SCC-CIVIC-FA Track B: Streamlining and Supporting Access to Public Assistance Programs in Louisiana

在美国，近20%的5岁以下儿童生活在贫困中。为了支持这些儿童，美国政府资助各种社会安全网计划，为家庭提供营养、医疗保健、幼儿教育和额外收入。对许多这些项目的研究表明，长期的学术，健康和经济利益参与儿童。然而，这些计划，这是在国家和地方一级管理，被划分在多个机构，导致单独的，通常是繁琐的，应用程序。有关计划和资格的信息既不集中，也不容易找到，申请门户网站往往笨拙，混乱，重复和过时。这些可用性问题可能会阻碍参与有益的计划。如果不作出有针对性的努力来简化和精简家庭的申请程序，许多贫困幼儿就不可能获得他们有资格获得的关键保健和教育方案的所有好处。为了解决这个问题，该项目将为路易斯安那州的家庭开发一个简化的申请门户网站，他们可以申请多个支持低收入儿童的计划，而不会重复工作。该项目的目的是改善和简化路易斯安那州家庭的福利申请程序，并提高参与方案的入学率。该团队通过在路易斯安那州的SNAP应用程序中改善用户体验的现有努力来实现这些目标。该奖项使一个新的试点SNAP应用程序，这将提供随机选择的合格家庭的选择，自动发送他们的SNAP应用程序信息和文件路易斯安那州WIC和新奥尔良公立学校的幼儿教育计划。通过这种随机设计，本项目可以确定简化应用程序对WIC和幼儿教育计划应用率的因果影响。与当地机构领导人和利益相关者的访谈将确定开发和维护大规模精简应用程序的必要元素。CIVIC创新挑战赛是与能源部，国土安全部和国家科学基金会合作的项目。该项目由CISE-CIVIC创新，SBE-S& CC，刺激竞争研究的既定计划（EPSCoR）和能源部共同资助，该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Nearly 20% of children under age five in the US live in poverty. To support these children, the US government funds various social safety-net programs to provide nutrition, healthcare, early childhood education, and additional income for families. Research on many of these programs demonstrates long-term academic, health, and economic benefits to participating children. However, these programs, which are administered at the state and local levels, are divided among multiple agencies, resulting in separate, and typically cumbersome, application processes. Information on programs and eligibility is neither centrally located nor easily findable, and application portals are often clumsy, confusing, duplicative, and outdated. These usability problems can hinder participation in beneficial programs. Without targeted efforts to simplify and streamline the application process for families, many young children in poverty are unlikely to receive all the benefits of the critical health and education programs for which they are eligible. To address this issue, this project will develop a streamlined application portal for Louisiana families, in which they can apply for multiple programs that support low-income children without duplicating efforts. This project's aims are to improve and streamline the benefits application process for Louisiana families and to increase enrollment rates in participating programs. The team achieves these aims by building on current efforts to improve user experiences in Louisiana’s SNAP application. This award enables a new pilot SNAP application, which will offer randomly selected eligible families the option to automatically send their SNAP application information and documents to Louisiana WIC and to New Orleans Public Schools’ early childhood education programs. Through this randomized design, this project can identify the causal effects of the streamlined application on application rates to WIC and early childhood education programs. Interviews with local agency leaders and stakeholders will identify the necessary elements to develop and maintain a streamlined application at scale.The CIVIC Innovation Challenge is a collaboration with Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security, and the National Science Foundation.This project is jointly funded by CISE-CIVIC INNOVATION, SBE-S&CC, the Established Program to Stimulate Competitive Research (EPSCoR), and Department of Energy, Department of Homeland Security.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.