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.
California’s SNAP program faced record application volume due to the COVID-19 crisis, and other states must anticipate similar demand. This post summarizes key takeaways from GetCalFresh’s real-time data and client communications, and offers recommendations for how other states can implement effective responses.
This report provides an initial fiscal analysis of how H.R. 1 (the “One Big Beautiful Bill”) will affect the state’s federally funded programs across agencies, estimating multi-billion-dollar reductions in SNAP, Medicaid, education, and infrastructure revenues.
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.
This article explores innovative strategies to improve access to public benefits by reducing administrative barriers and leveraging technology for a more user-friendly experience.
EBT theft has deeply damaged the lives of the lowest-income Americans. The following insights reveal a system that leaves people in the dark and fails to protect a crucial lifeline.
This case study describes Nava's with the state of Montana’s Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) agency to build an eligibility screener tool.
Comprehensive and sustained improvement in benefits access and customer experience requires changes across policy, operations, technology, staffing, procurement, and more. This guide offers a collection of actions and best practices for states to apply.
This report explores the Maine Department of Labor’s (MDOL) remarkable response to this layoff through collaboration with the Peer Workforce Navigator project—a coalition of community-based organizations in partnership with the MDOL—which made a huge difference in the lives of these laid off workers. The report also examines aspects of the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system that might be improved to account for similar situations in the future.
This report contributes to the quantitative measurement of psychological burdens by examining a case study of a single social program: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by considering new quantitative measures of the psychological burdens faced by SNAP applicants.
Accessing safety net benefits can involve complicated and duplicative processes that create barriers to access. Using cross-enrollment strategies can minimize the difficulties community members face in getting access to life-saving resources.
