Clearing applicant backlogs is an important solution to the UI crisis. State governments and federal agencies could facilitate access to public benefits by collaborating to develop interoperable technology platforms that use open source software and modular design. Panelists discuss opportunities to prevent future UI crises by reimagining how governments deliver benefits to their citizens.
This session from FormFest 2024 focuses on accessibility, featuring British Columbia’s work to improve legal form usability and tips from the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction on making forms more accessible overall.
Code for America partnered with the CBPP, Civilla, and Nava to launch the Integrated Benefits Initiative, testing and piloting human-centered approaches to improve outcomes and learn what an optimal safety net could look like. This article describes key takeaways from short-term pilots implemented as part of this project.
This report outlines key lessons and recommendations from Code for America's collaboration with the Voluntary Income Tax Assistance program, which served over 800,000 clients via GetYourRefund.org.
The existing system for evaluating state safety net programs does not adequately capture the human experience of accessing services. This new National Safety Net Scorecard is a more meaningful set of metrics that can effectively asses the true state of the current program delivery landscape and measure progress over time, creating a more human-centered safety net.
This session from FormFest 2024 focused on improving service delivery by hearing about work in multiple cities to rapidly digitize service delivery and work by the Department of Veteran Affairs around implementing service design principles in form revisions.
This article offers three human‑centered strategies to help state agencies implement expanded work reporting requirements in SNAP and Medicaid under H.R. 1 with minimal burden on clients and staff.
This session from FormFest 2024 focused on how governments are scaling their SNAP benefits programs, with Maryland’s improved integrated benefits application and the Office of Evaluation Sciences’ changes to questions on the SNAP application.
In this interview, Code for America staff members share how client success, data science, and qualitative research teams work together to consider the responsible deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in responding to clients who seek assistance with three products.
