To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2025 Hatfield Prize page here. Often when we talk about access to healthcare, end-of-life care services go unmentioned. But as a hospice volunteer, I’ve learned that dying is the culmination of, not separate from, a robust continuum of care.  Today, with America’s rapidly growing population aged 65 and older and the current administration’s cuts to Medicaid, our reluctance to view hospice as an integral part of healthcare abandons both the dying and those caring for them, and betrays the ideals our government and society are built on.  The mission of hospice […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2025 Hatfield Prize page here. “I was sitting in my friend’s tent and had two big bags of clothes. No car, no money, wondering if this was going to be my life forever. Scared.” That is how my friend Rocky described what was going through his mind when he became homeless at the age of twenty-nine. Rocky’s journey to becoming housed took many turns, but ultimately it came down to the relationships he built at a weekly “neighborhood navigation center,” a Thursday night gathering of various nonprofits, case management services, and […]

To read the full research behind this op-ed, visit our 2025 Hatfield Prize page here. Advocates for religious freedom celebrated a July 2025 decision by the U.S. Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in a case regarding an Oregon policy disqualifying otherwise eligible parents from fostering or adopting because of their religious beliefs. The case was argued before the federal circuit court in July 2024. At issue was Oregon’s requirement that foster and adoptive parents “respect, accept, and support” a child’s gender identity and sexual orientation. This includes using preferred pronouns, attending pride events, providing clothing that matches the child’s preferred identity, and […]

This article is part of Better Together — a storytelling series from the Center for Public Justice highlighting how faith-based organizations have partnered with government to see their communities flourish. In 2008, residents of Hill East in Washington D.C., were growing increasingly frustrated. Crimes committed by youth were rising, and neither the District police nor other officials were responding effectively. Some believed that the young people causing the troubles either lived in or were finding sanctuary inside the Potomac Gardens Housing Project in Ward 6. Angry residents began calling for action, some even called for a protest they hoped would […]

As a child, Danny suffered through abuse and trauma. His family faced poverty that was severe enough to enter them into Virginia’s welfare system. In the instability and danger of his childhood, he struggled to feel safe, and he didn’t think he belonged anywhere. Today, Danny doesn’t like to talk much about his past, but the traumas of his childhood lurk in the shadows of his adult life. He is currently serving time at an adult facility, but he and his family have become strong advocates for those in similar situations. They know intimately how valuable these children’s lives are […]

President Trump’s recent grants system reform directive—Executive Order 14332, “Improving Oversight of Federal Grantmaking” (August 7, 2025)—has alarmed many involved in partnerships with federal programs. They call it a further grab for presidential power, a further politicization of the process by which federal funding is awarded to private organizations, including faith-based organizations, to carry out services and research for the public good. Many of the proposed changes, though, are positive, including reforms to enable smaller organizations new to federal funding to participate. However, new uncertainty will accompany grant awards, requiring organizations interested in federal partnerships to be very careful in […]