The Day After the Election

Collaboration Must Reach Families in Crisis

The day after the midterm elections, I noticed people of different races and ethnicities smiling and greeting one another. I didn’t know how they voted or what the results meant to them. Those simple exchanges made me wonder how leaders could build on that spirit of connection to bring people with different perspectives together to address the challenges families and communities face.

Human services collaboration offers a place to begin. For families worried about losing food assistance or encountering an immigration enforcement operation, an election ends, but their uncertainty continues.

Understand the Human Impact

In New York City, new SNAP work rules took effect in March 2026, with potential benefit losses beginning in June. The city now provides guidance for people who lost benefits because of those requirements. For an affected household, a policy change can become an immediate question: How will we afford groceries?

Immigration enforcement raises another set of concerns. Urban Institute research found that immigrant families avoided essential services and safety net programs in 2025 because of immigration-related fears. The consequences can extend to U.S. citizens and children within those families.

These are distinct policy issues, but they meet in families’ lives and in human service providers’ offices.

Consider a parent worried about an ICE raid who hesitates to attend an appointment. Consider someone struggling to document work hours before food benefits stop. A missed appointment or incomplete form tells an agency what happened. It may reveal very little about why.

Bring Different Perspectives Into Decisions

Supporters of work requirements may emphasize employment and responsible stewardship of public resources. Supporters of immigration enforcement may emphasize compliance with the law and public safety. Those goals deserve examination alongside questions about implementation, access, family stability, and the experiences of affected communities.

Taking different perspectives seriously requires asking difficult questions. Are eligible households losing assistance because they cannot navigate reporting requirements? Are people avoiding services because they misunderstand eligibility or fear what will happen to their information? What are frontline employees seeing that leadership reports miss?

Caseworkers, clerical staff and middle managers should help answer those questions. So should food providers, immigrant-serving organizations, qualified legal service providers and families themselves.

Turn Human Services Collaboration Into Action

Collaboration must produce a response: clearer notices, accurate eligibility information, appropriate referrals, staff training, and follow-up when a household falls through a gap. Leaders should explain what they can change, what requires legislative action and how community input influenced their decisions.

They should also examine outcomes beyond declining caseloads. Fewer people receiving assistance does not, by itself, tell us whether families have become more secure.

The greetings I witnessed reminded me that connection remains possible across our differences. Leaders can build on that possibility by making room for perspectives that challenge their assumptions.

After the election, families still need food, safety and reliable information. The measure of collaboration will be whether our willingness to acknowledge one another becomes a willingness to act together.

Dr. Denise D. Hendrix, DPA, is a director at New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA), where she advances collaborative governance and public service innovation. With more than 15 years of experience in public and nonprofit administration, her work focuses on homelessness, child welfare, organizational leadership and cross-sector collaboration. Dr. Hendrix is an adjunct professor, public administration scholar and contributor to PA TIMES. Her research explores trust, communication and collaborative governance networks. She is currently pursuing professional coaching certification and is passionate about developing leaders who build strong organizations through trust, effective communication and meaningful collaboration.

Photo Credit: RDNE Stock Project, Pexels