Code for America helped expand GetCalFresh (a service that guides Californians through the SNAP application process and helps government deliver food assistance to people in need) from a small pilot into a statewide service. They also recently concluded a similar pilot in Michigan along with Civilla and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.
This is a job description for the role of Poverty Research Technical Fellow from the New York City Mayor's Office for Economic Opportunity (NYC Opportunity).
The existing system for evaluating state safety net programs does not adequately capture the human experience of accessing services. This new National Safety Net Scorecard is a more meaningful set of metrics that can effectively asses the true state of the current program delivery landscape and measure progress over time, creating a more human-centered safety net.
Remote identify proofing is the process federal agencies and other entities use to verify that the individuals who apply online for benefits and services are who they claim to be. If the applicant responds correctly to personal questions, their identity is considered to be verified. However, data stolen in recent breaches could be used fraudulently to respond to knowledge-based verification questions. Alternative methods are available that provide stronger security, but these methods may have limitations in cost, convenience, technological maturity, and they may not be viable for all segments of the public.
The article examines the effects of Arkansas’s Medicaid work requirements, finding substantial coverage losses and no significant increase in employment, compounded by widespread confusion among beneficiaries about the policy.
Better Rules utilizes multidisciplinary teams that include people skilled in policy, legal, business rules, programming, and service design working together in an iterative fashion to develop rules. Several outputs are produced using this approach, each offering an opportunity that can be fed back into that iterative process and re-used to solve other issues.
This article discusses Code for America’s research into the user experience of applying or Medicaid, SNAP, TANF, WIC, and LIHEAP in the United States. They found that user experience applying for benefits programs varies greatly by (and often within) each state.
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.
In order to create for all, we have to employ processes that authentically engage misrepresented communities. People tend to think of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts in terms of implicit bias workshops, employee resource groups, and hiring processes. These efforts are all important, but it is also necessary to focus on DEI as it relates to the creation of products, services, and content, and use a design-thinking approach to tackle these tricky issues.
This blog post discusses the importance of prototyping in the public sector, focusing on how it helps test assumptions, gather user feedback, and refine ideas before making significant investments in building or launching a product or service.
Californians who receive food assistance come from all backgrounds, but many share a similar story: they were barely getting by financially when they were tipped into crisis by an unexpected expense or loss of income. This site shares their stories.
