The Digital Service Network (DSN) spoke with staff from ODX — Megan Evans Seeds, chief digital officer, and Lisa Yang, digital accessibility coordinator — to discuss their efforts to help center digital accessibility across Hennepin County government.
Ad Hoc has found that product operations can help scale impact by putting objective indicators at the center of product decision-making. The team has seen success in supporting product thinking at agencies like the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA), where they made it easier for Veterans to access employment and education assistance and for caregivers to receive needed support.
Alluma is a nonprofit that provides digital solutions to simplify eligibility screening and enrollment for social benefit programs, supporting cross-benefit access in 45 counties and two states. Their One-x-Connection product suite streamlines Medicaid and SNAP applications using a business rules engine, with a focus on human-centered design and anonymous, simplified eligibility checks, having helped screen over 10 million individuals and submitted over 67 million applications.
U.S. Digital Response partnered with the Department of Labor to design a human-centered, low-code solution for efficient retroactive unemployment benefit determination.
Code for America’s Integrated Benefits Initiative has been working in partnership with the State of Colorado to demonstrate how user-centered approaches lead to measurably better delivery of safety net programs. This article describes their work with the state of Colorado in simplifying how clients report common life changes that can affect their eligibility.
Handbook by 18F designed for executives, budget specialists, legislators, and other “non-technical” decision-makers who fund or oversee state government technology projects that receive federal funding and implement the necessary technology to support federal programs. It aids in setting projects up for success by asking the right questions, identifying the right outcomes, and equally important, empowering decision-makers with a basic knowledge of the fundamental principles of modern software design.
In a time of crisis, behavioral science offers insights into how to reduce the paperwork and other administrative burdens that prevent people from taking advantage of crucial support services.
Innovators inside and outside of government are working to improve access to the social safety net using data, technology, and design. This report highlights innovations carried out by The Rockefeller Foundation’s Data and Technology grantees from 2018 to 2021, including extraordinary efforts to meet the challenges of the pandemic. Those grantees are: Benefits Data Trust, Code for America, Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact and Innovation, U.S. Digital Response, and the Digital Innovation and Governance Initiative at New America. In 2020, these projects secured more than $200 million in benefits for close to 100,000 people across at least 36 states, and helped millions more through policy change, training, and guidance.
NYC Opportunity collaborated with the Administration for Child Services (ACS) to design a family-centered process for prevention services, addressing confusion and lack of choice in the current system. By creating tools like the Provider Profile and Family Voice booklet, the team empowered families to choose providers based on their needs while ensuring their feedback reaches ACS. The project aims to improve family experiences and communication with ACS, with plans to expand through testing and future innovations like a web portal.
This exploratory brief outlines the City of Boston’s phased plan to build a digital system for scheduling, managing, and reporting mattress and bulky item recycling pickups.
