Our Impact

We strive to make meaningful and measurable impacts in people’s lives by empowering governments to improve delivery of key services.

What does impact mean?

We ask questions like:

What are the biggest challenges facing communities?

What solutions do individuals and families need from government?

What barriers does government face in delivering those solutions?

What solutions do governments need to deliver better results for their communities?

Building a system that prioritizes keeping children in family settings

A stock image of a grandfather playing with his grandson.

Building a system that prioritizes keeping children in family settings

Between 2019 and 2023, officials in the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services reduced the number of children in congregate care from more than 1,000 to fewer than 400. With the GPL’s support, leaders increased placements with and supports for kin caregivers, streamlined children’s access to behavioral health services, and added additional layers of approval for any congregate care placements.

Today, Michigan continues to be a national leader in their efforts to place children with kin, expand the service array for children, including mobile crisis services and wraparound supports, and invest in additional prevention supports for families so more kids can stay with their family and not enter foster care in the first place.

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Reducing the use of costly, unnecessary supervision conditions for pretrial clients

The outside of the Harris County bonding facility.

Reducing the use of costly, unnecessary supervision conditions for pretrial clients

Between 2020 and 2022, judges in Harris County reduced supervision conditions for more than 2,200 clients, lowering the costs and harms associated with in-person check-ins, drug tests, and constant electronic monitoring, with no corresponding changes in client compliance rates or re-arrest rates.

These step-downs were the result of a pilot program that the GPL helped Harris County Pretrial Services launch. The pilot focused on equipping judges and pretrial staff with real-time data that enabled them to monitor and adjust the intensity of pretrial supervision requirements. Now, lessons from this pilot are being used to inform the GPL’s work with six other jurisdictions in our Pretrial Initiative.

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Improving prevention services for people at risk for homelessness

A smiling customer service representative wearing a headset in a call center, surrounded by computer monitors and colleagues working in the background.

Improving prevention services for people at risk for homelessness

Leaders in Detroit, Michigan launched a centralized hotline to connect vulnerably housed residents to services to reduce the likelihood of becoming homeless. The hotline, which launched in May 2024, receives about 9,600 calls monthly and serves as a promising approach to identifying and preventing homelessness before it happens.

With the GPL’s support, the City of Detroit is implementing new data collection procedures, developing new screening and referral pathways, conducting high-level data analysis to better understand long-term pathways into homelessness, and strengthening eviction prevention efforts through direct integration of legal services and right-to-counsel systems.

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Celebrating the creation of a new non-profit focused on improving procurements

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Celebrating the creation of a new non-profit focused on improving procurements

After more than a decade of testing and incubation, the GPL’s procurement research initiative launched as an independent non-profit, Partners for Public Good (PPG).

Since 2011, the GPL’s applied research in procurement has helped jurisdictions improve how they procure goods and services to deliver better results for residents. This work has affected more than $5.4 billion of spending.

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Where We Work

Map of the locations where HKS GPL works

The GPL supported helped us break down existing processes, systems, and procedures, and change the behavior of employees and of the nonprofits that we fund. So what has changed? Virtually everything. Lisa Morrison Butler
Former Commissioner, Chicago Department of Children and Family Support Services
1 / 5

Every time I have a question about a broader systemic challenge we’re facing, the GPL provides concrete advice and examples of solutions from other jurisdictions that are highly relevant to our work. Vickie Ybarra
Director of the Office of Innovation, Alignment, and Accountability at Washington State Department of Children, Youth, and Families
2 / 5

I have learned so much from the GPL in a short period of time — how to facilitate good calls and conversations and gain data. I've talked to these same people in my community many times before without gaining this information. Tameka Caldwell
Director of Family Strengthening, Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services
3 / 5

The data you gave us opened my eyes to a whole other part of our community that we haven’t really been able to serve yet. I think I had blinders on based on who I know and am comfortable reaching out to. Sarah Bustos-Lopez
Formerly of SAFE Austin Family Resource Center
4 / 5

We want you to know that the work you’ve done with us is already reaching beyond the project. We used some of your tools and resources in a different call with family resource centers and it led us to a great conversation. It got them thinking more strategically about how they are going to spend their time reaching out to a new referral. So know your work is already expanding and we’re going to keep using it. Chelsy Alexander
Family Strengthening Program Manager, Texas Alliance of Child and Family Services
5 / 5

aerial view of a park with trees, people and circle playgrounds

Our Impact

270+ intensive projects completed
112 jurisdictions served
$7B in funds redirected towards outcomes