Citizen Engagement Blog

Navigating the procurement RFP process has always been tricky. At a recent conference, Karen Painter-Jaquess, Director of the State Systems Office in the USDA Food and Nutrition Service, offered these best practices for State EBT Administrators to engage successfully with vendors and obtain optimal contracts with their SNAP and WIC procurement processes.

While there appears to be latent demand for mobile apps from constituents of government prepaid card programs like SNAP, WIC, and TANF, there has still be very little adoption by government agencies despite robust citizen engagement technology being available today. 

How bad is child neglect and abuse in the U.S.?   And how much of an impact are State Child Protective Services departments having on this critical problem? States are making progress, but better technology and citizen engagement can help. 

The Big, the Bad and the Ugly

According to UNICEF, as many as 275 million children worldwide are exposed to violence in the home, with 339,000 to 2.7 million estimated in just the U.S. alone.

Government Agencies and Technology Providers (affiliates, vendors, consultants) must work together in a cooperative manner to address the needs of constituents and governments alike.

I had the chance to be with 6 State, City and County CIOs at the Industry Summit 2015 event in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho.  The CIOs shared their vision, struggles, wishes and mistakes with a small group of industry folks. 

Here are a few things I took away from the show:

A USA Today article broke down customer service failures by the U.S. Internal Revenue Service for the 2015 tax filing period. This is exactly the type of publicity no government agency wants. Yet at the state and local level, an embarrassing customer service meltdown may be inevitable. If, like the IRS, a state or local agency relies primarily on contact center agents or state workers to personally resolve an issue, a huge bottleneck can occur during peak usage periods or when an interruption or disaster occurs. And what if systems in place fail first, like this example shows? 

Human services programs address fundamental needs for children, pregnant women, and needy families. Recipients of SNAP, WIC, and TANF disbursements, child support payments, and other emergency and child advocacy programs depend on these funds for food, shelter, and other necessities.

So it’s especially important for government entities to provide a fast, flexible, easy-to-use support solution for their human services programs without outdated processes and technologies standing in their way.