Human Flourishing Initiative
The Human Flourishing Initiative is a community-led ecosystem of care helping Tennesseans move from crisis to flourishing.
We envision a Tennessee where every individual and family has the opportunity to flourish—no matter their starting point. By building community-led ecosystems of care supported by state systems, individuals can move from crisis to stability, stability to thriving, and thriving to flourishing.
This shared vision transcends any single department or eligibility category. It is a community-driven, statewide movement, supported by state and local agencies, that aligns government, nonprofits, and faith communities around what matters most: people living with stability, purpose, and well-being.
THE PROBLEM
Tennessee’s public safety net system is fragmented, often trapping families in cycles of dependency rather than creating pathways to transformation. Misaligned measurements, siloed services, and eligibility-based restrictions have left many Tennesseans without clear opportunities to move beyond crisis. Public supports, while essential, are not designed to help individuals and families rise into thriving and flourishing.
OUR PRIORITIES AND GOALS
.01
Establish a Shared Vision Across Systems
Build a unified vision that is not bound to a signle program or eligibility requirement.
Align multiple agenies (DHS, DCS, and beyond) to support community leadership around a common purpose: moving Tennesseans from crisis to flourishing.
.02
County-Based Backbones as Anchors of Change
Each county identifies a backbone organization that serves as the community convener of its ecosystem.
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Backbones must hold strong relational equity, trusted by both residents and providers, with the ability to unite partners and connect families to resources that have real availability.
.03
Local Ecosystems of Care
- Equip counties to build networks of churches, nonprofits, schools, courts, civic groups, and neighbors who collaborate as one coordinated team.
- Ensure dignity, consistency, and accountability in how families are supported.
.04
A Unified “No Wrong Door” Framework
- Any door—faith leader, neighbor, nonprofit, or state office—can be the right entry point for care.
- Technology platforms (such as Hope Hub) connect these entry points to a shared diagnostic and service coordination system.
.05
Whole-Person, Whole-Family Pathways
- Address interconnected barriers: housing, employment, food, transportation, legal needs, and mental/behavioral health.
- Provide individualized pathways that adapt as circumstances evolve, informed by both relational trust and real-time data.
.06
Measure What Matters: Flourishing, Not Just Services
- Use person-centered plans as the basis for tracking progress—acknowledging that each individual defines flourishing differently.
- Incorporate the Harvard Human Flourishing metrics as a self-assessment to understand and measure individual well-being across six domains.
.07
From Crisis to Flourishing
- Launch a structured pathway model that guides individuals through four phases: Crisis → Stability → Thriving → Flourishing.
- Recognize that public supports often plateau at crisis and stability; HFI helps people continue into thriving and flourishing by activating community, faith, and relational capital.
Innovative Technology
HopeHub is a technology and case-management platform designed to help communities coordinate care for individuals and families facing complex challenges. Created by Restore Hope, it equips agencies, nonprofits, churches, and government partners with a shared system to assess needs, make coordinated referrals, and track progress toward whole-family stability.
HopeHub uses a structured diagnostic that evaluates a person or family’s situation across 12 key domains:
Housing, Employment, Education, Behavioral Health, Physical Health, Transportation, Family Support, Legal Issues, Financial Stability, Childcare, Substance Use, and Social Connectedness.
By unifying this information in one place, HopeHub enables communities to deliver “no wrong door” support and measure outcomes in a consistent, person-centered way.
Implementation Partners
The Harvard Human Flourishing Index is a research-based measurement framework developed by Harvard’s Institute for Quantitative Social Science to assess whole-person well-being in a simple, evidence-grounded way. It provides communities and policymakers with a consistent set of indicators that go far beyond program outputs, focusing instead on whether people are truly experiencing stability, purpose, and thriving in their daily lives.
The Index measures well-being across six core domains:
Happiness & Life Satisfaction, Mental & Physical Health, Meaning & Purpose, Character & Virtue, Close Social Relationships, and Financial & Material Stability.
By integrating these domains into the Human Flourishing Initiative, Tennessee is able to track what truly matters—improvements in the lived experience of families—while aligning state systems, community partners, and local backbones around a shared, research-driven definition of flourishing.
OUR STRATEGIC PARTNERS
Department of Human Services (DHS)
- Co-designs HFI and aligns public benefit programs (TANF, SNAP) with the model. Partners with gloo to adopt flourishing metrics and strengthen local service ecosystems.
Department of Children’s Services (DCS)
- Supports early intervention and family preservation efforts. Aligns services with HFI care teams and shares data to reduce custody entries.
Department of Labor and Workforce Development
- Aligns workforce programs and employer partnerships with HFI care teams to support job readiness, training, and employment.
Office of Evidence and Impact (OEI)
- Advises on outcomes, evidence standards, and performance metrics to ensure HFI is grounded in data and aligned with statewide goals for accountability and impact.
University of Tennessee SWORPS
- Provides applied research and data analysis. Supports community diagnostics, service mapping, and system insights that inform HFI implementation.
LEO (Notre Dame)
- Leads evaluation and RCTs for HFI. Designs metrics, tracks impact over time, and offers insight to refine and scale the model with evidence-based results.
Restore Hope / 100 Families
- Maintains model fidelity and operates the HOPE Hub platform. Trains local backbones, supports diagnostics, and monitors family progress and system outcomes.
Church of the City (The Village) Williamson Co.
- Implements HFI locally through The Village, coordinating teams and resources. Serves as the first pilot backbone for suburban county application. Considering statewide role.
Knoxville Leadership Foundation (Knox Co.)
- Backbone organization for Knox County. Leads local asset mapping, care coordination, and implementation in an urban context.
Agape Child and Family Services
- Backbone organization for Shelby County. Leads local asset mapping, care coordination, and implementation in an urban context.
For Others
- Supports philanthropic engagement, convenes private-sector partners, and provides strategic input to help scale HFI sustainably across the state.
gloo
- Aligns the HFI model with the Harvard Human Flourishing Framework as well as federal innovations around AI and human services. Provides tech tools and benchmarking to measure and compare outcomes across regions.