PolicyEngine is a nonprofit that provides a free, open-source web app enabling users in the US and UK to estimate taxes and benefits at the household level, while also simulating the effects of policy changes. By combining tax and benefits data, PolicyEngine helps individuals and policymakers better understand the impacts of existing policies and proposed reforms, using microsimulation models built from legislation and enhanced survey data.
The Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation's Digital Service Network (DSN) maintains a Government Digital Service Team Tracker: a living database for those seeking to learn more about the locations, structures, mandates, and more of government digital service teams across the United States.
Minnesota is a good example of an organization that started small in its drive to integrate benefits programs. For instance, its recent statewide rollout of its online integrated benefit application website, MNbenefits.mn.gov, started as a pilot in 2020 with Code for America. The pilot encompassed two counties including Hennepin County, where Minneapolis is located. The pilot later expanded to four counties, then 16 and a tribal nation. The final roll out, which took 12 months to implement, included the state’s 87 counties and three tribal nations.
An April 2024 Chief Digital Service Officers (CDSO) gathering included discussions about the realities of digital service leadership in government. These discussions are summarized in infographics offering valuable perspective to emerging digital service teams.
This interview template includes questions designed to help teams conduct exploratory, semi-structured interviews with government stakeholders involved in program delivery to gather information that can help them evaluate the status quo of digital delivery in their organization.
Sarah Bargal provides an overview of AI, machine learning, and deep learning, illustrating their potential for both positive and negative applications, including authentication, adversarial attacks, deepfakes, generative models, personalization, and ethical concerns.
The team introduced "Policy Pulse," a tool to help policy analysts understand laws and regulations better by comparing current policies with their original goals to identify implementation issues.
The team developed an application to simplify Medicaid and CHIP applications through LLM APIs while addressing limitations such as hallucinations and outdated information by implementing a selective input process for clean and current data.
An event recap from one of FormFest 2024's breakout sessions featuring speakers from the Canadian Digital Service and the National Head Start Association.
