A partner in deed.

If the disaster brought out the worst in nature--its unpredictability--it also brought out the best in the human spirit, its dependability and solidarity in times of need.

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While the flooded New Orleans, Louisiana and other states devastated by Hurricane Katrina and later Rita were overflowing with kindness from the rest of the country, most Americans weren't aware of the exemplary work and voluntary help from the nation's public human service professionals. Even less known to them was the effort made by the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) in coordinating with many states to send social service volunteers to the affected areas.

APHSA waded deep into the call for help on the first day of the Katrina disaster, and managed within days to pull together 10 states, which sent a total of 163 volunteers to help. APHSA also put up probably the most informative web site on hurricane aid relief activities, congressional emergency legislative measures, and tales of heroic and admirable work done by many other states on its web portal.

The focus of Policy & Practice's December issue is on the power of partnership. Against the backdrop of hurricane disaster relief, the magazine highlights the work of some of the helping states in partnership with federal, state, local and other nonprofits. Like Louisiana and Alabama, many such states faced enormous challenges in logistics, communications, and transportation. All have the nightmarish task of sorting out records and determining evacuees' eligibility for service. But with the usual dedication of public human service professionals, these state human service agencies plunged into the work with the usual equanimity and modesty. In this issue, we showcase partnership efforts in Louisiana, Texas, Florida, and New Mexico, fully aware that just about every state public human service agency chipped in with the relief effort. Ann Silverberg Williamson, Louisiana secretary of social services, leads the issue with an eye-witness account on what happened and how the state coped with the challenges of the hurricane aftermath.

One of the most important partners in hurricane disaster relief work is the USDA's Food and Nutrition Service. FNS collaborated with helping state agencies, hurricane-affected states, and APHSA on disseminating aid workers and workload. The FNS Southwest regional office shares its perspective on collaboration with affected and aiding states.

While public human service agencies have been busy doing the grunt work, Congress has been busy dealing with hurricane relief legislation. Elaine Ryan, APHSA's deputy executive director, shares her observation of the Washington policy-making process.

Those six articles form the first part of this issue's focus package: the power of partnership. The second part, written by Kathy Jones Kelley of the Child Welfare Training Program at the University of Pittsburgh, showcases the impressive outcome of collaboration among that program, the university, the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare, and APHSA.

It is with this sense of mission to tackle the most relevant issues and ideas that we at Policy & Practice strive to serve our partners--you. We try to make our articles informative and relevant to your daily work. We try to make our articles useful and usable. And we try to be inclusive. After revamping the magazine and adding no fewer than nine features--Book Review, Words on Words, Making Things Happen, The Field Works, Technology Speaks, Numbers in the News, State and Local News, Events Calendar, and My Turn--and expanding from 32 pages to 40 pages in the past 12 months, we have added another feature in this issue, "the Affiliates' Corner," a place where our affiliates can find a voice for their challenges and celebrate their accomplishments. The new feature is testimony that different segments of the public human service profession can depend on our magazine for a place to call home and find solidarity.