Project PA | What is the Office of Advocacy and Reform?

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by Brian Sheehan

"The main goal is to better serve vulnerable people throughout the Commonwealth," Jurman said.

Since December, Jurman's served as executive director for Pennsylvania's Office of Advocacy and Reform.

The office is designed to ensure the state doesn't fail the elderly and children, like those who we've featured in our Project PA: Children in Crisis series in countless stories over the past year.

"That really means digging in across many agencies within state government, and across the state, to help people understand what our most vulnerable citizens are up against every day. What happens in terms of surviving trauma? What happens in terms of adverse childhood experiences and what that does both to a child's ability to learn and later, an adult's overall health outcome," Jurman said.

Jurman's still getting situated in the new position, but is confident change will eventually come to state agencies, like Children and Youth Services, an agency he says is always reacting to crisis.

"We have to find a way to not just live in crisis mode all the time, but also work towards empowering people and getting to a place where we go after core causes where we know if we can attack a specific challenge upstream, it will diffuse how much reaction to crisis we'll see downstream," he said.

Jurman says one of the key challenges he'll face is regaining the public's trust in the system, since many fear their children will be removed from their homes if they receive care.

"We have to get to a point where it doesn't feel like these services are punitive, but are supportive of people getting their lives back together and understanding there's a complex web of circumstances that led them to where they are right now. And we're not going to fix that with a simple transaction. That's going to require a relationship and a system that really works," he said.

Jurman says he's a big believer in public health strategy, and says the trauma creates many of the issues we see in vulnerable populations.

He thinks if we work to treat and prevent trauma, we'll see better outcomes as a state.

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Project PA | What is the Office of Advocacy and Reform?