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Improving Outcomes for Families through Better Use of Data: The TANF Data Collaborative

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Data Innovation project and the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) Pilot were established to expand the routine use, integration, and analysis of TANF and employment data by agency staff to improve program services and outcomes for families with low incomes. This nine-minute video, produced after the completion of the TDC Pilot, features staff members from the California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Virginia TANF agencies reflecting on their challenges, accomplishments, and general experiences during the pilot.

Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation
Video

Helping Families Access Public Benefits with AI and Automation

Webinar that shares Nava’s partnership with the Gates Foundation and the Benefits Data Trust that seeks to answer if generative and predictive AI can be used ethically to help reduce administrative burdens for benefits navigators.

Nava PBC
No items found.

Report: Modernizing Access to the Safety Net

Innovators inside and outside of government are working to improve access to the social safety net using data, technology, and design. This report highlights innovations carried out by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Data and Technology grantees from 2018 to 2021, including extraordinary efforts to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Those grantees are: Benefits Data Trust, Code for America, Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, U.S. Digital Response, and the Digital Innovation and Governance Initiative at New America. In 2020, these projects secured more than $200 million in benefits for close to 100,000 people across at least 36 states, and helped millions more through policy change, training, and guidance.

The Rockefeller Foundation
Report

Modular Procurement: A Primer

This research brief explores the different philosophies and implementation methods of modular procurement, including the advantages and disadvantages of each method, and the cultural and structural changes a procurement office should consider when making the switch to modular procurement.

National Association of State Procurement Officials (NASPO)
Report

Updates to the OECD’s definition of an AI system explained

In 2023, OECD member countries approved a revised version of the Organisation’s definition of an AI system. This post explains the reasoning behind the updated definition.

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

Opportunities to Streamline Enrollment Across Public Benefit Programs

Data-sharing across public benefits programs can help enroll low-income people into other benefits for which they qualify. This guide helps local policymakers and program officials identify opportunities under federal law to streamline the application and enrollment process.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Report

Text to Connect: Using Text Message Outreach to Reduce SNAP Churn (Full Guide)

Nearly 1 in 5 lose SNAP benefits during the recertification process. When SNAP-eligible residents want to start receiving benefits again, they must go through the lengthy process of reapplication, generating administrative burden and cost. Text messaging allows for direct communication with clients to support them through the recertification process. This guidebook aims to equip state and local agencies with the practical insights they need to develop a text messaging outreach program for SNAP recertification.

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

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
Presentation

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

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

Challenging the Use of Algorithm-driven Decision-making in Benefits Determinations Affecting People with Disabilities

This report analyzes lawsuits that have been filed within the past 10 years arising from the use of algorithm-driven systems to assess people’s eligibility for, or the distribution of, public benefits. It identifies key insights from the various cases into what went wrong and analyzes the legal arguments that plaintiffs have used to challenge those systems in court.

Center for Democracy and Technology
Report

Voices of Washington’s Unemployed: Highlights and Analysis From 100 Interviews with Recent Unemployment Benefits Claimants in Washington State

Through the interviews, ULP sought to capture details of claimant experience, see how and why system failures occurred, and make recommendations for reform now—before another financial or public health crisis suddenly causes state unemployment rates to spike.

Unemployment Law Project
Case Study

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

Automated Decision-Making Systems and Discrimination

This guidebook offers an introduction to the risks of discrimination when using automated decision-making systems. This report also includes helpful definitions related to automation.

AlgorithmWatch
Report

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

18F and TTS Office of Acquisition award first assisted acquisition

The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Family Assistance (OFA) worked with 18F to replace its legacy data reporting system through product management training, user research, and an assisted acquisition.

18F
News

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

18F User Experience Design Guide

18F’s UX Guide documenting their practices and helpful resources. UX in government involves doing design research, creating wireframes and prototypes to guide development, and explicit attention to organizational relationships and dynamics.

18F
Toolkit

The Wait List as Redistributive Policy: Access and Burdens in the Subsidized Childcare System

This article theorizes the wait list as an underexamined vehicle of administrative burden. Focusing on the example of subsidized chidl care, the article's findings suggest wait lists as understudied but consequential sites of opaque policymaking that shape access to critical social services and the legibility of unmet need.

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

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

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

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

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

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

Aligning Systems to Advance Family and Community Well-Being: A Partnership Playbook for Community Action and Human Services Agencies

This playbook outlines the ways Community Action and human services agencies worked together to meet the pandemic challenge—what worked well, obstacles and difficulties, and lessons learned to inform the path forward, partnering to achieve a more equitable recovery. It also explains how communities have leveraged opportunities to partner on approaches that hold the promise of deeper, longer lasting changes for families—work shaped by families’ wishes and strengths and designed to advance both family-level and systems-level change.

National Community Action Partnership, American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
No items found.

Direct File, Integrated State Filing, and FileYourStateTaxes 2024 Findings Report

This report summarizes Code for America's experience and results working with AZ and NY to build FileYourStateTaxes.

Code for America
Report

COVID-19 Exposes How Many Unemployment Websites Are Truly Terrible

Unemployment applicants across the country are experiencing technical issues as they try to file applications, and these difficulties are exacerbated by the old architecture that state governments use to maintain their websites.

Huffington Post
News

Responding to the COVID-19 Unemployment Crisis and Meeting the Future of Work Challenge

Due to technology’s disruptive force in society and on the labor force, it is necessary to revisit the relationship between employees, governments, and citizens. This report asserts that the next president should immediately sign two Executive Orders (EOs) to address the current work crisis and the urgent economic emergency that has left Americans evicted, unable to pay bills, make rent, or put food on the table.

Day One Project
Policy Brief

National Collaborative for Integration of Health and Human Services: Promoting Greater Health and Well-Being

A growing body of evidence shows that improved care and service coordination across multiple sectors, including beyond traditional health care services, has the potential to enable the achievement of improved health and well-being outcomes for families and communities. Human service programs and providers already in place are uniquely positioned to provide essential contributions to improving overall health outcomes if they effectively coordinate with the traditional and evolving health system.

American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Report

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
Report

Serving the Citizens—Not the Bureaucracy: A Strategic Vision for City Procurement

This report features a strategic vision with six plays to help procurement work in public service.

The Chicago Council on Global Affairs
No items found.

Digital Identity Glossary

A glossary of key terms related to digital identity.

Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation
Other

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

Building Resilience: A Plan for Transforming Unemployment Insurance

In recognition of the UI system’s challenges both before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) in June 2022 placed the UI system on its High Risk List, recommending that the DOL develop and implement a plan to transform the UI system. This transformation plan details the activities and strategies already completed and those underway and being pursued by the Department of Labor. It also contains recommendations for needed legislative action that directly address the critical challenges identified by GAO. This plan is structured according to the DOL’s key action areas that together will build a resilient UI system, capable of responding effectively to future economic challenges.

U.S. Department of Labor
Government Documents

Implementing rules without a rules engine

It is frequently assumed that when rules are implemented as code, a rules engine is necessary. However, it is possible for policy people and engineers to effectively work together to code logic that drives technological system without needing a mediating rules engine at all.

18F
Non-Academic Article

Creating Open Source Legislation as Code

In this presentation, Pia Andrews explores how open source legislation as code can be a public utility to increase transparency, and enable better implementation and testing of government systems.

Pia Andrews, Everything Open 2023 Conference
Video

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

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

Changes in State TANF Policies in Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic

As the US economy shut down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, state administrators for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)—the nation’s primary program for helping families with low incomes meet basic needs while supporting their transition to economic mobility through work opportunities—faced new challenges operating the program and meeting their clients’ needs. For families previously or newly receiving TANF, the pandemic made it harder to meet the work and activity requirements necessary to continue receiving benefits. Many state TANF administrators and agencies responded to the pandemic and stay-at-home orders by adjusting their policies to meet their states’ and families’ unique situations, needs, and challenges. In this brief, we describe how some of these agencies adapted their policies during the early months of the pandemic.

Urban Institute, American Public Human Services Association (APHSA)
Report

Advancing Economic Mobility For Low-Income Families: Policy Options For Governors

As we look to post-pandemic recovery, it will be critical to ensure that individuals have access to resources and supports that not only help them meet basic needs but also provide them with tools to increase their economic security and resilience and build assets that can be passed on to future generations, setting them up for future success.

National Governors Association
Report

Building Healthier Lives Through Increased SNAP Participation

This fact sheet describes a study demonstrating that Benefits Data Trust’s Outreach and Application Assistance increased SNAP participation more than seven-fold, reducing Medicaid spending and improving health in North Carolina.

Benefits Data Trust
Fact Sheet

Unpacking Inequities in Unemployment Insurance

The New Practice Lab interviewed Black and Latinx workers that lost their job or income due to COVID-19 and their experience navigating UI. They synthesized their findings in this report, discussing how compounding inequities that exist in the unemployment insurance system make it less accessible for workers of color.

New America
Report

Designing an API prototype for Montana WIC

This case study describes Nava's work with the state of Montana’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agency to build an API prototype, which is part of Nava's larger work inform a national API standard.

Nava Public Benefit Corporation
Case Study

States Can Use Text Messaging to Communicate Effectively With Medicaid and SNAP Enrollees

In the vast majority of states where Medicaid, SNAP, and other economic security and health programs are administered at the state level, agencies can and should send text messages to their clients to help eligible people connect to and stay enrolled in these programs.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Non-Academic Article

Digital Identity Guidelines: Federation and Assertions

These guidelines provide technical requirements for federal agencies implementing digital identity services and are not intended to constrain the development or use of standards outside of this purpose. This guideline focuses on the use of federated identity and the use of assertions to implement identity federations. Federation allows a given credential service provider to provide authentication and (optionally) subscriber attributes to a number of separately-administered relying parties.

National Institute of Standards and Technology
Report

After all these years, ‘welfare reform’ is the same racist dog whistle it always was

“Welfare reform” is often racially-coded, as it is used as a dog-whistle to propagate hostility towards poor people of color.

Washington Post
Non-Academic Article

Bias-Free Language

The guidelines for bias-free language contain both general guidelines for writing about people without bias across a range of topics and specific guidelines that address the individual characteristics of age, disability, gender, participation in research, racial and ethnic identity, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and intersectionality.

American Psychological Association (APA)
Toolkit

How Digital IDs Can Transform Government Services

Governments around the world are digitizing how they deliver services to citizens. And yet, without a secure and reliable way for people to prove their identity online, digital transformation efforts face a considerable barrier. This panel discussion, hosted by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), focuses on the potential benefits and concerns surrounding digital ID and identity proofing technology as well as the legal and technical barriers for use.

Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF)
Video

Conducting Research with a Healing Mindset

Code for America highlights the importance of recognizing the effects of intergenerational trauma on communities that have been systemically marginalized when conducting research.

Code for America
News

18F Methods: Journey Mapping

18F describes journey mapping: a visualization of the major interactions shaping a user’s experience of a product or service. This allows design teams to view a service through the perspective of the user and incorporate their learnings throughout the development process.

18F
Toolkit

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
Policy Brief

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
Non-Academic Article

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
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

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

Fixing Our Systems of Digital Identity

This brief video outlines how government can address issues in digital identity processes.

Better Identity Coalition
Video

Why is it so hard to build government technology?

The pandemic has shown how difficult it can be for the US to succeed with major technology projects. Various leading design thinkers discuss strategies for building more efficient and effective government technology.

MIT Technology Review
Non-Academic Article

I Am Not a Number

In early 2023, Wired magazine ran four pieces exploring the use of algorithms to identify fraud in public benefits and potential harms, deeply exploring cases from Europe.

Wired
News

Why defining your product is an essential question in government digital services

One of the most important questions in government digital services is "what is our product?". Teams that can identify their products are more likely to prioritize improvements in the best interest of the underlying service. And as a result of their work, Veterans, their family members, seniors, Medicare patients, and others have more successful and efficient interactions with the critical government services they need.

Ad Hoc
Non-Academic Article

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

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

Plain Language Is for Everyone, Even Experts

People want clear and concise information devoid of unnecessary jargon or complex terms. Plain language benefits both consumers and organizations.

Nielsen Norman Group
Toolkit

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
Toolkit

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
Non-Academic Article

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
Toolkit

Federal plain language guidelines

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

Plainlanguage.gov
Organization Website

Improving Outcomes for Families Through Better Use of Data: The TANF Data Collaborative

This nine-minute video, produced after the completion of the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) Pilot, features staff members from the California, Colorado, Minnesota, and Virginia TANF agencies reflecting on their challenges, accomplishments, and general experiences during the pilot. In particular, they describe their research questions and discuss building data capacity, integrating datasets, networking with other states, increasing collaboration between state and county agencies, learning new technical skills, and the benefits of being able to draw from diverse skillsets, all within the context of the TDC Pilot.

MDRC
Video

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

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

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
Policy Brief

The Time is Now

This brief video outlines remote identity verification challenges and argues for updated systems.

Better Identity Coalition
Video

NIST: AI Risk Management Framework

In collaboration with the private and public sectors, NIST has developed a framework to better manage risks to individuals, organizations, and society associated with artificial intelligence (AI). The framework is intended for voluntary use and to improve the ability to incorporate trustworthiness considerations into the design, development, use, and evaluation of AI products, services, and systems.

National Institute of Standards and Technology
Toolkit

Researching Inequities in a Public Benefits Program with a Racial Equity Framework, 7 Takeaways

The New Practice Lab partnered with students of the Stanford Public Interest Technology (PIT) Lab to understand how the Racial Equity Framework can shape research by actively identifying anti-Blackness, racial biases, and inequities that exist in public policy. This article documents the findings of the Stanford PIT Lab as they researched how the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) design affects communities of color.

New America
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

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

Improving Public Programs for Low-Income Tax Filers

To inform future efforts to bring more low-income tax filers into the tax system, this report focuses on the Volunteer Income Tax Assistance (VITA) program and investigates the challenges and opportunities to better serve the American people and improve the experience of tax filing.

New America
Report

Procurement Testimony at the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee, Feb 26 2020

Waldo Jaquith from 18F gives testimony to the Michigan Senate Appropriations Committee on how to efficiently appropriate money to technology projects.

Michigan State Senate
Video

What More States Allowing SNAP Recipients to Buy Food Online Means for Food Security

In early 2019, the USDA launched an online purchasing pilot for SNAP users, making it possible for recipients to order food online. Expansion of this program is necessary during COVID-19, as to prevent people from venturing out of their homes to pay for groceries and compounding the public health crisis.

CivilEats
Non-Academic Article

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

How the Next Administration Can Use Technology To Prevent Another Unemployment Insurance Meltdown

Clearing applicant backlogs is an important solution to the UI crisis. State governments and federal agencies could facilitate access to public benefits by collaborating to develop interoperable technology platforms that use open source software and modular design. Panelists discuss opportunities to prevent future UI crises by reimagining how governments deliver benefits to their citizens.

New America, Code for America, Benefits Data Trust, Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation at Georgetown University, Day One Project
Video

SNAP State Options Report

SNAP statutes and regulations provide the state SNAP agency with certain options to tailor SNAP according to their respective operational considerations and policy preferences. This report summarizes 19 SNAP policy options (in effect as of Oct. 1, 2023) and waivers (implemented as of July 1, 2023) chosen by SNAP state agencies (50 states, the District of Columbia, Guam, and Virgin Islands) in federal fiscal year (FY) 2023.

Food and Nutrition Service
Report

8 Tips for Governments to Mitigate Call Center Volume

Overwhelming unemployment rates during the pandemic created significant demand for state-based unemployment benefits. As a result of the increased applications, states are also experiencing an overwhelming volume of calls to their call centers. U.S. Digital Response has been working with states to mitigate problems arising from heavy demand on call centers. This article describes tangible steps state governments can take to manage call volume.

U.S. Digital Response
Non-Academic Article

States Are Using Much-Needed Temporary Flexibility in SNAP to Respond to COVID-19 Challenges

Since March 2020, states have been using temporary SNAP (food stamps) flexibility to provide emergency benefit supplements, and ease program administration during the pandemic. These options have allowed states to deliver more food assistance to struggling families, help manage intense administrative demands, and ensure that participants maintain much-needed benefits.

Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Fact Sheet

“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

An Agile Software Development Solicitation Guide

Government solicitations to procure custom software are often long, complicated, and take months. By using 18F’s agile contract format, agencies can hire an agile software contractor with a quickly-written dozen-page solicitation, allowing for immense savings in time and money.

18F
Toolkit

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

Human-Centered, Machine-Assisted: Ethically Deploying AI to Improve the Client Experience

In this interview, Code for America staff members share how client success, data science, and qualitative research teams work together to consider the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in responding to clients who seek assistance with three products.

Code for America
Non-Academic Article

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

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

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
Non-Academic Article

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

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

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

Expanding TANF Program Insights: A Toolkit for State and Local Agencies on How to Access, Link, and Analyze Unemployment Insurance Wage Data

This toolkit is designed to assist state and local TANF agencies in accessing, linking, and analyzing employment data from unemployment insurance (UI) systems. The toolkit provides practical guidance on using UI wage data for program monitoring, reporting, and evaluation, and it may be valuable for other human services agencies and policymakers interested in improving workforce outcomes. The report highlights four key sections, covering the purpose of the toolkit, challenges in accessing UI wage data, methods for linking data sources, and instructions for preparing data for analysis. Additionally, an accompanying GitHub repository offers open-source code and resources for data processing and analysis. This toolkit serves as a starting point for TANF leaders who want to access and analyze UI wage data and offers the essential building blocks you will need to get started on your data analysis journey.

MDRC, Actionable Intelligence for Social Policy
Toolkit

Biometric Identification Technologies: Considerations to Address Information Gaps and Other Stakeholder Concerns

Biometric identification technologies—such as facial recognition and fingerprinting—can affect underserved communities, including low-income and minority communities. GAO interviewed academics, advocacy groups, and technology experts to find out how.

Government Accountability Office
Report

Government AI Readiness Index 2023

For 2023, Oxford Insights assesses the AI readiness of 193 governments across the world.

Oxford Insights
Other

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

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

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

Rules as Code - Delivering a personalised citizen experience for GovCMS

Demo and explainer video of the Australian government's implementation of rules as code as part of their enterprise content management platform.

Salsa Digital and Department of Finance
Video
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Eligibility
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