More than 500,000 people in Jefferson County, Colo. – the third largest county in the Denver Metro Area – rely on the Jefferson County Department of Human Service (JCDHS) for services as broad as child care, job training, adult protection and child welfare, food and financial assistance, and housing support. Now, thanks to the collaborative leadership style and the staff empowerment JCDHS prides itself on, those residents are utilizing MyFriendBen with promising early results.
Getting Started
Families working with Jeffco Prosperity Partners, a nonprofit affiliated with JCDHS, were early testers of MyFriendBen and provided critical feedback to improve the user experience. Inspired by these early tests, JPP’s director brought MyFriendBen to JCDHS’s leadership team who recognized the opportunity to streamline staff processes and connect clients with even more resources. JCDHS leaders were empowered to look for meaningful ways to strategically use MyFriendBen in their workflows and formalize MyFriendBen as part of their client-facing engagements. Integrating MyFriendBen into JCDHS’s processes unfolded in two ways:
Staff Utilization
The MyFriendBen team provided training to Child, Youth, Family and Adult Protection staff to help them understand how to use the tool and to understand key features like mobile-first design, confidentiality and ease of use.
Because staff identified for themselves when using MyFriendBen would be beneficial, the implementation did not create significant work for caseworkers. Recommending MyFriendBen or, if appropriate, completing MyFriendBen with clients, is currently a part of five client-facing processes.
Website Integration
Residents do not have to go to the JCDHS office or have a caseworker in order to find support or access MyFriendBen. Tech teams from both organizations worked together to create a white-label version of MyFriendBen so that JCDHS could provide its website visitors with a custom experience. On the backend, JCDHS has access to community-level data about what services and supports Jeffco residents are eligible to receive.
Professionals are expected to know every program and every benefit available to the families we serve. The reality is, it is impossible for us to be aware of everything that our families may be eligible to receive. MyFriendBen has helped us help our families find the resources and benefits they need to care for themselves and their children.
– Adam Rodriguez, JCDHS, Program Manager, Specialized Services
Frequently, signs that a family needs financial support – like empty kitchen cupboards – are confused for signs of child neglect.
This is often when a JCDHS prevention specialist can help a family find existing resources. Katie Droessler, who has been a part of the JCDHS team for more than 6 years, did just that.
After meeting with a family and helping them find housing, Katie recommended they also go through MyFriendBen to find more ways to stretch the family budget. Katie completed MyFriendBen with the parents, but they wanted to review the results at home later so they could make a plan about how to apply to certain programs.
Already enrolled in Medicaid and SNAP, the family discovered they were eligible for 11 new programs, including preschool assistance, reduced-cost public transportation and energy assistance, and 4 tax credits. MyFriendBen identified more than $6,000 in monthly savings and more than $20,000 in tax credits.
The family prioritized two programs to apply for first, and Katie let them know she would always be a resource for them if they wanted to apply for more programs.
Referring families to MyFriendBen honors family voice and choice, and MyFriendBen plays a role in guiding families to resources to mitigate the possibility of adverse impacts a family may experience when poverty is confused with neglect. Additionally, as families find more support for basic needs, the county is able to re-allocate its own funding that would have otherwise gone to help families cover those same expenses.
By the Numbers
50%
Nearly half of JCDHS website users reported that they had never received benefits before
$2,300+
Median monthly value of benefits Jeffco users find after using MyFriendBen
$15M+
MyFriendBen has identified more than $15 million in benefits and tax credits for community members served by JCDHS
