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accessing services less stressful, less
painful, and reduce the
bandwidth tax
on already overburdened low-income
individuals and families.
Alicia Koné
The first day I visited a welfare
office was a typical gray and rainy
October day in Seattle. I passed the
office the first time I drove by because
the building looked nothing like I was
expecting—a remodeled strip mall
between a car dealership and a gentle-
men’s club on an industrial highway.
Despite my third-trimester waddle
and obvious baby bump, I elbowed my
way through the crowd. The automatic
doors slid open to reveal what I later
came to recognize as a very typical,
busy lobby in a welfare office during
that era.
Directly in front of me was a row of
cubicles with five or six pairs of people
sitting on either side of the desk,
almost indistinguishable in dress and
manner, except one group nervously
clutching stacks of paper, with another
group staring at computer terminals
and pounding on keyboards. Client
interviews were being conducted just
a few feet away from the 25–30 adults
and children of all ages waiting in
plastic chairs or sitting on the floor
(one family even spread out a blanket
and was eating a picnic lunch). People
office across town, and that would
take a full afternoon. Once I did that,
I would meet with a case manager
who could talk to me about help with
support services like child care. I left
the office with slumped shoulders—
more time I would need to miss from
work and still no decision about how to
pay for care with my due date just a few
weeks away…
Babs Roberts
Today, Alicia’s experience would
have been very different. CSOs are
clearly marked with bold green
signage. And while lobbies are often
still very full, each office has a “navi-
gator” and electronic check-in system
with clearly marked signage hanging
from the ceiling and around the
check-in area. The navigator would
have been able to help her check in,
triage her needs based on answers to
some simple questions (i.e., I would
like to apply for benefits). The navi-
gator would have checked to see if an
application was received and pending,
and if not, directed Alicia to one of
several computer kiosks where her
application could be completed while
she waited for an interview. That appli-
cation would stream to an automated
client eligibility system within minutes
of submission and be available for
the worker by the time the client was
called. Even better, clients can opt to
have an interactive interview where
the application is populated while the
client is interviewed, printed, and
signed at the end of the interview.
Over the last eight years, by rede-
signing business processes, we’ve
adapted our office and call center
flows to create efficiencies for our
staff and customers. For instance,
live navigation and triage allow us to
move away from a “first come, first
serve” model toward an ability to
quickly move customers through our
system. This is accomplished first by
eliminating appointments and moving
from a caseload model to a task model.
Same-day service is an expectation and
“pending” is a rarity.
Streamlined, yet appropriate, eligi-
bility rules, coupled with interfacing
online verification systems (depart-
ment of licensing, child support
systems, vital records, and wage data),
looked like they were prepared to stay
awhile.
To the left was a desk that looked
like it was meant to serve for reception
with a very unhappy looking woman
standing by the desk screeching names
into a microphone, calling people to
her counter. I approached the counter
and the scary lady held up her hand
and yelled at me, “Can’t you read?”
while pointing at something behind
me. I looked over my shoulder and
saw a sign hanging on the wall that
indicated I was to “wait behind the
line to protect others’ privacy.” I
looked down and noticed some worn
masking tape on the old carpeting,
roughly indicating a line. I stepped
back to my proper station and was
promptly summoned forward by the
“receptionist.”
I learned that day that I needed to
fill out a paper application, drop it off
or mail it in, and then wait for a letter
telling me when I was to reappear for
an interview. I was told that would
probably take two weeks. When I asked
about child care assistance specifically,
I was told I would need to speak to the
worker at my interview about what I
might be eligible for going forward. I
left with more questions than answers
and, as my due date approached,
along with fall finals week, it became
increasingly harder for me to think
about anything other than how I was
going to pay for my son’s care when the
winter quarter started in January.
At my interview later that month I
learned my baby and I were eligible
for programs I never even considered,
or heard of in some cases, like Food
Stamps, Medicaid, and Aid to Families
with Dependent Children (AFDC).
But what about child care assistance?
My worker didn’t know. I asked if she
could check with a supervisor as that
was my primary need, although the
other assistance would certainly help.
She slumped her shoulders and said
I should wait, and disappeared. She
came back later with a social worker
who explained the only way for me
to get help with child care would be
to apply to a program called JOBS
(Job Opportunities and Basic Skills).
I would need to go through a separate
process, attend a required orientation
with a different agency in a different
Policy&Practice
August 2016
12
Babette (Babs)
Roberts
is the
Community
Services Division
director at the
Washington
Department of
Social and Health
Services (DSHS).
Alicia Koné
is the
owner of Koné
Consulting, LLC, a
former Washington
State SNAP director,
and a former welfare
recipient.