Newsletter: August Crib Sheet

Somewhere in all the chaos of the summer, we realized—the Casework Navigator program has been up and running for six months! As we hit this milestone, we wanted to take a moment to round up what we’ve been working on, and some key takeaways from the last few months (and years) of casework. Here are the big things that have stood out:

1. Caseworkers are the dang best: We keep being blown away by your dedication to serving constituents, and the creativity and generosity you bring to that service. It’s an honor.

2. Caseworker expertise is vital, and translates: It’s also been an enormous pleasure to cheerlead for casework with people in Congress who have no idea about the services you provide. The constant takeaway is that your insight from casework can and should play a role in crafting both a Congress and an Executive Branch that work for the people they serve.

3. Casework should be easier: For all the improvements of the last few years, we know there are still fixable sticking points both small and large that stand in your way. As we head into the next six months and beyond, we hope to focus on tackling some of these issues, and drawing attention to the ones out of our scope.

With that, we thought we’d take this week to round up some of our materials from the last six months. If you have suggestions or ideas for topics in the future, let us know! Reply to this email or reach out at casework@popvox.org.

Webinars

Casework Navigator webinars focus on what caseworkers can learn from other industries or parts of Congressional service that will help promote sustainable, rewarding, and resilient casework. They’re also great fun.

• Burnout and Care, with Julie Collier (Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare)

• Care and Keeping of Agency Relationships, with Nina Olson (Center for Taxpayer Rights, former Taxpayer Advocate)

• Appropriations for Caseworkers, with Franz Wuerfmannsdobler (Bipartisan Policy Center)

• Intro to Data for Caseworkers, with Alexandra Mannerings (Merakinos)

• Legislation and Oversight for Casework, with Tim Stretton (Project on Government Oversight)

• Involving Interns and Fellows in Casework, with Anne Meeker (👋🏻)

Looking for our Storytelling and Communications webinars? They’ll be available in the fall!

Case Notes

Case Notes are short pieces where we nerd out on topics relevant to casework and caseworkers. Ideas for topics (or guest posts!) are always very welcome.

• Casework in the International Context: Notes from Sunny Yerevan

• Sharing constituent stories while respecting privacy

• Ensuring caseworker expertise is considered in discussions of how agencies will use AI

• Involving interns and fellows in casework

• Casework by the numbers: what we do and don’t know

• Canaries in the coal mine: casework lessons from the 2008 financial crisis

Everything Else

Roadmap for Congressional Casework Data
White paper from the POPVOX Foundation on the path to a national casework data aggregator.

Safety Guide for Caseworkers
Developed with the National Association of Social Workers to help district teams balance safety with welcoming constituents.

Modernizing Government
Bipartisan conversation on implementing big policies (and why implementation expertise is vital for fixing government).

AI Tools for the Congressional Workplace
Recorded briefing on what generative tools like ChatGPT will enable (and inflict) on Congressional operations, including casework.

Calling on Congress
Webinar for local governments on working with local Congressional offices

Best Practices for Working with Whistleblowers
Not POPVOX Foundation, but a truly excellent resource on the House side—The Office of the Whistleblower Ombuds has released the latest iteration of its on demand training, Best Practices for Working with Whistleblowers: A 60-minute self-paced training that covers best practices for working with whistleblower constituents and oversight sources. This training is available to House staff through the Congressional Staff Academy.

Last But Not Least

We wanted to say a huge and heartfelt thank you to our Senior Fellow for Casework Programs, Katherine Long. Katherine joined us after fifteen years of serving with Senator Leahy, and is moving on to her next role with the State Department’s PRM team. Katherine, it’s been an honor, and we can’t wait to hear what life is like on the agency side. Best of luck!

Comments, questions, suggestions, tips, concerns? Did someone forward you this email, and you’d like to subscribe? Send all of the above my way: anne@popvox.org.

Anne Meeker
Deputy Director