Announcing the Casework Navigator program
At the POPVOX Foundation, we are delighted to announce the launch of our Casework Navigator program to support and strengthen casework as a vital area of Congressional service—in part because casework is one of the places where we find the most optimism for Congress.
In recent years, a devoted body of research and advocacy has emerged to focus on Congressional capacity, or Congress’s ability to carry out its constitutional responsibilities. Unusually for Congress, experts on both sides of the aisle tend to agree: the combination of a decline in nonpartisan expert professional staff, frozen Member salaries, frozen staff caps, and mostly-static budgets for Congressional offices has resulted in a Congress that is less capable of carrying out the people’s business, more susceptible to the influence of lobbying, weakened by the usurpation of power by the Executive and Judicial branches, and locked in partisan bickering.
However, what this scholarship has largely overlooked is the work of district staff, and especially caseworkers.
Away from the partisanship of Washington, caseworkers serve constituents and interact on a daily basis with Executive branch agencies, building up an extraordinary and unique expertise. The Casework Navigator Program is based on a belief that building on the existing strengths of casework and casework staff can help Congress improve its capacity, reclaim its Article One responsibilities, and earn public trust.
The Navigator program will be focused on around three principles, which together serve as a “north star” for casework excellence:
Constituents first
Good casework begins with identifying constituent needs, and finding creative ways to be responsive to them. This also requires the flexibility to observe and adapt to changing constituent needs over time.
Supporting caseworkers
Offices cannot meet constituent needs without prioritizing support for the staff tasked with constituent services. This includes developing a long-term approach to sustainable casework, along with recognizing and elevating the unique expertise and skills caseworkers develop in Congressional service.
Future facing casework
Casework is part of Congress’s “pacing problem(s):” a consistent lack of investment in the tools and resources Congress needs to do its job has left it lagging behind the industries and entities it is supposed to regulate and oversee. To address this, we envision strategies that help caseworkers draw on innovations in other fields, and prioritize the development and advancement of casework as a whole.
As part of the Casework Navigator program, the POPVOX Foundation will work to develop resources for Congressional offices that support efficient, effective casework. These resources will not duplicate the work of existing efforts in the House and Senate, but provide additional perspectives with the flexibility, transparency, and wide-ranging focus possible from an outside organization.
The program will include three primary services for offices:
A Casework Basics program that provides free and accessible webinars, resources, and updates to all Congressional caseworkers,
A subscription-based Professional Development program that provides more in-depth webinars and customizable casework manual templates, available on an annual, per-office basis, and
Tailored educational workshops focused on helping casework teams innovate to provide sustainable, high-quality constituent services.
In addition to services for offices, we will also explore opportunities to convene caseworkers, researchers, and internal and external reformers to develop a vision for what casework can look like in the short- and long-term future. This includes educating the public about casework, elevating casework as vital to effective legislative business, and working to keep casework in conversations about Congressional modernization and capacity-building.
Caseworkers can learn more at popvox.org/casework.
Questions? Suggestions? Reach out at casework@popvox.org.
