Resource Format: Report
-
Policy Re-Envisioning TANF: Toward an Anti-Racist Program That Meaningfully Serves Families
An America where no one experiences poverty is possible. Already, the U.S. has programs with the potential to make this vision a reality, including programs that provide cash assistance, like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The current TANF program provides very little cash assistance and is marked by stark racial disparities, but it has the potential to reduce child poverty, increase economic security, and advance racial equity. This report offers a vision for an anti-racist approach to the TANF program, with new statutory goals and policy recommendations to advance racial justice.
-
Sprint 3 Report | Michigan Unemployment | Improving communication and messaging for unemployment insurance in Michigan
This project documents the work of Civilla and New America to improve the delivery of unemployment benefits for claimants in Michigan. This project is one phase of a larger body of work led by New America to improve the claimant and staff experience with unemployment insurance across the country.
-
Sprint 2 Report | Michigan Unemployment | Improving the delivery of unemployment insurance benefits
This project documents the work of Civilla and New America to improve the delivery of unemployment benefits for claimants in Michigan. This project is one phase of a larger body of work led by New America to improve the claimant and staff experience with unemployment insurance across the country.
-
Sprint 1 Report | Michigan Cross-Enrollment | Increasing cross-enrollment between unemployment insurance and supporting benefits in Michigan
This project documents the work of Civilla and New America to increase cross-enrollment between unemployment insurance and supporting benefits in Michigan. This project is one phase of a larger body of work led by New America to improve the claimant and staff experience with unemployment insurance across the country.
-
Human-Centered Design Building an Accessible Long-Term Care System for the Future
The nation’s long-term care system has struggled for many years, and those constraints are expected to deepen as our nation ages. In 2019, Washington State became the first in the United States to pass legislation that would enable a public state-operated long-term care insurance program, the Washington Cares Fund. We conducted research with the goal to identify concrete ways for Washington State to implement this fund so that it is accessible to all and it supports living-wage jobs for care workers. In this report, we discuss our research methods, we present personas of individuals seeking long-term supports and services from the Washington Cares Fund, and we offer a list of recommendations that, while intended for Washington State, we see as applicable to other states that will embark on offering similar long-term services to residents.
-
Policy The Complete Financial Lives of Workers
If work is to provide a real pathway to financial security, public and workplace benefits need to reflect the realities of 21st century employment, which includes a workforce increasingly required to engage in nonstandard and sometimes multiple jobs and where job stability is not guaranteed. Download “The Complete Financial Lives of Workers: A Holistic Exploration of Work and Public and Workplace Benefit Arrangements” today to learn: - Four conditions of work and benefits that allow LMI workers to thrive – informed by front-line insights from Aspen’s Consumer Insights Collaborative - A new matrix to unpack and highlight the major connections between work and benefit arrangements and workers’ prospects for financial security - Five key recommendations to build a benefits system that meets the needs of all workers and addresses the inequities observed in the current labor market and benefits systems
-
Policy Reimagining a U.S. Benefits System That Supports All Workers: Five Key Takeaways from Public and Private Benefit Leaders
This rapporteur’s report features 5 key takeaways from the Aspen Institute Financial Security Program's 2022 Benefits Forum with 55 experts in public and private benefits, including corporate leaders, policymakers, worker advocates, entrepreneurs, and researchers, who came together to brainstorm solutions for closing gaps in our public and private benefits and strengthening their design and delivery to support all workers and their families. The goals were to identify areas of agreement across stakeholders and imagine and invent the benefits solutions that workers need today, and in the future, to promote household financial security. Participants concluded on five key takeaways from the discussions: 1. Households Need a Core Bundle of Benefits 2. Technology is Important, but it’s not a Panacea 3. Narrative change around Benefits is critical 4. Government and Employers have Important, Shared Roles 5. Financial Security Outcomes of Benefits must be Measured
-
Communications Encouraging Uptake of Benefits with Psychological Ownership Messaging
A brief report on our quantitative research about messages that increase people's take-up of government benefits by making them feel like those benefits belong to them.
-
Human-Centered Design Designing Better Programs for Young Parents & Families
This report highlights lessons learned from improving economic stability and well-being outcomes for young parent families, focusing on interagency collaboration, community engagement, data-driven improvement, and aligned services to guide future efforts.
-
Data Streamlining Medicaid Renewals Through the Ex Parte Process
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) should provide detailed guidance and oversight to help states improve automatic Medicaid renewals using available data, through the ex parte process.
-
Policy Executive Summary: SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020
SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020 is a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy (IHSP) based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). This research seeks to understand perspectives from state SNAP administrators on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from waivers and flexibilities used to preserve equitable access to SNAP during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on state agency survey responses, this report summarizes key findings from the first calendar year of pandemic response and provides policy considerations for the future of SNAP. This research was supported by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
-
Policy SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the Covid-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020
SNAP Waivers and Adaptations During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Survey of State Agency Perspectives in 2020 is a study conducted by the Johns Hopkins Institute for Health and Social Policy (IHSP) based at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA). This research seeks to understand perspectives from state SNAP administrators on the successes, challenges, and lessons learned from waivers and flexibilities used to preserve equitable access to SNAP during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on state agency survey responses, this report summarizes key findings from the first calendar year of pandemic response and provides policy considerations for the future of SNAP. This research was supported by Healthy Eating Research, a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.