An interview with Wendy De La Rosa, assistant professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. De La Rosa discusses how the concept of “psychological ownership” can encourage people to take up benefits they are eligible for.
Hennepin County, Minnesota, implemented an online application system for child care assistance, resulting in increased applications, faster benefit distribution, and reduced administrative burdens.
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.
WIC enrollment has declined over the last decade, preventing millions of eligible low-income individuals from accessing its benefits. This report examines state WIC outreach pilots and discusses the effectiveness of text message outreach and key considerations when developing and launching targeted text outreach campaigns.
In response to exploding demand for social services during COVID-19, the Louisiana Department of children and Family services implemented text-message alerts and reminders for the state’s entire SNAP caseload, launched a text-based public campaign to help people understand and apply for SNAP benefits, and hired SNAP recipients to provide client feedback on communications and policy decisions.
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.
This toolkit provides guidance and resources for state agencies to effectively implement the USDA’s Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) program, which helps low-income families buy food during the summer months when school meals are unavailable.
FNS evaluations of Summer EBT programs show significant reductions in childhood food insecurity, but some eligible households do not fully redeem benefits.
During this event, researchers addressed questions with findings from data collected from state UI agencies across the country and focus groups with women who have experienced unemployment.
The New York State WIC program website provides access to nutritious foods, nutrition education, breastfeeding/chestfeeding support, and referrals to eligible pregnant, breastfeeding, and postpartum individuals, infants, and children up to age five.
In this summary, the authors use WBNS data to provide updated estimates of chilling effects in 2023 among immigrant families (i.e., in which the respondent or a family member living with them was not born in the US).
