DGN Spotlights highlight innovative digital initiatives transforming how government connects with the public. This story explores Seattle’s Youth Connector—a youth-informed digital platform and outreach strategy that aims to make youth programs easier to find, access, and trust.
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.
Benefits Data Trust (BDT) is a nonprofit that connects people to public benefits through a streamlined, phone-based application system called Benefits Launch, which reduces redundant questions and speeds up the process for multiple programs. BDT's approach, supported by a custom-built rules engine, has facilitated over 800,000 benefit enrollments, helping secure over $9 billion for eligible households across seven states.
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.
mRelief is a nonprofit that helps individuals in all 53 U.S. states and territories determine SNAP eligibility and apply using easy-to-use web and text tools. Their simplified, inclusive approach has supported over 2.7 million people and unlocked over $1 billion in benefits, focusing on minimizing barriers and adapting eligibility rules across states.
Propel describes how its mobile app outreach campaign helped millions of Medicaid enrollees navigate renewal during the post-pandemic “unwinding” by driving action through notifications, messaging, and in-app tools.
This study found that using state-specific names for Medicaid programs increased confusion and reduced both positive and negative opinions about the program.
This exercise engages participants in selecting the most and least clicked website menu items by marking their choices with stickers, followed by a group review to compare assumptions with actual data.
Montgomery County Public Library (MCPL) Digital Strategies Team
The Digital Service Network (DSN) spoke with three staff members from the Digital Transformation Team in Montgomery County Public LIbraries—Maddie Schellhardt, Raymond Bryson, and Emily Lamancusa, to learn more about the county's efforts to advance digital service delivery and inclusion
Closing the Medicaid coverage gap could significantly reduce healthcare disparities as 65% of those affected are people of color, specifically impacting low-wage workers and caregivers who often experience economic and health vulnerabilities.
Millions in government benefits go unclaimed annually due to complex applications and lack of awareness. Simplifying processes, targeted outreach, and streamlined support can increase accessibility and ensure eligible individuals receive assistance.
This workshop guide offers teams an opportunity to jointly work toward understanding core problems impacting digital delivery in their organization. The guide is structured in two parts: (1) a Miro template and (2) a Facilitation Guide.
