The GetCalFresh team, the California Department of Social Services, and the California Secretary of State’s office worked together to create a simplified, accessible voter registration experience with clients. When people come to GetCalFresh.org, they are looking to apply for food assistance, so the state of California did not want voter registration to become an obstacle to the goal of getting food assistance. Thus, rather than directing clients to anther website, they offered to text clients a link to the CA Secretary of State’s voter website with directions on how to register.
The Technology Transformation Service at GSA recently created a new Public Benefits Studio to focus on fostering a more cohesive, coordinated experience for the public, across programs.
The exclusion of agricultural and domestic workers—predominantly African Americans—from the 1935 Social Security Act's unemployment insurance program is analyzed as a result of international policy diffusion rather than solely domestic racial politics.
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 article describes the necessity of building an inclusive research environment that empowers participants, as well as techniques for creating such environments in both in-person and remote capacities.
The Guide to Robotic Process Automation, including the RPA Playbook provides detailed guidance for federal agencies starting a new RPA program or evolving an existing one.
This guide, directed at poverty lawyers, explains automated decision-making systems so lawyers and advocates can better identify the source of their clients' problems and advocate on their behalf. Relevant for practitioners, this report covers key questions around automated decision-making systems.
CMS has identified a number of immediate and longer-term strategies that states can implement to improve application processing timeframes and address application backlogs.
Article describing the “time tax,” the costs to people applying or benefits in terms of spending substantial amounts of time navigating user-unfriendly interfaces. The article describes the necessity of simplifying safety-net programs and cross-coordinating across various social service programs.
