Library
Discover the latest innovations, learn about promising practices, and find out what’s coming next with best-in-class resources from trusted sources.
Is there something missing from our library?
Search for the topic or resource you're looking for, or use the filters to narrow down results below.
-
Public Benefits Delivery & Consumer Protection
This Issue Spotlight explores the challenges that recipients of public benefits programs offering cash assistance encounter in accessing funds through financial products or services, with a specific focus on assistance provided on prepaid cards.
-
Procurement A phased approach to modular contracting
Modular contracting doesn’t just mean that you break one procurement into several pieces. This article shows you how to take a modular approach with a single contract divided up into natural break points.
-
Application Modernization is an Imperative for State Governments
NASCIO and VMware conducted a study during 2022 on the topic of state government application modernization. This study included an online survey and detailed individual interviews of state and territorial CIOs. The report presents findings from this research, key recommendations and a playbook for moving forward with application modernization.
-
Digitizing Policy + Rules as Code Blawx
Blawx is a prototype platform for user-friendly rules as code online. It includes an example encoding of portions of Canada's Old Age Security Act.
-
Digitizing Policy + Rules as Code A Love Letter to the Parliamentary Counsel of the World
A communication piece illustrating the need for a small addition to how government publishes legislation. Examples given for EU and New Zealand law.
-
Engineering + Software Development Vermont: Piloting A Document Uploader For Benefit Eligibility
Nava built flexible and reusable software and design components to make it easier for Vermonters to access their benefits. These components support Vermont’s long-term vision of integrating eligibility and enrollment processes for all of the state’s healthcare and financial benefit programs.
-
Human-Centered Design Project Snapshot: Trauma-Informed Homelessness Service Interactions and Strategy
The report highlights a project to improve the Philadelphia Office of Homeless Services' (OHS) prevention and intake processes by implementing trauma-informed practices. In collaboration with staff, participants, and trauma experts, the project aimed to reduce distress for those accessing services while equipping staff with tools and training to better manage trauma-related interactions, creating a more supportive and empathetic service environment.
-
Increasing Security and Equity in Electronic Benefits Transfer (EBT)
There has been exponential growth in benefits theft by criminals who are “cloning and skimming” EBT cards, leaving thousands of families with drained accounts and limited recourse in getting back their benefits. In this webinar, a panel of experts discuss what states can do right now to improve EBT security, how to use data to analyze theft patterns, and how EBT payment technology needs to evolve to ensure efficiency, security, and dignity for beneficiaries.
-
Improvements in Public Programs’ Customer Service Experiences Could Better Meet Enrollees’ Needs and Help Build Trust in Government
To better understand the experiences of people applying for public benefit programs and their perceptions of good and bad customer service within those programs, in 2022, the Urban Institute interviewed 27 adults who had applied for or received TANF cash assistance or Medicaid/CHIP in 2021 and reported at least one of four specified enrollment challenges.
-
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.
-
“It’s Like Night and Day”: How Bureaucratic Encounters Vary across WIC, SNAP, and Medicaid
Using 83 interviews with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), and Medicaid beneficiaries, and 35 interviews with staff from those programs, this paper examines how people differentiate their experiences across programs.
-
Data Data Coordination at SNAP and Medicaid Agencies: A National Landscape Analysis
Benefits Data Trust (BDT), in collaboration with the Center for Health Care Strategies (CHCS), conducted a nationwide analysis of how states coordinate across Medicaid and SNAP programs to streamline access to benefits. Between June and August of 2022, BDT and CHCS collected 114 survey responses from Medicaid and SNAP programs in 46 states and the District of Columbia.