Digital Benefits Beacons: Where Policy Meets Practice at BenCon 2024
Michigan's UIA director, Julia Dale, is leading the agency through transition by prioritizing lived experience, hope, grit, and values. Virginia's SNAP Program Manager, Michele Thomas, highlighted the success of Sun Bucks, a summer EBT child nutrition program that fed over 700,000 kids in its first year.
This session features two dynamic public sector leaders.
In Digital Benefits Beacons: Where Policy Meets Practice, Julia Dale, Michigan’s Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) director, shared how she is stewarding the UIA through transition by channeling lived experience and leading with hope, grit, and values. She also shared that one of her proudest partnerships is with Detroit-based, nonprofit design organization, Civilla, which helped UIA streamline services for claimants and employers using a human-centered design approach.
Virginia Department of Social Services’ SNAP Program Manager Michele Thomas shared how the Commonwealth of Virginia was able to feed more than 700,000 kids in the first year of Sun Bucks, their summer EBT child nutrition program. Virginia rose to the challenge of launching this new program by leveraging political will and wide-ranging partnerships to make the majority of eligible families categorically eligible, so they would not have to formally apply to receive Sun Bucks.
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