Topic

Outreach + Awareness

Maximizing Impact through Clear Communication

Benefits administrators and delivery organizations can help reach more people with economic and wellbeing supports by finding and connecting with residents who are eligible but unenrolled. Also, by ensuring that the requirements for obtaining benefits are clear, understandable, and actionable.

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Accessible benefits start with actionable information.

Navigating health and human services can be challenging at every step. Sometimes, residents are unaware that programs even exist, much less that they are eligible for them. Other times, convoluted instructions about program requirements prevent applicants from understanding what they need to do to secure and maintain benefits. In both cases, applicants lose out on crucial supportive services.

Interpreting benefits eligibility and processes shouldn’t be so hard, and it’s up to implementers to ease the burden on residents. This means connecting applicants to programs and communicating about their benefits using accessible and actionable content. The content should also make requirements, procedures, and deadlines clear and easy to understand and target specific populations and needs.

Here, explore guidance on creating and revising content as well as how to reach the eligible but unenrolled. You’ll also find case studies that demonstrate how innovators in the field have already improved benefits outreach and communication.

Featured Content

Targeted Text Message Outreach Can Increase WIC Enrollment, Pilots Show

Targeted Text Message Outreach Can Increase WIC Enrollment, Pilots Show

WIC enrollment has declined over the last decade, preventing millions of eligible low-income individuals from accessing its benefits. This report examines state WIC outreach pilots and discusses the effectiveness of text message outreach and key considerations when developing and launching targeted text outreach campaigns.

Benefits Data Trust, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource
Using Data Matching and Targeted Outreach to Enroll Families With Young Children in WIC

Using Data Matching and Targeted Outreach to Enroll Families With Young Children in WIC

WIC enrollment has declined over the past decade, but evidence from randomized control trials indicates that using data from other programs to identify WIC-eligible families and following up with text-based outreach can boost program participation.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource
Designing for Multilingual Translation

Designing for Multilingual Translation

Complex benefits information creates unnecessary barriers for residents and navigators who must understand what’s relevant to them so they can receive benefits. For non-native English speakers, these barriers are exacerbated. This resource guide outlines approaches for translating content to improve equitable access to benefits.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Case Studies

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New York City Benefits and Programs: Designing, Translating and Scaling Accessible Content

New York City Benefits and Programs: Designing, Translating and Scaling Accessible Content

New York City's platform for accessing and learning about benefit programs, ACCESS NYC, increasingly struggled to adapt to new use cases, technological innovation, and more efficient methods of website maintenance and content sharing. These challenges impeded NYC’s ability to deliver up-to-date accessible benefits information and eligibility screening to residents when they needed it.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
2016
City of San José: Machine Learning for Translation

City of San José: Machine Learning for Translation

The majority of San José residents speak languages other than English, particularly Spanish and Vietnamese. The City of San José sought to expand access to their 311 service to be more responsive to the needs of these residents.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
2020
Louisiana: Expanding a Successful Texting Pilot During the COVID-19 Pandemic

Louisiana: Expanding a Successful Texting Pilot During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic placed incredible pressure on public assistance programs at a time when states like Louisiana were already trying to conduct more effective outreach to benefits applicants and recipients. These efforts were complicated by a surge in applications and the need to close government offices.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
2019

All Outreach + Awareness Content

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NYC HOME-STAT Research Insights Report

This overview journey map of street homeless outreach reflects the business process, and worker and client experience during the period January–April 2016 from initial observation, contact, case management, and placement in permanent housing. The map is displayed in eleven high-level sections, each with individual sub-level sections. Summaries and details for all the sections are presented in the subsequent pages. Each dot represents an individual or agency. Each cluster of dots represents a service interaction.

NYC Mayor's Office of Operations
Artifact

Applicant Experience Journey Map

Applicants to federal aid programs face numerous barriers in accessing benefits they are eligible for. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare conducted an extensive qualitative user research study to better understand applicant experience in enrolling in public assistance programs. Based on the results, the study emphasizes the need for simplified, streamlined and less burdensome application processes.

U.S. Digital Service, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Artifact

Project ELSA

Easy Localization System Access (ELSA) is an Open Source continuous translation and localization system that ensures all content is automatically and continuously kept up to date in the 11 languages most commonly spoken by New Yorkers, using a combination of Neural Machine Translation (NMT) and human Localization vendors.

City of New York
Artifact

GetYourRefund.Org: Free tax filing, made simple

GetYourRefund.org is an online portal by Code for America that helps low-income individuals claim thousands of dollars in tax credits, even after the traditional tax deadline has passed.

Code for America
Artifact

ACCESS NYC Github

Github page with ACCESS NYC’s code for benefits outreach and eligibility.

City of New York
Artifact

STH Resource Guide for Families and Students in Temporary Housing

A guide to navigating New York City’s public services. It was made with and for families of students living in temporary housing or experiencing homelessness and the NYC Department of Education’s Office of Students in Temporary Housing (STH).

City of New York
Artifact

LA’MESSAGE Demo and Scripts

LA’MESSAGE is a one-way text messaging service developed by Code for America in partnership with Louisiana to broadcast reminders and guidance to residents enrolled in and eligible for SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and WIC at key points throughout the benefits enrollment and renewal process.

Code for America
Artifact

GetCalFresh Demo Website

Demo website for GetCalFresh—Code for America and the state of California’s efforts to simplify the SNAP application process.

Code for America
Artifact

What are the Coronavirus Stimulus Payments?

University of Michigan Poverty Solutions webpage describing how to access COVID stimulus check payments.

University of Michigan Poverty Solutions
Artifact

Generation NYC

NYC's official resource for teens and young adults, including: peer & professional support, family support, education, health care, housing, employment, and other resources to help young people thrive.

City of New York
Artifact

Claim Your Child Tax Credit

Code for America’s simplified tax filing tool that allows users to claim their Child Tax Credit and any missing amount of their third stimulus payment.

Code for America
Artifact

NYC HOME-STAT Client Journey Map

This overview journey map of street homeless outreach reflects the complexity of the service journey from first contact on street to placement in permanent housing.

NYC Mayor's Office of Operations
Artifact

NYC Benefits Platform: Benefits and Programs Dataset

Data provided by the NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity regarding benefit, program, and resource information for over 80 health and human services available to NYC residents in all eleven local law languages.

NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Artifact

Growing Up NYC

Growing Up NYC is mobile-friendly website that makes it simple for families to learn about and access city programs, as well as services and activities available to New York residents.

City of New York
Artifact

ACCESS NYC

ACCESS NYC is an online public screening tool that residents can use to determine the City, State, and Federal health and human service benefit programs for which they are eligible.

City of New York
Artifact

City of San José: Machine Learning for Translation

The majority of San José residents speak languages other than English, particularly Spanish and Vietnamese. The City of San José sought to expand access to their 311 service to be more responsive to the needs of these residents.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Case Study

New York City Benefits and Programs: Designing, Translating and Scaling Accessible Content

New York City's platform for accessing and learning about benefit programs, ACCESS NYC, increasingly struggled to adapt to new use cases, technological innovation, and more efficient methods of website maintenance and content sharing. These challenges impeded NYC’s ability to deliver up-to-date accessible benefits information and eligibility screening to residents when they needed it.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Case Study

Trauma-Informed Homelessness Service Interactions and Strategy

When accessing the Office of Homelessness (OHS) prevention, diversion, and intake service, Philadelphians must go through many opaque steps and processes—often while in crisis or experiencing a traumatic event. Navigating confusing processes and paperwork can exacerbate feelings of distress or trauma. When delivering the service, staff also follow specific processes, offer information, and coordinate support while taking in difficult stories and daily stressors. These lived realities require adopting a trauma-informed approach to service delivery.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Case Study

Driving Medicaid Renewals via the Providers App

Medicaid unwinding is one of the most daunting challenges facing state agencies and their customers. Propel, the company that builds the Providers app, recognized the potential for devastating repercussions for the more than 5 million low-income households it serves nationwide — over 80% of which are covered by Medicaid. 

Propel
Case Study

Louisiana: Expanding a Successful Texting Pilot During the COVID-19 Pandemic

The COVID-19 pandemic placed incredible pressure on public assistance programs at a time when states like Louisiana were already trying to conduct more effective outreach to benefits applicants and recipients. These efforts were complicated by a surge in applications and the need to close government offices.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Case Study
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Eligible Low-Income Children Missing Out on Crucial WIC Benefits During Pandemic

The share of WIC-eligible families participating in the program has declined, though the number of individuals eligible for WIC has likely grown substantially. By working together, state WIC, Medicaid, and SNAP leaders can use data to assess the extent to which WIC is reaching eligible families and enroll more of them.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Maximizing Linkages: A Policymaker’s Guide to Data Sharing

Maximizing Linkages: A Policymaker’s Guide to Data Sharing

Alluma
Resource

Michigan's Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports Impact Report

The Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, together with the Food Bank Council of Michigan and the Michigan Department of Education developed a comprehensive Food Insecurity Map and a closed-loop referral system for nutrition and economic supports. The goal of these initiatives was to leverage cross-sector data to inform policy decisions, streamline access to food assistance, and reduce administrative burden. This report documents lessons learned and outcomes of their project.

American Public Human Services Association
Resource

Toolkit: Increasing WIC Coverage Through Cross-Program Data Matching and Targeted Outreach

This toolkit is designed to help state and local WIC agencies leverage data from Medicaid and SNAP to measure enrollment gaps and increase enrollment using tools to plan, launch, and/or strengthen data matching and targeted outreach to eligible families who are not receiving WIC benefits.

Benefits Data Trust, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

3 Ways to Get Benefits to the Families that Need Them

In a time of crisis, behavioral science offers insights into how to reduce the paperwork and other administrative burdens that prevent people from taking advantage of crucial support services.

Governing
Resource

Filing Taxes for Economic Justice

At the onset of the COVID-19 crisis, CodeforAmerica rapidly scaled up GetYourRefund, allowing filers to quickly and simply file their taxes in order to get refunds they were eligible for.

Code for America
Resource

Balancing at the Edge of the Cliff: Experiences and Calculations of Benefit Cliffs, Plateaus, and Trade-Offs

As family’s earnings rise, those earnings increases are often offset by declines in public assistance benefits (commonly called “benefit cliffs” when the declines are sharp) and increases in taxes owed. At the same time, refundable tax credits—which offset taxes owed and are delivered as a tax refund—can boost income. These interactions can be confusing and make it difficult for parents to anticipate how increasing their work hours, hourly wage rate, or both will affect their benefits, taxes, and income to support their families. This study estimates what happens to benefits and taxes when earnings increase and also explores how people perceive public benefit interactions, trade-offs, and benefit cliffs as they increase their work hours or earn higher wages.

Urban Institute
Resource

Tips on Equitable Communication Practices in a Policy Context

Initially created to inform federal staff at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, this tip sheet highlights the importance of using equitable communication and includes tips, guiding questions, and additional resources.

Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation
Resource

Mecklenburg County, North Carolina's Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports Impact Report

Through the Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports program, Mecklenburg County, NC leveraged a Food Security Navigator model and data analysis to increase access to nutrition supports. This report documents best practices and lessons learned from their project.

American Public Human Services Association
Resource

Teams that Produce Accessible Content

Creating content that is easily accessible for social safety net benefit applicants and recipients can require a range of expertise and input from policy experts, communications leads, designers, and software developers. However, this task need not be as daunting as it seems. This guide discusses general characteristics shared by organizations that have successfully created accessible content, and includes case studies that showcase characteristics of successful accessible content teams.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Kansas' Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports Impact Report

Kansas' Department for Children and Families and Department of Health and Environment partnered with Delivering Change as part of cohort 1 of the Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports program to enhance SNAP and WIC access in seven key counties through innovative data sharing and targeted outreach to identify and enroll eligible individuals. This report documents best practices and lessons learned from their project.

American Public Human Services Association
Resource

Promoting Public Benefits Access Through Web-Based Tools and Outreach: A National Scan of Efforts. Volume I: Background, Efforts in Brief, and Related Initiatives

Demand for public benefits is rising in response to continued economic pressure on vulnerable people, in addition to changes in eligibility rules for some safety net programs. This report summarizes existing benefits access efforts, studies the successes and challenges of benefits expansion efforts through a subset of in-depth case studies, and analyzes the potential for sustaining, expanding, and replicating successful efforts.

Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Resource

Cross Training Government Staff and Community Assisters on Multiple Benefits

While some approaches to benefits integration use technology to improve processes and user experience, other approaches rely less on technology or datasets and more on improving frontline staff’s knowledge and capacity. The examples in this guide describe how peer-to-peer training and updated interview scripts can help connect residents to the benefits they are eligible for.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Overcoming Barriers: Helping Self-Employed Applicants Access Their Full CalFresh Benefit

People who are self-employed can receive a higher CalFresh benefit amount because of a 40% automatic deduction for expenses. Yet, many who would be considered self-employed for the purpose of CalFresh don’t think of themselves as self-employed. Code for America researched how to help CalFresh applicants correctly identify themselves as self-employed. This article describes their various experiments and efforts to help people understand their status as self-employed.

Code for America
Resource

CSNS Hawaii: Building a Data-Driven Foundation to Help Hunger in Hawai'i

The Hawai‘i Department of Human Services (DHS), in partnership with the Hawai‘i Department of Health (DOH) and the Children’s Healthy Living Center of Excellence (CHL Center) at the University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, is building foundational capacity to share and analyze administrative data across the SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC). This groundwork will enable Hawai‘i to increase access to nutrition support programs, in alignment with Hawai‘i’s ‘Ohana Nui framework, which aims to dismantle intergenerational poverty.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength
Resource

Evaluation of the USDA Summer EBT Demonstrations: Lessons Learned From More Than a Decade of Research

FNS conducted evaluations of multiple pilot programs to strengthen access to food during the summer when school is out of session. Evaluations found that Summer EBT reduces childhood food insecurity by a significant amount, including the most severe form of food insecurity; some eligible households do not redeem some or any of their benefits; and parents and caregivers have positive opinions of Summer EBT.

USDA FNS
Resource

Helping More Than 1.3 Million Schoolchildren Access Pandemic EBT—in Just One Week

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, the federal government authorized a new emergency program, Pandemic EBT (P-EBT), to replace school meals with money for groceries while schools are closed. Code for America describes its efforts to launch an accessible, online P-EBT application under an accelerated timeline due to to immense demand caused by the pandemic.

Code for America
Resource

Seniors and SNAP

Cross-sector research indicates that access to SNAP reduces healthcare spending, improves health, and allows low-income seniors to age in place with dignity. However, though they qualify, a substantial portion of seniors are not enrolled in SNAP, preventing them from saving on healthcare expenses.

Benefits Data Trust
Resource

What Happens When People Feel Ownership Over Their Benefits

An interview with Wendy De La Rosa, assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. De La Rosa discusses how the concept of “psychological ownership” can encourage people to take up benefits they are eligible for.

Code for America
Resource

Tools to Manage and Share Content

The right tech frameworks can help organize and distribute accessible benefits information, both within your organization and beyond. This primer introduces two foundational software types that can support organizations that are committed to accessible benefits information: content management systems (CMS) and application program interfaces (APIs). It also provides examples of how one local government leveraged these tools to improve services and workstreams.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

U.S. Digital Service (USDS) Medicaid Renewals Playbook

This playbook was created by the U.S. Digital Service as a rapid-response guide for civic technologists providing direct technical assistance to states during the COVID-19 Public Health Emergency (PHE) Unwinding. The content in this playbook focuses on strategies to rapidly decrease the burden of Medicaid renewals on members of the public and state staff.

U.S. Digital Service
Resource

A Playbook for Improving Unemployment Insurance Delivery

A playbook by New America describing lessons learned from past recessions, recent pandemic-inspired innovations, and complementary benefit spaces like SNAP and WIC.

New America
Resource

Moving Child Care Assistance Applications Online Means More Families Get the Help They Deserve

Hennepin County, Minnesota, partnered with Code for America to develop a six-month long experiment where participants were given the option to submit the normal paper-based application or opt into an online application.

Code for America
Resource

SNAP Takeup and Targeting

Rigorous research shows that targeted outreach and application assistance triples Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) enrollment among people ages 60 and over. This randomized experiment involved over 30,000 Pennsylvania seniors, and found that directly informing seniors about SNAP dramatically increased SNAP participation.

Benefits Data Trust
Resource

Safety Net Services Built for Outcomes

Code for America helped expand GetCalFresh (a service that guides Californians through the SNAP application process and helps government deliver food assistance to people in need) from a small pilot into a statewide service. They also recently concluded a similar pilot in Michigan along with Civilla and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Code for America
Resource

Better Language Translation Through Machine Learning: Everything I Wish I Knew 6 Months Ago

A discussion of lessons learned in the City of San José’s efforts to provide inclusive digital services for all residents through the San José 311 app.

The Startup
Resource

Technology, Accessibility, and the Child Tax Credit

Code for America describes its work building GetCTC, an e-filer that allows people to file simplified tax returns as specified in the revenue procedure required for the Child Tax Credit.

Code for America
Resource

Improving service delivery in EITC for New Yorkers

New America’s New Practice Lab is directing research with the aim to increase the money in the pockets of low-income families by enhancing service delivery in federal programs that help families. To address this challenge in one specific state, the New Practice Lab partnered with the New York Department of Taxation and Finance (NYSDTF) team to understand the factors that present challenges to the administration of the EITC. The team highlights recommendations and learnings from its research in this article.

New America
Resource

DA 23-62: FCC Declaratory Ruling on Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 for Medicaid

Ruling from the FCC granting the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to confirm that federal and state governmental agencies working in conjunction with local governments, governmental contractors, and managed care entities acting under contract with state governments may, under certain circumstances, make autodialed and prerecorded or artificial voice calls or send autodialed text messages to raise awareness of the eligibility and enrollment requirements for these governmental health care programs without violating the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA).

Federal Communications Commission
Resource

Pandemic EBT Policy + Delivery Memo

Policy memo by Code for America regarding how to deliver P-EBT benefits during the COVID-19 crisis.

Code for America
Resource

Encouraging Uptake of Benefits with Psychological Ownership Messaging

A brief report on our quantitative research about messages that increase people's take-up of government benefits by making them feel like those benefits belong to them.

Code for America
Resource

The CUTGroup Book: Civic User Testing Group as a New Model for UX Testing, Digital Skills Development, and Community Engagement in Civic Tech

The CUTGroup book explains how civic user testing (paying residents to test civic apps) can allow for more community engagement in civic tech. This book covers how to do UX testing, community engagement, and digital skills in one civic tech system.

The CUTGroup Book
Resource

Establishing Emergency Cash Assistance Programs

A guide by New America to help cities and states set up cash assistance programs for their residents, based on the Alia Cares platform that the National Domestic Workers Alliance built to run their Coronavirus Cares Fund that provides emergency assistance for home care workers to support them in staying safe and at home to slow the spread of COVID.

New America
Resource

Unemployment Insurance Email Template Kit v1.0

This kit contains a collection of styles, components, and building blocks to quickly create action-forward emails for Unemployment Insurance programs within the U.S. An email library of 50+ examples are also provided for you to get started. Customize with your state logo and colors that are already in the file. Report of project is included.

Semicolon Design Group, New Jersey Office of Innovation, New Jersey Department of Labor
Resource

CSNS Mecklenburg: Strengthening Community Relationship to End Child Hunger

This report outlines how the Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (DSS) is leading an initiative to coordinate nutrition supports across government and community partners to streamline access to resources that improve food security for families in Mecklenburg County. Through this project, households experiencing food insecurity will not only have a better understanding of the resources and services available to them, but also will find it easier to apply for public benefit programs.

Share Our Strength, American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Resource

Why Framing Matters: Ways to Move Forward

Prior issues of Policy & Practice have introduced framing and what effective framing can do to make our shared narrative more productive and impactful. In this column, APHSA's President and CEO shares two framing strategies that can help us avoid the most common mistakes and produce more effective frames: Widening the lens and using numbers more effectively.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Resource

How Louisiana Rapidly Scaled Pilot Solutions to Combat COVID-19

In response to exploding demand for social services during COVID-19, the Louisiana Department of children and Family services implemented text-message alerts and reminders for the state’s entire SNAP caseload, launched a text-based public campaign to help people understand and apply for SNAP benefits, and hired SNAP recipients to provide client feedback on communications and policy decisions.

Code for America
Resource

Story-driven experience research on pandemic unemployment

Dana Chisnell describes work leading a team of researchers to interview people from across the US on their experiences applying for unemployment and other benefits during the pandemic.

Dana Chisnell
Resource

Accessible Benefits Information: Reducing Administrative Burden and Improving Equitable Access through Clear Communication About Safety Net Benefits

Complex benefits information creates unnecessary barriers for people trying to understand what’s relevant to them so that they can take immediate action to receive the benefits they need. As part of the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation’s series on documenting best practices in social safety net benefits access and delivery, this guide to Accessible Benefits Information offers case studies that show how groups in Michigan, New York City, and San José use plain language, multilingual translation, co-creation and testing with residents, and technology tools to provide better information about benefits. 

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Implementing Paid Family and Medical Leave: Lessons for State Administrators from Research in New Jersey

Passing a major new social program like paid family and medical leave (PFML) is only the first step in creating change. To achieve real impact, PFML programs must be well implemented — and as more and more states pass PFML programs, the urgency of such good implementation has never been higher. In 2019, New America staffed a discovery sprint team to explore New Jersey’s pioneering PFML program, using a mixture of beneficiary interviews, data analysis, and business processing mapping. Based on that research, this report outlines key implementation learnings for administrators in other states, focusing on: (a) communicating about PFML, (b) outreach strategies, (c) applications and processing, and (d) IT infrastructure.

New America
Resource

5 Things to Know About SNAP Employment & Training

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) is well known for providing nutrition support for individuals and families with low incomes. The lesser-known SNAP Employment and Training Program (SNAP E&T) helps eligible participants develop skills to achieve economic mobility. SNAP E&T provides employability assessments, training, case management, transportation, child care and other services and supports to help participants attain sustainable employment. State legislatures have an opportunity to support economic recovery and decrease food insecurity among individuals and families by investing in the SNAP E&T program, including with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA), the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL)
Resource

Dismantling the Invisible Wall: Breaking down barriers to pandemic relief

The CARES Act and Families First Coronavirus Response Act failed to reach millions of non-tax-filing Americans with low incomes and deliberately excluded undocumented immigrants, leaving entire communities without recourse. Disaster Relief Assistance for Immigrants (DRAI) was a crucial program by the state of California for undocumented immigrants, and the California Department of Social Services partnered with Code for America to build a digital portal that would support community-based organizations in taking applications, tracking the various steps in the process, and activating clients’ $500 bank cards.

Code for America
Resource

Resources to Support State Outreach to Non-Filers Eligible for Stimulus Payments

About 12 million Americans risk missing out on stimulus payments provided through the CARES Act. State outreach efforts are critical to connect people to the $1,200 stimulus payments, and the CBPP lists various resources to assist in state outreach efforts on this webpage.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Matching Data Across Benefits Programs Can Increase WIC Enrollment

Although Medicaid and SNAP participants are automatically income-eligible for WIC, many don’t enroll. Pilot projects in four states have shown that matching data across programs to identify these families and conducting outreach to them can increase WIC enrollment.

Benefits Data Trust, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Listening to SNAP Participants to Improve Access to the Expanded Child Tax Credit

Well-designed, user-focused tools that allow for simple application are key to ensuring that families most in need receive the Child Tax Credit. Reaching these households will require a robust effort from the IRS to create user-friendly tools in partnership with organizations with a direct connection to eligible recipients.

Propel, University of Michigan Poverty Solutions
Resource

States Can Reduce Medicaid’s Administrative Burdens to Advance Health and Racial Equity

This report outlines strategies to reduce administrative burdens and expand Medicaid participation and advance racial and health equity. The report also offers historical context on Medicaid eligibility.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, The Center for Law and Social Policy
Resource

Data Coordination at SNAP and Medicaid Agencies: A National Landscape Analysis

Benefits Data Trust (BDT), in collaboration with the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), conducted a nationwide analysis of how states coordinate across Medicaid and SNAP programs to streamline access to benefits. Between June and August of 2022, BDT and CHCS collected 114 survey responses from Medicaid and SNAP programs in 46 states and the District of Columbia.

Benefits Data Trust, Center for Health Care Strategies
Resource

Advocate’s Guide to MAGI

The National Health Law Program released an updated Guide to Modified Adjusted Gross Income, including sections on ACA tax filing and reporting, clarification on commonly asked questions about Social Security Income, and updated IRS tax filing thresholds.

National Health Law Program
Resource

CSNS Kansas: Forming Connections Between SNAP and WIC to Tackle Food Insecurity

Together, the Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) and Department of Health and Environment (KDHE) are working to design and build a sustainable process to improve cross-enrollment for families eligible for both the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). This report outlines how Kansas will integrate data matches between SNAP and WIC—as well as targeted outreach— within the ongoing business processes of the agencies to help streamline the experience of accessing nutrition supports for clients. These functions will contribute to the agencies’ shared goal of reducing rates of food insecurity in Kansas.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength
Resource

Toolkit for Helping States Implement People-Centered Pandemic EBT

With the extension and expansion of P-EBT during COVID and the Food and Nutrition Service releasing new guidance, states have an opportunity to effectively deliver essential resources to children and families. Code for America built this toolkit of resources to share recommendations and promising practices around the implementation of P-EBT and to support state agencies and partners tasked with the development of P-EBT programs.

Code for America
Resource

Why Californians need food assistance: The stories behind the numbers

Californians who receive food assistance come from all backgrounds, but many share a similar story: they were barely getting by financially when they were tipped into crisis by an unexpected expense or loss of income. This site shares their stories.

Code for America
Resource

Increasing Stimulus Payment Take-up in California: Results from a Phone and Email Campaign

In Fall 2021, The People Lab and the California Policy Lab partnered with the California Department of Social Services and Code for America to conduct and evaluate a state-wide outreach effort aimed at delivering stimulus payments to low-income Californians.

The People Lab, California Policy Lab
Resource

Data Sharing to Build Effective and Efficient Benefits Systems: A Playbook for State and Local Agencies

This playbook is designed to help government and other key sectors use data sharing to illuminate who is not accessing benefits, connect under-enrolled populations to vital assistance, and make the benefits system more efficient for agencies and participants alike. It is a step-by-step guide to conducting smooth and efficient data sharing projects that are permissible and secure.

Benefits Data Trust
Resource

Cross Enrollment WIC Case Study: A Joint Project of MDHHS and Benefits Data Trust

This presentation from Steph White, Cross Enrollment Coordinator at the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services offers an in-depth example on implementing cross enrollment with WIC and general tools for cross enrollment.

Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, Benefits Data Trust
Resource

Administrative Burden: Learning, Psychological, and Compliance Costs in Citizen-State Interactions

Administrative burden placed on individual citizens are often a function of deliberate political choice, as to enact significant policy changes without broad political deliberation. This is evident in the evolution of Medicaid policies in Wisconsin.

Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory
Resource

California Health and Human Services Agency Data Playbook

This data playbook created by the California Health and Human services agencies discusses five plays designed to help Departments utilize data to inform program and policy development.

California Health and Human Services Agency
Resource

Keeping Students Fed in an Uncertain Back to School Season: What We Learned from P-EBT, and What Comes Next

Code for America describes its work building the P-EBT online application and the consulting it provided to 10 states regarding implementing the program in a quick, effective, and human-centered way. Despite herculean efforts among human services and education agencies to get P-EBT off the ground, there were a few key technological, operational, and logistical barriers that consistently got in the way and hampered a smooth rollout of the program across the country.

Code for America
Resource

Proof Points for Human-Centered Benefits Administration

Code for America’s Integrated Benefits Initiative has been working in partnership with the State of Colorado to demonstrate how user-centered approaches lead to measurably better delivery of safety net programs. This article describes their work with the state of Colorado in simplifying how clients report common life changes that can affect their eligibility.

Code for America
Resource

Designing for Multilingual Translation

Complex benefits information creates unnecessary barriers for residents and navigators who must understand what’s relevant to them so they can receive benefits. For non-native English speakers, these barriers are exacerbated. This resource guide outlines approaches for translating content to improve equitable access to benefits.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

The Cash Assistance Implementation Playbook

The purpose of this document is to outline possible technical approaches to supporting a cash assistance program. The report aims to both capture individual approaches as well as overarching insights taken from across the approaches taken by different organizations.

New America
Resource

Biden-Harris PMA Webinar: Streamlining Service Delivery for Five Life Experiences

The Performance.gov team hosted a webinar featuring federal customer experience (CX) changemakers from across government and focused on the nine CX projects that aim to address pain points learned about through human-centered design research.

Performance.gov
Resource

Texting Playbook: Recommendations and Tips for Texting Clients of Safety Net Services

The Texting Playbook provides guidance and well-researched strategies to help state agencies implement texting in support of Medicaid, SNAP, WIC, and other benefits programs. It provides an overview of how to start texting clients; the types of messages to send, including real examples; Federal Communications Commision (FCC) policy guidance; how to encourage opt-ins and collect consent; how to avoid coming across as spam; and a cost analysis of texting.

Code for America
Resource

Summer EBT Implementation Toolkit

The following documents serve as a resource to assist states, tribal organizations, and territories in preparing to implement Summer EBT in 2024.

UDSA
Resource

Designing Inclusive Digital Services in San Jose

Applying UX research methods, the City of San Jose worked to improve how low-income and non-English speaking residents engaged with My San Jose, a website and mobile app for residents to report neighborhood issues to cities. They used a Spanish and Vietnamese translator to conduct interviews with target users, then detailed major findings and corresponding recommendations in this report.

Code for America
Resource

How Data Sharing Can Improve Equitable Access to Public Programs

Accessing safety net benefits can involve complicated and duplicative processes that create barriers to access. Using cross-enrollment strategies can minimize the difficulties community members face in getting access to life-saving resources.

Alluma
Resource

CSNS Michigan: Data-Driven Strategies to Help End Hunger in Michigan

This report outlines how the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), in partnership with the Food Bank Council of Michigan (FBCM) and Michigan Department of Education (MDE), is deploying a three-pronged strategy to leverage data insights to systematically identify and eliminate gaps in access to nutrition supports among priority populations using food security map and closed-loop referrals.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength
Resource

New Mexico's Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Support Impact Report

The New Mexico Human Services Department and Department of Health, as part of the Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports program, leveraged data sharing to align SNAP, Medicaid, TANF, and WIC. Their new online interface automates the referral process, making it easier for families to access the nutrition and economic supports they are eligible for.

American Public Human Services Association
Resource

Making Our Systems See People

Code for America CEO introduces the Safety Net Innovation Lab in a TED Talk, their initiative to work with state governments to reimagine and rebuild delivery of accessible and equitable benefits. This article also includes the video of Renteria’s talk and a transcript.

Code for America
Resource

LIFT Voices Describe Hardships Among Black and Latina Mothers in Pandemic

Black and Latina mothers have faced intensified material hardship during the pandemic due to institutional racism and sexism. LIFT describes the lessons it learned through working with parents to improve their personal well-being, increase their social connections, and strengthen them financially through coaching and direct financial assistance.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Aggressive State Outreach Can Help Reach the 12 Million Non-Filers Eligible for Stimulus Payments

Aggressive outreach by states is necessary to ensure that 12 million Americans do not risk missing out on the stimulus payments provided by the CARES Act.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Best Practices for Accessible Content

Drawing on the Beeck Center’s research on government, nonprofit, academic, and private sector organizations that are working to improve access to safety net benefits, this report highlights best practices for creating accessible benefits content.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Conducting Outreach for Benefits Cross Enrollment

This resource outlines strategies for cross-enrollment outreach, which can break down silos between programs and reach applicants who may be eligible for under-enrolled benefits programs.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Does Administrative Burden Influence Public Support for Government Programs? Evidence from a Survey Experiment

It is hypothesized that if information about the existing screening mechanisms is highlighted and made salient, this will lead to greater approval of eligibility-based programs. The results of this study demonstrate the ways in which in which information regarding administrative burden can shape citizens’ support for eligibility-based programs.

Public Administration Review
Resource

In Their Own Words: Parents Help Us Understand Barriers to Accessing WIC

Code for America explores the systems at play and the individuals experience of participants in WIC. By investigating overall quantitative trends in coverage, redemption, and retention rates, they use the data as a guide to build out a qualitative research plan that explains why such trends are occurring.

Code for America
Resource

CSNS New Mexico: Improving Online Infrastructure to Expand WIC's Reach

This report outlines how the New Mexico Human Services Department (HSD) and Department of Health (NMDOH) are working to maximize WIC participation among SNAP families through automated referrals and streamlined application and enrollment across agencies.

Share Our Strength, American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Resource

BenePhilly SNAP Demonstration Project

The BenePhilly SNAP Demonstration Project (henceforth “BenePhilly”) represents an innovative and successful approach to streamlining access to public benefits. It sought to increase participation in SNAP among eligible senior households in Philadelphia by utilizing existing state and federal data to reach seniors who are likely eligible for, but not participating in, SNAP, as well as simplify the SNAP application and enrollment process. This report summarizes preliminary findings from BenePhilly’s 18 months of operation (June 2010–December 2011).

Benefits Data Trust
Resource

Integrated Benefits Initiative: Best Practices in Texting

Code for America offers government agencies a general overview of getting started with implementing text messaging services for clear, responsive communication during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Code for America
Resource

Using Data Matching and Targeted Outreach to Enroll Families With Young Children in WIC

WIC enrollment has declined over the past decade, but evidence from randomized control trials indicates that using data from other programs to identify WIC-eligible families and following up with text-based outreach can boost program participation.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

Summer EBT Playbook

Playbook to implement a human-centered Summer EBT program in 2024 and beyond.

Code for America and No Kid Hungry
Resource

Benefits Access for Student Success: A Toolkit For Leveraging Data to Find Eligible Students

Each year, millions of college students struggle to pay for their education and basic needs, including food, childcare, housing, healthcare, and internet service. Among those students are a disproportionate number of first-generation students and students of color. This toolkit aims to build institutional capacity to enable all students to put food on the table, improve health outcomes, focus on school, and graduate.

Benefits Data Trust
Resource

Overcoming Barriers: Finding Better Ways to Ask GetCalFresh Applicants About Income

County workers typically spend most of their time trying to get income information right during eligibility interviews. This article provides several recommendations for asking about income, accounting for cognitive biases, under-reporting, and complexities in reporting income.

Code for America
Resource

Who Did Not Get the Economic Impact Payments by Mid-to-Late May, and Why?

A study by the Urban Institute assessing why around 12 million individuals were at risk of not getting stimulus check payments as provided by the CARES Act.

Urban Institute
Resource

Mapping the Applicant Experience of Benefit Enrollment

Applicants to federal aid programs face numerous barriers in accessing benefits they are eligible for. The Centers for Medicaid and Medicare conducted an extensive qualitative user research study to better understand applicant experience in enrolling in public assistance programs. Based on the results, the study emphasizes the need for simplified, streamlined and less burdensome application processes.

U.S. Digital Service, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services
Resource

Improvements in Public Programs' Customer Service Experiences Could Better Meet Enrollees' Needs and Help Build Trust in Government

To better understand the experiences of people applying for public benefit programs and their perceptions of good and bad customer service within those programs, in 2022, the Urban Institute interviewed 27 adults who had applied for or received TANF cash assistance or Medicaid/CHIP in 2021 and reported at least one of four specified enrollment challenges.

Urban Institute
Resource

Want to design policies that really work? Test them on the users who need them first

A step-by-step guide to how New Jersey used plain language and user-testing to improve the state’s paid family and medical leave program

New America
Resource

Code for America and GetYourRefund.org Non-filer Learnings and Recommendations

This report outlines key lessons and recommendations from Code for America's collaboration with the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, which served over 800,000 clients via GetYourRefund.org.

Code for America
Resource

CSNS New Jersey: Sharing Nutrition Program Data to Raise WIC Enrollment

This report outlines how the New Jersey Department of Human Services’ Division of Family Development (DFD) and the Department of Health (NJDOH) are increasing SNAP & WIC co-enrollment through data sharing, outreach, and systems integration.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) and No Kid Hungry, Share Our Strength
Resource

People Lead the Way: How GetCalFresh has adapted qualitative research during a public health crisis

This article describes how Code for America conducted qualitative research within its GetCalFresh application by asking families to tell them about their familial, housing, and financial situations. From client messages, they gathered information regarding how to make changes to their product to keep their work people-centered.

Code for America
Resource

New Jersey's Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports Impact Report

The New Jersey Department of Human Services and New Jersey Department of Health collaborated in their Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports project to enhance the enrollment and coordination of SNAP and WIC programs. By developing the NJ Nutritional Data Hub and an innovative webservice, the project identified and reached out to families receiving SNAP but not WIC, and vice versa, significantly streamlining the adjunctive eligibility process. This report documents best practices and lessons learned from their project.

American Public Human Services Association
Resource

Targeted Text Message Outreach Can Increase WIC Enrollment, Pilots Show

WIC enrollment has declined over the last decade, preventing millions of eligible low-income individuals from accessing its benefits. This report examines state WIC outreach pilots and discusses the effectiveness of text message outreach and key considerations when developing and launching targeted text outreach campaigns.

Benefits Data Trust, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Resource

User research is a team sport

User research requires working as a team, since it necessitates running sessions with participants, observing and moderating research sessions, analyzing and synthesizing results, as well as communicating results effectively.

William Myddelton
Resource

Basic Income and Local Government; A Guide to Municipal Pilots

This guide consolidates learning and spotlights principles, insights, and emerging practices to guide municipal leaders and public-private partnerships interested in designing basic income programs that are ethical, equitable, rigorous, informative, and consequential for local, state and national policymaking.

Stanford Basic Income Lab
Resource

Summer EBT Outreach Toolkit

This toolkit helps implementing agencies (as well as other stakeholders and partners) promote the Summer EBT program, also known as SUN Bucks. These resources can help ensure families know about the new program and understand how to use their benefits.

USDA
Resource

Incremental Steps to Integrated Benefits

By taking on one or more steps to integrate benefits incrementally, on a small, more localized scale, benefits administrators can make progress towards improving resident and staff experiences. This guide outlines ideas for launching an integrated benefits application in stages, and strategies to pilot new tools.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Resource

Leveraging Technology For Human-Centered One-Stop Workforce Service Delivery

A case study of the Hawai‘i Career Acceleration Navigator — an accessible, data-driven and full-service government platform for unemployed people and other jobseekers to search for jobs and access supportive service benefits.

National Governors Association
Resource
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Automation + AI
Text Messaging
Data Sharing
Outreach + Awareness
Eligibility
Applying + Enrolling
Buying Design + Technology Services
Maintaining Benefits
Human-Centered Design
Digitizing Policy
Digital Services
Diversity, Equity + Inclusion
Policy Analysis
Digital Identity
Basic Income
CCDF: Child Care and Development Fund
COVID-19 Assistance
CTC: Child Tax Credit
EITC: Earned Income Tax Credit
Housing
LIHEAP
Medicaid/CHIP
Other Supplemental Nutrition Programs
P-EBT
Paid Leave
SSDI: Social Security Disability Insurance
SSI: Supplemental Security Income
TANF: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
Tax Assistance
UI: Unemployment Insurance
Veterans Benefits
WIC: Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children
SNAP: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program
Executive Branch
Academic
Community Members
Community-based Organization
Legislative Branch
Non-profit
Private
Government Agency
Federal/National
State/Provincial
County
Local/Municipal
Territorial
Tribal/Indigenous