Author: Benefits Data Trust
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Data 
Benefits Access for Student Success: A Toolkit For Leveraging Data to Find Eligible Students
Each year, millions of college students struggle to pay for their education and basic needs, including food, childcare, housing, healthcare, and internet service. Among those students are a disproportionate number of first-generation students and students of color. This toolkit aims to build institutional capacity to enable all students to put food on the table, improve health outcomes, focus on school, and graduate.
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Data 
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.
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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.
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BenePhilly SNAP Demonstration Project
The BenePhilly SNAP Demonstration Project (henceforth “BenePhilly”) represents an innovative and successful approach to streamlining access to public benefits. It sought to increase participation in SNAP among eligible senior households in Philadelphia by utilizing existing state and federal data to reach seniors who are likely eligible for, but not participating in, SNAP, as well as simplify the SNAP application and enrollment process. This report summarizes preliminary findings from BenePhilly’s 18 months of operation (June 2010–December 2011).
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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.
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Procurement 
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.