Online audience can submit questions to [email protected].

Lessons from States and Next Steps for
Improving Access to Work Support Benefits

The Urban Institute in collaboration with the Center for Law and Social Policy and the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities invites you to a discussion on how state and federal government can improve access to work support programs for low-income families.

Over the last four years, as part of the Work Support Strategies (WSS) initiative, six states have worked to streamline low-income families’ access to benefits, reducing burdens on families and workers and promoting cross-agency and cross-program integration and coordination. Results and implications of WSS show that WSS state agencies improved benefit access and the delivery of benefits through coordination of technology, local office operations, policy, use of data for management, and relationships between health and human services agencies and between state, county, and local offices.

In addition to a brief overview of the findings, a panel of experts will offer their views on improving access to work supports and the challenges and opportunities for the future.

SPEAKERS

• Olivia Golden, executive director, Center for Law and Social Policy (moderator)
• Robert Greenstein, president, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
• Heather Hahn, senior fellow, Urban Institute
• Cemeré James, vice president of Policy, National Black Child Development Institute
• Christian Soura, director, South Carolina Department of Health and Human Services

EVENT MATERIALS

• Agenda
• Speaker Biographies
• Additional Resources:
  • Findings from the Work Support Strategies Evaluation: Streamlining Access, Strengthening Families
  • Changes in Joint Medicaid/CHIP and SNAP Participation Rates, 2011 to 2013: Findings from the Work Support Strategies Evaluation
  • Work Supports Strategies Home Page 
  • Work Supports Strategies Evaluation Publications Page  
  • Work Supports Strategies Initiative: 12 Lessons on Integration and Innovation 
  • State Innovations in Horizontal Integration: Leveraging Technology for Health and Human Services 

  • Lessons Churned: Measuring the Impact of Churn in Health and Human Services Programs on Participants and State and Local Agencies

Registration is required to attend this event. Lunch will be available at 11:30 a.m. The program will begin promptly at 12:00 p.m. For inquiries regarding this event, please contact [email protected].

Photo by USDA/Flickr Creative Commons