices of the Department of Human Services, an advocacy group said. Only 67 percent of Illinoisans who are eligible for federal food stamps receive them, Illinois Hunger Coalition Executive Director Diane Doherty said. About 20 members of the Coalition protested the planned cuts Wednesday outside the department's regional office in Chicago.More people would apply for and receive food stamps if Human Services had a bigger staff, Doherty said.Illinois is...

Leonard: In all my years in advocacy I have noticed a lot of people are like lawyers they try to horde their information and promote their own stories over others ignoring others in order to do so. As you know (evident from your candidness, a man after my own heart) we need to promote everyone's story and enlist everyone possible to get attention on the horrors. To that end everyone of us involved in opposition to the governments war on children and families should; promote this opportunity to get CBS 60 minutes to do a cover piece on the plight...

<p>WASHINGTON -- Community health centers do not perform abortions, but abortion politics are threatening legislation that would renew federal support for their work.</p> <p>There is widespread support for the centers and President Bush puts them at the center of his plan to help the uninsured. But House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, will not let a bill reauthorizing the program come before the full House until he gets a vote on a much more contentious matter involving abortions at other publicly funded institutions.</p>