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Using Human-Centered Design to Integrate Benefit Applications

This guide illustrates how agencies can use human-centered-design practices to revise and integrate benefits applications.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Best Practices for SNAP Telephonic Signatures

Guide detailing best practices for states, counties, and municipalities to adopt telephonic signatures.

Food Research and Action Center
Policy Brief

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 5: mRelief SNAP Eligibility Screener | Zareena Meyn and Dize Hacioglu

At Rules as Code Demo Day Executive Director Zareena Mayn and Chief Technology Officer Dize Hacioglu of mRelief demoed the code for their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) eligibility screener. mRelief is a women-led team that provides a web-based and text message-based SNAP eligibility screener to all 53 states and territories that participate in SNAP. They demonstrated how they have modularized their code to host federal program rules and state-specific rules.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

Spanish plain language glossary of common Unemployment Insurance terms

This is a working list of plain language Spanish translations and recommended usage for common unemployment insurance terms. All content contained in this glossary has been tested and validated for readability and comprehension with Spanish speakers who have limited English proficiency.

U.S. Digital Response
Toolkit

Leveraging Cross-Program Data to Modernize Outreach & Enrollment in SNAP and Connected Benefits

This resource outlines three data sharing models tested during the first cohort of the Coordinating SNAP & Nutrition Supports grant program

American Public Human Services Association
Report

Improving Unemployment Insurance Applications with CX Principles

This resource contains principles and examples of high-impact improvements to consider making in different parts of the online application. CX principles for online applications describes broadly applicable best practices that when implemented across the various sections of an online application can increase claimant self-service and reduce the need for interventions from state agency staff. The employer and occupation sections highlight promising improvements within these sections to collect employment history, reason for filing for unemployment (separation information), and a claimant’s occupation. Gathering the information for these sections is particularly complex for claimants and state agencies alike.

U.S. Department of Labor
Toolkit

Designing for Connection: 5 Key Principles for IES Solutions That Put People First

Alluma outlines five key principles for a people-first approach to eligibility and enrollment systems.

Alluma
Non-Academic Article

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 1: 18F Eligibility APIs Initiative | Alex Soble and Mike Gintz

We kicked off Rules as Code Demo Day with Alex Soble of 18F and Mike Gintz of 10x presenting their Eligibility APIs Initiative that explores whether APIs and rules as code might improve the efficiency and effectiveness with which federal public benefits programs communicate their policy to states. They demonstrated their original prototype, and how the open source code has now been extended into several initiatives.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Video

Application Modernization is an Imperative for State Governments

NASCIO and VMware conducted a study during 2022 on the topic of state government application modernization. This study included an online survey and detailed individual interviews of state and territorial CIOs. The report presents findings from this research, key recommendations and a playbook for moving forward with application modernization.

NASCIO, VMware
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Removing Barriers to Access From Remote Identity Proofing

Some states are adding unnecessary complexity to benefits application processes by requiring Remote Identity Proofing (RIDP) before applying or truncating other business. This paper provides background on RIDP, explains when it’s required, and makes recommendations on how states can preserve the security of online interfaces without the barrier of RIDP.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

Benefits Cliffs Coaching with the Atlanta Fed’s CLIFF Tools: Implementation Evaluation of the National Pilot

The Atlanta Fed’s CLIFF tools provide greater transparency to workers about potential public assistance losses when their earnings increase. We find three broad themes in organization-level implementation of the CLIFF tools: identifying the tar- get population of users; integrating the tool into existing operations; and integrating the tool into coaching sessions.

Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta
Non-Academic Article

A Guiding Framework to Vetting Public Sector Technology Vendors

This guiding framework supports thoughtful evaluation of how new digital technology-based proposals can affect the U.S. public sector, with a particular focus on their impacts on human rights, social and economic justice, and democratic values. It will benefit funders, procurement officers, and advocates evaluating proposed projects that are often framed as “tech for good,” “justice tech,” or public interest technologies.

Ford Foundation
Toolkit

The Qualitative Research Practice Guide

This guide touches on everything from Code for America’s core research philosophy, to our approach to ethics and trauma-informed research, to specific research methods. It also includes plenty of practical tips on planning and executing research, as well as how to synthesize your findings into action.

Code for America
Toolkit

Simplified, mobile-friendly SNAP application increases application rates

From April 13, 2020 to July 31, 2020, individuals in Kentucky who were determined to be likely eligible for food stamps after completing mRelief’s eligibility screener were randomly assigned to be in either the treatment or the control group. mRelief’s simplified application led to a statistically significant increase in SNAP application completion - from 32% in the control group (status quo) to 59% in the treated group (mRelief).

University of Utah
Academic Article

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
Toolkit

18F Agile-based project approach

18F describes its Agile-based project approach combining iterative software development, product management, user-centered design, and DevOps.

18F
Toolkit

Why human-centered testing is crucial to building government software

This article reviews two examples of how Nava has used open-source technologies to bring human-centered testing practices to government services software.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Non-Academic Article

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
Non-Academic Article

Tackling the Time Tax: How the Federal Government Is Reducing Burdens to Accessing Critical Benefits and Services

This report summarizes progress made with agencies and members of the public to identify and reduce burdens that individuals, families, and small businesses face every day when interacting with government programs.

Executive Office of the President
Report

The TechFAR Handbook

The TechFAR Handbook highlights the flexibilities in the Federal Acquisition Regulation (FAR) that can help agencies implement “plays” from the Digital Services Playbook, with a particular focus on how to use contractors to support an iterative, customer-driven software development process.

U.S. Digital Service
Toolkit

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
Toolkit

Making Integrated Benefits Easy to Access Online and on Mobile Phones

This resource describes how different agencies have updated their systems to increase online and mobile access to benefits information and applications, including using text messages to share benefits information with residents. These approaches enable residents to more effectively access benefits information, and can meet resident needs across a range of accessibility requirements.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

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
News

Agency Inventories of AI Use Cases

In accordance with Executive Order 13960, Promoting the Use of Trustworthy Artificial Intelligence in the Federal Government, Federal agencies began publishing their first annual inventories of artificial intelligence (AI) use cases in June 2022 and the following months. On this page, users can access inventories published to date.

National Artificial Intelligence Initiative
Government Documents

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
Government Documents

The Federal government is redesigning how it delivers services

Article announcing five new projects by the Office of Management and Budget that will improve experiences the public has with the government during significant movements in their lives. These “life experience” projects are at the center of a new model for how the Federal Government should better design and deliver benefits, services, and programs to the American people during the moments in their lives that matter most.

Performance.gov
Non-Academic Article

Design Justice Network

Website of The Design Justice Network, a home for people who are committed to embodying and practicing the Design Justice Network Principles.

Design Justice Network
Organization Website

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
Non-Academic Article

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
Case Study

Spanish Translation Guide for Unemployment Insurance

U.S. Digital Response’s Spanish Translation Guide for Unemployment Insurance provides practical guidelines and resources to help governments improve communication with Spanish speakers seeking access to unemployment insurance (UI) benefits.

U.S. Digital Response
Toolkit

Medicaid And SNAP Advance Equity But Sometimes Have Hidden Racial And Ethnic Barriers

This article explores how although SNAP and Medicaid programs have succeeded in narrowing health and nutrition disparities, certain policies hinder goals of racial and ethnic equity, even though they do not explicitly mention race or ethnicity.

Health Affairs
Academic Article

Rules as Code Demo Day | Demo 8: PolicyEngine | Max Gehnis and Nikhil Woodruff

We wrapped up Rules as Code Demo Day with Max Ghenis and Nikhil Woodruff, the founders of PolicyEngine. The PolicyEngine web app computes the impact of tax and benefit policy in the US and the UK. With PolicyEngine, anyone can freely calculate their taxes and benefits under current law and customizable policy reforms, and also estimate the society-wide impacts of those reforms. Policymakers and think tanks from across the political spectrum can analyze actual policy. PolicyEngine is built atop the open source OpenFisca US and UK microsimulation models and they are building an open unified data set utilizing data from the Policy Rules Database, Current Population Survey, Survey of Consumer Finances, Consumer Expenditures, tax records, and IRS Public Use File.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Video

Responsible Design for Digital Communities

Digital interfaces are the bridges to our communities. Technology can’t fix the systemic inequality revealed by COVID19, but it can help make connections with our communities better. This tool kit and website brings together emergent best practices, workflows, and tools that communities, educators, mutual aid groups, designers, artists and activists are using for community building, and how design needs to change to best suit people, right now.

Responsible Design for Digital Communities
Toolkit

Domain Shift and Emerging Questions in Facial Recognition Technology

This policy brief offers recommendations to policymakers relating to the computational and human sides of facial recognition technologies based on a May 2020 workshop with leading computer scientists, legal scholars, and representatives from industry, government, and civil society

Stanford University, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
Academic Article

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
Non-Academic Article

“I Used to Get WIC . . . But Then I Stopped”: How WIC Participants Perceive the Value and Burdens of Maintaining Benefits

This study examines how individuals assess administrative burdens and how these views change over time within the context of the Special Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC).

RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences
Academic Article

Jurisdiction Data Maps: Mobile Driver License Implementation Data Map

This map illustrates which jurisdictions throughout the United States and Canada have implemented one of six stages of mobile driver licenses.

American Association of Motor Vehicle Administrators (AAMVA)
Graphic

Making Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Enrollment Easier for Gig Workers

This article explores some of the challenges gig workers face in enrolling in SNAP, as well as present and future policy solutions to ease access to SNAP.

American Journal of Public Health
Academic Article

2021 Poverty Projections: Assessing Four American Rescue Plan Policies

This report describes key elements of the American Rescue Plan Act and how it would reduce the projected poverty rate for 2021. Various projections regarding the effects of the policy are described in this report.

Urban Institute
Report

Proposed Performance Standards for Equitable Access to Unemployment Insurance

This proposal recommends a set of new federal performance standards that would measure and improve UI access. The proposal is intended to supplement existing federal UI standards, but all UI standards and metrics should be periodically reevaluated and updated as the conditions facing unemployed workers and benefit delivery change.

National Employment Law Project (NELP)
Non-Academic Article

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
News

How to create a service blueprinting facilitation guide

A toolkit for creating a dynamic service blueprint that can be modified or expanded upon to fit an organization's needs.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Toolkit

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
Report

The State Hub Roadmap: CDSS CalFresh and CalWORKs Streamlining Verifications

As part of its ongoing commitment to streamline access to benefits by Californians in need of assistance, the California Department of Social Services is exploring electronic options to help simplify and modernize the processes for obtaining required verifications for CalFresh and CalWORKs eligibility. This report lays out a set of options and opportunities for consideration, as well as a list of key verification considerations that would benefit both clients and staff.

Alluma
Report

A tool to drive toward equitable policy advocacy approaches and outcomes

A modification of Bolder Advocacy’s ACT!Quick capacity self-assessment tool to incorporate additional equity-centered capacities, engage community authentically, and conduct research in culturally responsive ways.

American Evaluation Association
Non-Academic Article

Benefits Data Trust Demo at the Cross-Sector Rules as Code Roundtable

In this video, Benefits Data Trust Senior Product Manager Daniel Singer and Software Engineering Manager Preston Cabe present their eligibility screening platform including their rules engine, API, and DMN rules notation. The Cross-Sector Rules as Code Roundtable on February 22, 2024 was hosted by Rules as Code Community of Practice at the Digital Benefits Network.

Benefits Data Trust
Video

Accessible Numbers

Use the accessible numbers project to design services for people who need help with numbers.

Accessible Numbers
Toolkit

Webinar: Unwinding – Where Do We Go From Here?

CBPP and CCF held a webinar to discuss where Medicaid stakeholders go from here. CCF highlighted where states are now, next steps for state compliance with federal requirements, best practices that should be continued beyond the unwinding, and potential new developments including the final eligibility and enrollment rule. Additionally, we discussed outreach strategies to reconnect eligible children and families who lost Medicaid back to coverage.

The Center for Children & Families (CCF) at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP)
Video

Rapidly Building Unemployment Services During the Pandemic

Nava partnered with the State of California’s Employment Development Department to build and deploy two digital services to assist Californians seeking unemployment benefits, in just three months.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Case Study

What Are Human Services, and How Do State Governments Structure Them?

This report describes the human services landscape within state governments and uses case studies to show the range of approaches state governments take in structuring their human services systems. It also explores some implications of these structures for alignment and coordination within human services and with the health care sector.

Urban Institute
Report

Ex Parte Options and Recommendations for the non-MAGI Medicaid Population to Reduce Churn

As a part of Benefit Data Trust (BDT)’s Medicaid Churn Learning Collaborative, BDT has created a memo describing policy options and state examples for Medicaid administrators to reduce churn for non-MAGI Medicaid enrollees when the federal public health emergency ends.

Benefits Data Trust
Policy Brief

Helping Policy Makers Put People First: A Step-by-Step Tool for User-Centered Policy Making

Policymakers, lawmakers, and government leaders are increasingly exploring new ways to ensure that laws and policies are centered around people’s needs while improving how services are delivered to the public. To help policymakers interested in following these successful models, the Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation launched the User-Centered Policy Organization Assessment. Teams crafting policy inside and outside government can use the assessment to center their policy-making activities around those most impacted by their proposed programs and policy ideas.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Toolkit

A Guide to Responsible and Efficient Use of Generative Tools

This video shows you how to get started with using Generative AI tools, including Bard, Bing, and ChatGPT, in your work as public sector professionals.

Innovate US
Video

Prototyping a document management system for future emergencies

Research from the Department of Labor shows that document management systems reduce barriers for claimants and help states be more efficient. With additional improvements and investment, these systems can be even more effective in serving the public and reducing backlogs in times of crisis.

U.S. Department of Labor
Government Documents

Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means: Professor Don Moynihan

Professor Don Moynihan discusses how administrative burden is an effective tool to make it difficult for people to access certain types of benefits, noting that this is particularly harmful to communities of color.

University College Dublin
Video

The Government Is Helping People Pay Rent, But Something’s Gone Wrong

Rent relief distribution in 2020 was slow and inequitable, because local programs instituted strict eligibility criteria beyond what was required by the CARES Act. As a result of these hurdles, incomplete applications were a major barrier to distributing funds. This report describes the rent relief challenges during the pandemic, as well as a few possible fixes to help the next round of aid distribution.

New America
Non-Academic Article

'They're Stealing Food From My Kids': SNAP recipients and the struggle against EBT Theft

EBT theft has deeply damaged the lives of the lowest-income Americans. The following insights reveal a system that leaves people in the dark and fails to protect a crucial lifeline.

Propel
Report

What Are Generative AI, Large Language Models, and Foundation Models?

What exactly are the differences between generative AI, large language models, and foundation models? This post aims to clarify what each of these three terms mean, how they overlap, and how they differ.

Center for Security and Emerging Technology
Non-Academic Article

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
Report

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
Report

Access Denied: Faulty Automated Background Checks Freeze Out Renters

This reporting explores how algorithms used to screen prospective tenants, including those waiting for public housing, can block renters from housing based on faulty information.

The Markup
News

Modernizing Public Benefits Delivery: How Innovation Can Deliver Results for Eligible Households and Taxpayers

A modernized public benefits system would better serve program participants, administrators, policy makers, and taxpayers. This paper proposes a set of principles both define the desired future state and outline the values that shape decision making along the way. Practices describe the processes needed to achieve modernization.

National Academy of Public Administration
Report

Evaluating CX with Survey Design

In the Fall of 2022, the USDOL Office of Unemployment Insurance Modernization (OUIM) consulted with the Illinois Department of Employment Security (IDES) to provide hands-on support with IT modernization and customer experience strategy. Primary discussions focused on making informed product, service, and business decisions based on qualitative and quantitative data— how might IDES leverage existing data streams to identify the most pressing technology issues in their unemployment insurance system, and how might IDES act upon this information in a timely and impactful manner?

U.S. Department of Labor
Government Documents

Keynote: Carole House, Director for Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation, NSC

In this keynote presentation, Carole House, the Director for Cybersecurity and Secure Digital Innovation at the National Security Council discusses cybersecurity and identity management priorities at the federal level.

Better Identity Coalition
Video

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
Non-Academic Article

Can States Finally Fix Their Unemployment Systems?

Though the economy is rebounding, it is still necessary for states to reform their unemployment systems to provide relief to millions of Americans, as many sectors are still slow to recover.

Governing
Non-Academic Article

Digital Authentication and Identity Proofing in MAGI Medicaid Applications

On May 19, 2023, the Digital Benefits Network published a new, open dataset documenting authentication and identity proofing requirements across online SNAP, WIC, TANF, Medicaid, child care (CCAP) applications, and unemployment insurance applications. This page includes data and observations about authentication and identity proofing steps specifically for online applications that include MAGI Medicaid.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Dataset

Better Data Sharing for Benefits Delivery

This policy brief outlines how improved data sharing between federal agencies, state and local governments, and institutions can leverage existing data from other benefits programs to streamline eligibility processes and benefits uptake for the Affordable Connectivity Program (ACP) and other programs.

New America
Policy Brief

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
Report

Does the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Affect Hospital Utilization Among Older Adults? The Case of Maryland

Accounting for the strong effects of health care access, this study finds that SNAP is associated with reduced hospitalization in dually eligible older adults. Policies to increase SNAP participation and benefit amounts in eligible older adults may reduce hospitalizations and health care costs for older dual eligible adults living in the community.

Benefits Data Trust
Academic Article

Federal plain language guidelines

Guidelines to help organizations write in compliance with the Plain Writing Act of 2010.

Plainlanguage.gov
Organization Website

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
Toolkit

Guardrails: Automated SNAP Recertification Assistance

GuardRails is an experimental new approach to streamline the annual SNAP recertification process by leveraging targeted text messaging and automated voice messages in multiple languages to “nudge” people at the right time with the right information to help them through the recertification process.

Benefits Data Trust
Case Study

Closing the AI accountability gap: defining an end-to-end framework for internal algorithmic auditing

This paper introduces a framework for algorithmic auditing that supports artificial intelligence system development end-to-end, to be applied throughout the internal organization development lifecycle.

ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
Academic Article

Streamlining SNAP for the Gig Economy

This issue brief explores how states can leverage existing policy to better support self-employed workers. The Simplified Self-Employment Deduction option available to state SNAP programs is a key example of one such supportive policy. This brief discusses the advantages of this policy option, and highlights the experiences of officials in Alabama, Maryland, Nebraska, and South Carolina, in addition to offering a roadmap for other states.

Benefits Data Trust
Policy Brief

Designing an eligibility screener tool for Montana WIC

This case study describes Nava's with the state of Montana’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agency to build an eligibility screener tool.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Case Study

Removing Barriers: Public Benefits and Voter Registration

The GetCalFresh team, the California Department of Social Services, and the California Secretary of State’s office worked together to create a simplified, accessible voter registration experience with clients. When people come to GetCalFresh.org, they are looking to apply for food assistance, so the state of California did not want voter registration to become an obstacle to the goal of getting food assistance. Thus, rather than directing clients to anther website, they offered to text clients a link to the CA Secretary of State’s voter website with directions on how to register.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Civic Service Design Tools & Tactics

Website with various articles regarding civic service design tools and tactics, case studies, and other articles.

NYC Mayor’s Office for Economic Opportunity
Toolkit

MyFriendBen Demo at the Cross-Sector Rules as Code Roundtable

In this video, MyFriendBen.org Executive Director Elise Henson and Gary Community Ventures VP of Technology Brian Hiatt provide a demonstration of their new benefits eligibility screening tool in Colorado. The Cross-Sector Rules as Code Roundtable on February 22, 2024 was hosted by Rules as Code Community of Practice at the Digital Benefits Network.

Gary Community Ventures
Video

Gender Shades: Intersectional Accuracy Disparities in Commercial Gender Classification

Recent studies demonstrate that machine learning algorithms can discriminate based on classes like race and gender. This academic study presents an approach to evaluate bias present in automated facial analysis algorithms and datasets.

Proceedings of Machine Learning Research
Academic Article

Platforms: More value, more quickly, more securely

Adopting a platform strategy should be a key component of how government agencies design and deliver digital services.

Ad Hoc
Non-Academic Article

POVERTY LAWGORITHMS: A Poverty Lawyer’s Guide to Fighting Automated Decision-Making Harms on Low-Income Communities

This guide, directed at poverty lawyers, explains automated decision-making systems so lawyers and advocates can better identify the source of their clients' problems and advocate on their behalf. Relevant for practitioners, this report covers key questions around automated decision-making systems.

Data & Society
Report

Equitable Name Test

An open source list of names and considerations for names to make systems more equitable.

New America and community contributors
Non-Academic Article

Make RFPs More Equitable

A Request For Proposals (RFP) is a document describing a project that needs an outside business to complete. Clear, concise RFPs are necessary to attract potential talent, in addition to making the process more equitable and efficient. This article provides several suggestions on improving an organization’s RFP.

Bellweather Agency
Toolkit

Top Insights From a Moment in History

APHSA's President and CEO reflects on lessons and opportunities the COVID-19 pandemic highlighted and constructs a national narrative around the moment.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Non-Academic Article

Demystifying Inclusive Design: How to Design More Equitable and Accessible Products

Inclusive design means making design choices that take into account personal identifiers like ability, race, economic status, language, age, and gender. This resource walks folks through an introduction to inclusive design, focusing on accessibility and equity.

Exygy
Presentation

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
Report

Text to Connect: Strategy + Content for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the fourth in a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. Focused on strategy and content, this guide offers recommendations and best practices for crafting messages, engaging clients, and obtaining consent.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Benefits Data Trust
Toolkit

New Jersey’s Worker-centered Approach to Improving the Administration of Unemployment Insurance

This paper describes the policy choices, business practices, and technology innovations that the State of New Jersey is employing to ensure that the right people get benefits — accurately and on time.

Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, Rutgers University
Report

Digital Distortions and Interpretive Choices: A Cartographic Perspective on Encoding Regulation

This article analyses ‘digital distortions’ in Rules as Code, which refer to disconnects between regulation and code that arise from interpretive choices in the encoding process.

Queensland University of Technology, Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology
Academic Article

Public Benefits Delivery & Consumer Protection

This Issue Spotlight explores the challenges that recipients of public benefits programs offering cash assistance encounter in accessing funds through financial products or services, with a specific focus on assistance provided on prepaid cards.

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
Government Documents

Left Out: Policy Diffusion and the Exclusion of Black Workers from Unemployment Insurance

This article examines recent historical scholarship, archival evidence, and information on unemployment compensation programs to understand the exclusion of agricultural workers and domestic servants from unemployment insurance as an example of policy diffusion.

Social Science History
Academic Article

A Snapshot of Artificial Intelligence Procurement Challenges

Artificial intelligence promises exciting new opportunities for the government to make policy, deliver services and engage with residents. But government procurement practices need to adapt if we are to ensure that rapidly-evolving AI tools meet intended purposes, avoid bias, and minimize risks to people, organizations, and communities. This report lays out five distinct challenges related to procuring AI in government.

The GovLab
Report

A Better Way to Connect People with the Benefits They Need

Outdated, cumbersome and inefficient government processes have long stymied innovation and prevented people from accessing social services for which they are eligible. BenePhilly has helped more than 110,000 Philadelphians, both in and out the workforce, enroll in assistance programs and has unlocked over $350 million in benefits.

Governing
Case Study

Disability, Bias, and AI

This report explores key questions that a focus on disability raises for the project of understanding the social implications of AI, and for ensuring that AI technologies don’t reproduce and extend histories of marginalization.

AI Now Institute
Report

Building Modular, Reusable, and Flexible Components, Tools, and Formats

This resource contains specific examples that highlight the advantages of designing reusable code components, software tools, or design formats. This guide also illustrates the possibilities for connecting new components to existing system infrastructure.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Maximizing the impact of direct cash transfers to young people: A policy toolkit

Chapin Hall collaborated with national policy experts, practitioners, and young adults with lived experience of homelessness to create a policy toolkit where tax, public benefits, and educational aid implications for young people participating in Direct Cash Transfer (DCT) programs are laid out in one place.

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago
Toolkit

Lost in the Labyrinth: Helping Parents Navigate Early Care and Education Programs

Overview: Families with the youngest children stand to gain the most from improved access to benefits, yet persistent fragmentation in early care and education (ECE) programs creates challenges in finding, applying for, and enrolling in services. As a result, families miss out on critical opportunities for their children at the time when these ECE programs have the highest impact. The New Practice Lab examined what these missed opportunities look like up close in one state and collected data on the fractured system of programs and funding streams across all fifty states to begin illustrating the complexity that families face. Ultimately, we see wide variation across states with plenty of opportunities to increase access to information, simplify application procedures, and create more equitable access to these services.

New Practice Lab at New America
Policy Brief

Recommendations to Set Path for Reform at the Employment Development Department

To better serve workers who have experienced job loss during the COVID-19 pandemic, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a strike team charged with creating a blueprint for improvements at the Employment Development Department (EDD). In this report, the Strike Team outlines its recommendations and suggested next steps for the EDD to address the backlog and improve on future processing of unemployment claims.

GovOps
Report

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
Academic Article
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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
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Local/Municipal
Territorial
Tribal/Indigenous