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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
Report

Advocacy in the Dark: A Pennsylvania Case Study on Advocating to Improve Technology that Drives Eligibility Decisions

Technology that automates different processes can save time for caseworkers and constituents, but it can also significantly reduce the transparency of government operations. This paper describes how Pennsylvania advocates addressed the low rate of automated Medicaid renewals.

The Center for Law and Social Policy
Report

What We Measure Matters: Enhanced Performance Metrics for SNAP and Medicaid Would Promote a More Human-Centered Delivery System

This post from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities argues that the traditional measures of program performance say little about the human experience of accessing benefits, and argues for enhanced performance metrics to support more human-centered delivery.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-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

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

Democratizing AI: Principles for Meaningful Public Participation

In this policy brief and video, Michele Gilman summarizes evidence-based recommendations for better structuring public participation processes for AI, and underscores the urgency of enacting them.

Data & Society
No items found.

Providing Unemployment Insurance to Immigrants and Other Excluded Workers

The experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and its induced recession underscored the crucial importance of unemployment insurance (UI) to workers, and to the stability of the American economy. Temporary federal expansions of unemployment systems during the pandemic showed how they can quickly be scaled to increase benefit levels and to include categories of workers who were not previously eligible, such as the self-employed, caregivers, and low-wage workers. And, states showed that separate programs can be set up to provide similar benefits to workers who are explicitly excluded from unemployment insurance—in particular immigrants who do not have a documented immigration status.

The Century Foundation
Report

Framing the Risk Management Framework: Actionable Instructions by NIST in their “Govern” Section

This post introduces EPIC's exploration of actionable recommendations and points of agreement from leading A.I. frameworks, beginning with the National Institute of Standards and Technology's AI Risk Management Framework.

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Non-Academic Article

The Ad Hoc Government Digital Services Playbook

A playbook by AdHoc for agencies ready to replace enterprise software patterns with proven techniques from the world of commercial software. These plays can better equip teams with the practices that create resilient, flexible, and customer-friendly digital services.

Ad Hoc
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

Text to Connect: Evaluation of your Text Messaging Program to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the second in a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide focuses on designing an evaluation plan to assess the impact of a text messaging program.

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

Digital Identity Verification: Best Practices for Public Agencies

Digital identity verification offers several potential advantages over traditional verification, but these benefits can only be achieved if issues related to privacy and ethical data use are also addressed. This guidance surveys the challenges facing government agencies who want to digitally verify identities as part of improving service delivery, and provides recommendations about how to address those challenges.

Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT)
Report

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

State of California: Benefits and Risks of Generative Artificial Intelligence Report

This report on the use of Generative AI in State government presents an initial analysis of the potential benefits to individuals, communities, government and State government workers, while also exploring potential risks.

California Government Operations Agency
Report

Text to Connect: Data Collection Considerations for Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn

This guide is the fifth part of a series designed to help SNAP administrators implement a text messaging program to reduce SNAP churn. This guide is intended to help data engineers and analysts build the data pipeline and manage, analyze, and synthesize data needed for a text messaging program.

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

Rules as Code Demo Day Highlights

Building on our February 2022 report Benefit Eligibility Rules as Code: Reducing the Gap Between Policy and Service Delivery for the Safety Net, the Beeck Center’s Digital Benefits Network (DBN) hosted Rules as Code Demo Day on June 28, 2022 where there were eight demonstrations of projects and code followed by a collaborative problem solving session on how to continue advancing rules as code for the U.S. social safety net.

The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Video

Accessible Technology Procurement Toolkit

A guide on how to procure for accessible technology.

Disability:IN
Toolkit

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
News

Evaluating Facial Recognition Technology: A Protocol for Performance Assessment in New Domains

In May 2020, Stanford's HAI hosted a workshop to discuss the performance of facial recognition technologies that included leading computer scientists, legal scholars, and representatives from industry, government, and civil society. The white paper this workshop produced seeks to answer key questions in improving understandings of this rapidly changing space.

Stanford University, Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence
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

The Transformative Power of a People-Centered, Digital-First Safety Net

Code for America discusses the importance of a people-centered, digital-first safety net. Tools of technology, policy, and good implementation can advance a bold vision that will allow the nation to push through the end of the COVID-19 crisis.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

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
Case Study

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

Matching and Verifying Client Data Using Linkages Across Benefit

Data linking is an important tool that lets benefits program administrators efficiently determine eligibility, and ensure that applicants receive all of the benefits for which they are eligible. This resource provides examples and practical guides that explain how to use existing regulations and data sharing agreements to transfer client information or eligibility status between benefit programs.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Centering Racial Equity Throughout Data Integration

While most data sharing and integration occurs within a legal and governance framework, an emphasis on racial equity, transparency, and community engagement is often peripheral. This report focuses on the importance of a racial equity lens in data integration.

Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy (AISP)
Toolkit

What does it take for a public interest technology project to succeed?

This article describes the necessary factors for a public interest technology project to succeed, including leadership support, organizational and team support, proper scoping, time and resources, and a sustainability plan.

New America
Non-Academic Article

Child Care and Development Fund Equity Assessment Toolkit

This toolkit provides resources for training and technical assistance (T/TA) providers in the Child Care Technical Assistance Network (CCTAN) to help State, Territory, and Tribal CCDF Lead Agencies be prepared to conduct equity assessments.

Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Toolkit

Saving Face: Investigating the Ethical Concerns of Facial Recognition Auditing

This paper explores design considerations and ethical tensions related to auditing of commercial facial processing technology.

Proceedings of the AAAI/ACM Conference on AI, Ethics, and Society
Academic Article

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

Practica: Learn to Design Institutions That Put People First

Online courses from Civilla regarding human-centered design for public institutions.

Civilla
Workshop

A Civic Technologist's Practice Guide

This guide outlines the types of projects, partnerships, and people that civic technologists encounter, as well as the methods they can use to make lasting change.

Cyd Harrell
Book

Administrative Burden Scale

The Better Government Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University has developed a new scale for measuring the experience of burden when accessing public benefits. They offer both a three-item scale and a single-item scale, which can be utilized for any public benefit program. The shorter scales provide a less burdensome way to measure by requiring less information from users.

Better Government Lab at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University
Other

How to use product operations to scale the impact of government digital services

Ad Hoc has found that product operations can help scale impact by putting objective indicators at the center of product decision-making. The team has seen success in supporting product thinking at agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where they made it easier for Veterans to access employment and education assistance and for caregivers to receive needed support.

Ad Hoc
Non-Academic Article

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
Report

Better Identity at Five Years: An Updated Policy Blueprint and Report Card

In 2018 the Better Identity Coalition released a Policy Blueprint outlining five key initiatives that to solve the majority of America’s challenges in the digital identity space. This report from 2024 grades progress on each of the original Blueprint’s five key initiatives – as well as the 19 items that were contained in the “action plan” to support those initiatives.

Better Identity Coalition
Report

6-Month Update: Delivering on the President’s Commitment to Transform Customer Experience

President Biden believes that every American—regardless of where you live, where you work, or who you are—should have simple, seamless, and secure access to the Federal services they need. Over the past six months, we’ve gotten off to a fast start translating the President’s historic Executive Order on customer experience into action. Today, at the half-year mark, we have more key updates to share.

Federal CX Team
Non-Academic Article

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

Making the Case for Human-Centered Design in Government

Human-centered design is a problem-solving method that puts people at the center of the problem and aims to design solutions that address the needs of the people. Embracing such design methods in government is imperative to finding solutions that work for the people.

GovLoop
Non-Academic Article

Federal plain language guidelines

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

Plainlanguage.gov
Organization Website

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
Video

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
Presentation

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

Who Audits the Auditors? Recommendations from a Field Scan of the Algorithmic Auditing Ecosystem

Through a field scan, this paper identifies emerging best practices as well as methods and tools that are becoming commonplace, and enumerates common barriers to leveraging algorithmic audits as effective accountability mechanisms.

FAccT '22: Proceedings of the 2022 ACM Conference on Fairness, Accountability, and Transparency
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

Controlling Large Language Models: A Primer

Concerns over risks from generative artificial intelligence systems have increased significantly over the past year, driven in large part by the advent of increasingly capable large language models. But, how do AI developers attempt to control the outputs of these models? This primer outlines four commonly used techniques and explains why this objective is so challenging.

Center for Security and Emerging Technology (CSET), Georgetown University
Report

Improving Unemployment Fraud Reporting with User Research

User research + design kit in for improving the UI fraud reporting experience, available in English and Spanish

U.S. Digital Response, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania Department of Labor & Industry
Toolkit

WIC Eligibility Content Audit and Usability Evaluation Report

We reviewed the online eligibility web presence of all 89 WIC entities to understand what WIC eligibility information each entity gives to potential participants. This report shares the results of our comprehensive content audit and heuristic evaluation of eligibility pre-screeners, including ratings on security, mobile-friendly design, accessibility, and more. The report includes actionable steps entities can take to make their eligibility information easier to understand and use.

Service Design Collective
Report

Software Sharing Models

Governments around the world are sharing custom-built software already, and have done so for many years. It’s vital, cost-saving, and meets the needs of users. This article provides examples of a range of different software sharing models.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Non-Academic Article

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
Report

Algorithmic Accountability: Moving Beyond Audits

This report explores how despite unresolved concerns, an audit-centered algorithmic accountability approach is being rapidly mainstreamed into voluntary frameworks and regulations.

AI Now Institute
Non-Academic Article

Power to the Public: The Promise of Public Interest Technology

This book presents a blueprint for how governments and nonprofits can utilize digital technology to solve pressing twenty-first century issues.

Tara Dawson McGuinness, Hana Schank
Book

Trustworthy AI (TAI) Playbook

This playbook is an initial step by the Office of the Chief AI Officer (OCAIO) to support trustworthy AI development.

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Toolkit

Calling all stakeholders: Group-level assessment (GLA)—A qualitative and participatory method for large groups

Group-level assessment (GLA) is a qualitative and participatory large group method in which timely and valid data are collaboratively generated and interactively evaluated with relevant stakeholders leading to the development of participant-driven data and relevant action plans. This article describes the methodological development and process of conducting a GLA and its various applications across the evaluation spectrum.

Evaluation Review
Academic Article

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

How to build a participant advisory council

In 2022, Nava formed its first-ever PAC as part of their initiative to help Montana’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) program design a new recertification portal. Leveraging what Nava learned from this experience, this toolkit outlines the necessary steps to form a PAC, including planning a structure for the council, recruiting participants, and other logistics.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Toolkit

Core Principles for TANF Modernization: A Legislative Framework for TANF Refo

Working with TANF administrators and human services leaders across the country, the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) embraces the call to reimagine how TANF can work in support of the families it serves and has established a set of TANF Modernization Core Principles to guide our vision for the future of TANF. Grounded in these Core Principles, APHSA’s members have laid out a legislative framework to unlock the potential of TANF. We call upon Congress to use this framework as a starting point to build common ground to achieve a TANF reauthorization that promotes a more equitable and prosperous future for all Americans.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Policy Brief

Using Human-Centered Design to Increase Engagement in SNAP E&T

Putting the individual at the core of service delivery is key to successful SNAP E&T programs. This webinar provides insight on behavioral science concepts and how states can put such ideas into practice to tailor engagement, messaging, and independence planning, as well as promote participation in SNAP E&T programs.

Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Video

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

Identity Fraud Victim Redress Process and Systems

This report provides specific actions the federal government could take to reduce identity fraud and establish a whole-of-government victim redress approach.

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, MITRE
Report

Cracking the code: Rulemaking for humans and machines

Rules as Code proposes that governments create an official version of laws and regulations in a machine-consumable form, allowing the rules to be understood and actioned by computer systems in a consistent way.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Academic Article

Opportunities to Improve Online Access to SNAP for Older Adults

This issue brief illustrates the challenges that many older adults with low income face in gaining access to benefits online. It addresses digital literacy, access to broadband internet, and the increasing prevalence of connecting online to SNAP.

AARP Foundation
Fact Sheet

A state-by-state breakdown of failures in unemployment systems across the US during the pandemic

Business Insider rounded up 35 states that struggled with giving out unemployment benefits during the pandemic. Issues included backlogs, delayed payments, payments sent to fraudsters, and poor communication between the agency and laid-off workers. In alphabetical order by state, they provide a roundup of many states' struggles to give unemployment benefits to jobless Americans. 

Business Insider
News

ID Verification Controls Simulator

This simulator, created by the Joint Financial Management and Improvement Program (JFMIP), allows users to model program performance for a hypothetical government program, based on different identity verification decisions. The simulator illustrates concepts from the JFMIP report on payment integrity.

Joint Financial Management and Improvement Program (JFMIP)
Other

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
Case Study

Challenges of participation in large-scale public projects

This paper examines the challenges of participation in large-scale public projects. Taking its offset in a case-study of the development of a new public multimedia library, the paper discusses methods and values of Participatory Design in the face of the challenges that a project of this scale entails. These challenges concern how to address and manage a heterogeneous group of stakeholders and end-users, how to inform stakeholders and establish participation as a relevant activity, the development of new techniques and technologies to scaffold participation, and the interplay between iterative development and institutional transformation.

11th Conference on Participatory Design
Academic Article

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

Strategies for Improving Public Benefits Access and Retention

This report presents a menu of strategies that have the potential to increase access to individual public benefit programs or a package of benefits. It focuses on Illinois, but the strategies identified are relevant throughout the country.

Urban Institute
Report

Identity Authentication Pilot Projects – Conversion to State Option

This guidance document from the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) allowed states more flexibility in verifying SNAP applicant identity. This guidance followed six years of pilot projects, during which states gave SNAP applicants the option to authenticate their identity using a set of multiple choice authentication questions produced by a third-party vendor based on electronically matched public records, in place of using traditional methods to authenticate identity. In addition, and consistent with federal law, states participating in the project continued to accept and begin processing any application that included at least the applicant’s name, address and signature, even if the application was otherwise incomplete.

Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
Government Documents

Contracting for Transformation Toolkit

Tangible tools, scoring guides and strategies to embed equity and wellbeing into your procurement process. Designed for human services with opportunities to apply these principles to other fields.

Full Fame Initiative
Toolkit

The Unfinished Business of the ACA

“Interoperability” refers to systems’ ability to interact with each other to share data so that a customer is connected with as many benefits as possible in an efficient way. The Affordable Care Act (ACA) was originally intended to be interoperable, but this has not occurred yet. Promoting interoperability in the ACA is imperative, as it would help alleviate food insecurity through automatic benefits enrollment.

Alluma
Non-Academic Article

What’s in a name? A survey of strong regulatory definitions of automated decision-making systems

This post outlines different definitions of automated decision-making systems proposed by scholars and government entities.

Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC)
Non-Academic Article

Four Lessons from Our Journey to Deliver Human-Centered Integrated Benefits

Code for America partnered with the CBPP, Civilla, and Nava to launch the Integrated Benefits Initiative, testing and piloting human-centered approaches to improve outcomes and learn what an optimal safety net could look like. This article describes key takeaways from short-term pilots implemented as part of this project.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

Sprint 2 Report | Michigan Unemployment | Improving the delivery of unemployment insurance benefits

This project documents the work of Civilla and New America to improve the delivery of unemployment benefits for claimants in Michigan. This project is one phase of a larger body of work led by New America to improve the claimant and staff experience with unemployment insurance across the country.

Civilla, New America
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

SNAP Online: A Review of State Government SNAP Websites

There is significant variation amongst states’ SNAP websites and their online services. This report summarizes the types of services available and which states offer them.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-Academic Article

Roadmap: NIST Special Publication 800-63-4 Digital Identity Guidelines

The Revision 4 of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication 800-63, Digital Identity Guidelines, intends to respond to the changing digital landscape that has emerged since the last major revision of this suite was published in 2017 — including the real-world implications of online risks. This roadmap outlines NIST's project milestones and opportunities to provide feedback through March 2023.

National Institute of Standards and Technology
Government Documents

OECD Framework for the Classification of AI systems

To help policy makers, regulators, legislators and others characterize AI systems deployed in specific contexts, the OECD has developed a user-friendly tool to evaluate AI systems from a policy perspective.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
Report

What is Digital Identity?

This short resource introduces the term digital identity and provides an overview of core questions related to the topic.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Report

Funding Programs for Young Parents & Families

This brief provides a summary of potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to support programs specifically targeted towards young families. While this list is not exhaustive, it highlights major sources that can serve as a starting point for braiding and blending of funding to create comprehensive programming to serve young families.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Policy Brief

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
Report

Digital Welfare States and Human Rights

In this report, the UN Special Rapporteur critically examines uses of digital technologies for administration of welfare programs across international contexts, and makes recommendations for using technology responsibly and ethically.

United Nations
Report

Envisioning a Federal Rules as Code Approach to Public Benefits Eligibility

Digitizing public benefits policy will make the biggest impact for administrators and Americans, but only if it happens at the highest level of government.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

Rules as code: Seven levels of digitisation

This report, written for practitioners, classifies “digital transformation” of legal rules into a hierarchy of levels to help establish common terms.

Singapore Management University
Report

Elevating Family Input in TANF and Child Support Programs: Resources for Program Staff, Leaders, and Families

This expansive toolkit provides guidance, real world examples, and resources to help TANF and child support programs engage the families they serve in improving service delivery, policy, and program operations.

Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation, Administration for Children & Families
Toolkit

State Software Budgeting Handbook

Handbook by 18F designed for executives, budget specialists, legislators, and other “non-technical” decision-makers who fund or oversee state government technology projects that receive federal funding and implement the necessary technology to support federal programs. It aids in setting projects up for success by asking the right questions, identifying the right outcomes, and equally important, empowering decision-makers with a basic knowledge of the fundamental principles of modern software design.

18F
Toolkit

Six Recommendations for Implementing the Next Stimulus Package

The US Digital response partnered with dozens of states, counties, and cities to support them in using and tracking CARES Act grants. This article presents six lessons learned from their work to help governments better assist residents, particularly small businesses and low-income communities.

U.S. Digital Response
Non-Academic Article

OECD AI Policy Observatory

The OECD AI Policy Observatory offers detailed information about AI policy and research globally.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)
No items found.

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
Report

Technology in the public sector and the future of government work

This report explores technologies that have the potential to significantly affect employment and job quality in the public sector, the factors that drive choices about which technologies are adopted and how they are implemented, how technology will change the experience of public sector work, and what kinds of interventions can protect against potential downsides of technology use in the public sector. The report categories technologies into five overlapping categories including manual task automation, process automation, automated decision-making systems, integrated data systems, and electronic monitoring.

UC Berkeley Labor Center
Report

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
Case Study

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
Policy Brief

Use of Advanced Automation in SNAP

This memo provides state agencies with guidance on allowable use of advanced automation technologies. FNS encourages and supports state agencies’ use of advanced automation technologies to enhance the administration of SNAP and foster public trust, both in SNAP and in the state agencies’ systems, within the framework of statutory and regulatory requirements.

Food and Nutrition Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture
No items found.

Plain Language 101

Jack Ding from the NYC Mayors Office for Economic Opportunity gives a brief training on plain language writing.

NYC Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity
Video

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
Toolkit

“It has meant everything”: How P-EBT Helped Families in Michigan

This report explores Michigan’s implementation of the Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) program. Drawing on interviews from individuals within the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services and input from SNAP participants via surveys distributed using the Fresh EBT app, this report provides insights into the strategies that enabled Michigan to roll out an entirely new program quickly and effectively.

New America
Report

Time to Get It Right: State Actions Now Can Preserve Medicaid Coverage When Public Health Emergency Ends

Millions of people could lose health coverage when the COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) ends, but states can make changes to avoid massive coverage losses.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-Academic Article

Technology, Data, and Design-Enabled Approaches for a More Responsive, Effective Social Safety Net

This landscape analysis examines data, design, technology, and innovation-enabled approaches that make it easier for eligible people to enroll in, and receive, federally-funded social safety net benefits, with a focus on the earliest adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University
Report

WIC Certification and Eligibility Resource and Best Practices Guide

The WIC Certification and Eligibility Resource and Best Practices Guide is a compilation of existing regulations and best practices that WIC state and local agencies may choose to use when determining eligibility for the program. The guide walks through the certification process.

Food and Nutrition Service, USDA
Government Documents

An Updated Measure of Poverty: ReDrawing the Line

This report recommends updating the methodology used by the Census Bureau to calculate the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM) to reflect household basic needs and replace the current Official Poverty Measure as the primary statistical measure of poverty. The report assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the SPM and provides recommendations for updating its methodology and expanding its use in recognition of the needs of most American families such as medical care, childcare, and housing costs.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
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Eligibility Rules Weekly Recaps

Github page with weekly recaps on the activities taking place during 18F’s Eligibility Rules Service project.

18F
Non-Academic Article
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