U.S. Digital Response Weekly Dispatch (April 28)

State and local government teams are facing unprecedented pressure to make decisions, operate effectively, and plan for the future in the midst of continued uncertainty. That’s why U.S. Digital Response publishes Weekly Dispatch, an update on effective resources, a forecast on what’s next, and an overview of how USDR volunteers are working with governments. Subscribe to receive these weekly updates in your inbox.

At A Glance

Featured government partners:

• States: New Jersey, Louisiana, Kansas, Pennsylvania, Michigan
• Cities: San Rafael, CA; Concord, CA; Paterson, NJ; Oakland, CA; Boston, MA
• Counties: St. Louis County, MO

Project Spotlight

Recently completed projects that other state and local governments may benefit from by replicating.

Supporting Unemployment Insurance (UI) systems

“At a time when we needed to move quickly and thoughtfully, U.S. Digital Response assisted KDOL in making it possible for Kansas residents to apply for the unemployment benefits they need.” — Secretary DeAngela Burns-Wallace, Ed. D., Kansas Department of Administration, Executive Branch CITO

An unprecedented number of applications for traditional Unemployment Insurance (UI) and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) are overwhelming existing state UI systems. When the state of Kansas reached out to USDR for support, four volunteers worked with the Department of Labor and the Office of Information Technology Services to get the benefits application site up and running again.

States can prototype their PUA applications and connect them to existing UI systems with a quickstart UI application built by USDR volunteers. Email us to learn more: pua-requests@usdigitalresponse.org.

Read “Technical Notes from the Field: Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” to learn more about technical trends we’re seeing in upgrading UI systems and “What States Must Do About Pandemic Unemployment Assistance” for some actionable steps governments can take.

Infrastructure to match volunteers and organizations

“The volunteers’ technical expertise and assistance from start to finish is helping our state fight back against COVID-19 by helping us support getting medical services to Louisiana residents.” — Dr. Alex Billioux, Assistant Secretary of the Louisiana Office of Public Health

The Louisiana Department of Health launched Louisiana Health Work Connect, a pilot program that helps facilities with acute healthcare staffing shortages fill vacancies with qualified candidates who are otherwise out of work. The program began in the Baton Rouge area, with plans to expand statewide. This program took less than two weeks to implement from the initial conversation, and can be adapted for other locations by completing a request form.

Website Content Strategy Support

“USDR volunteers have made valuable contributions to make the St. Louis County, Missouri COVID web site more user friendly and citizen centric.” — Charles Henderson, Acting Director, Department of Information Technology

State and local government COVID-19 websites need to handle increased traffic, receive frequent updates, and reduce the burdens on call centers, all while being extremely easy for users to navigate. USDR can help you build new or optimize your existing COVID-19 websites, follow best practices for government design, and user test your website to make sure the public can access it. Check out the site we supported for St. Louis County and request help here.

Small business loan eligibility

We created an online tool that helps small business owners understand their eligibility for federal stimulus funds. Three states have added specific criteria for their loan qualifications to the tool, allowing them to reduce the volume of support requests coming into their local agencies. To add your state’s loan eligibility criteria to this tool, please submit a request. Alternatively, we can deploy a version of this tool on your website like we did for the state of New Jersey.

This Week’s Outlook — Robin Carnahan

Robin Carnahan is the former Missouri Secretary of State and formerly led 18F’s state and local practice within the General Services Administration. She is a fellow at Georgetown University’s Beeck Center for Social Impact + Innovation and is also leading Government Partnerships for USDR.

Metrics to determine when and how to reopen society are on everyone’s mind. Whether we talk to governors or county public health officials, the range of data to track can seem daunting: contact tracing, medical supplies, hospital beds, hotspots, testing. Governors are providing guidance, while leaders at the city and county level are assessing their own situations. Bottom line: Partner with Chief Data Officers and other data executives to make an informed strategy. If you need help creating actionable dashboards, we can support.

Communities need a coordinated system to get available food to people who need it. The SNAP Online Purchasing Pilot is still in its infancy and many local governments are feeling blocked from quickly connecting people who qualify for SNAP benefits to local food supplies. The process for getting a federal waiver to online EBT purchases is slow, making it difficult for local governments to create safe online ordering programs for families in need. Bottom line: Partner with Mayors and County Executives to develop new ways for vulnerable populations access online purchasing and delivery of food from local markets.

Getting ahead of the curve

Here are a few topics USDR teams are investigating in preparation for potential requests:

• Understanding digital contact tracing and exposure notification technologies and implications for government buyers
• Adapting and redesigning government workflows for a remote workforce and mobile identity and document verification of public benefits applicants.
• Improving technology systems needed to deliver critical public services and benefits at a time of significantly lower tax revenues and challenging budget cuts

Request assistance and our Government Partnerships team will be in touch within 24 hours. Please share our Weekly Dispatch with other local decision makers. You can follow us on Medium and Twitter to keep up with our work.