Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management

Human services agencies across the country face the common challenge of low participant engagement. Myriad marketing and programming strategies have been tried in attempts to encourage participants to show up, take advantage of services, and complete program requirements. In particular, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs involve the precise tracking of mandated participation in federally-defined work activities as a condition of cash assistance. Yet, efforts to improve participant engagement in these areas often miss an opportunity to quickly and rigorously test such operational changes. Larimer County’s Works Program—the local version of TANF in Fort Collins, Colorado—emphasizes a participant-directed approach to setting and achieving goals toward self-sufficiency and stability. At the same time, many participants struggle to maintain compliance with program requirements.

Larimer County seeks to improve the rate at which participants submit an accurate and timely monthly contact sheet (MCS). The MCS is a form used by participants to account for the hours they spend each day on specific work activities. Along with the MCS, participants are required to provide supporting documentation to verify their activities as a condition of cash assistance.

On top of the activities in which the participant is already engaged, this tedious administrative task has proven difficult for many. As of January 2015, administrative data show that less than half of Works participants submitted their MCS on time. Larimer County has since introduced an electronic version of the MCS and created a step-by-step video to guide participants through completing the MCS. By the end of 2015, more Works participants were submitting their MCSs on time. However, these operational changes for improving submission rates were not rigorously tested for effectiveness, and many participants remain delinquent on timely submission of the MCS, which puts their families at risk of benefits sanction or termination.

Larimer County is working with a research team to design, implement, and test low-cost interventions, informed by insights from behavioral science, to further improve the timely submission of MCSs using rapid-cycle evaluation. The first of two interventions introduces a simple postcard reminder sent via mail to participants about ten days before the MCS submission deadline each month. Using an experimental design, existing program participants are randomly assigned to either a treatment group (to receive the postcard) or a control group (which does not receive the postcard). Recognizing that other behavioral factors may be involved, a second, enhanced intervention introduces an explanatory brochure specific to the MCS and a planning prompt e-mail sent during the first month to encourage proactive tracking, along with the monthly postcard reminder. The enhanced intervention targets new Works participants, who are randomly assigned at orientation to a treatment group (to receive the brochure, planning prompt, and postcard) or a control group (which does not receive any of the interventions).

This presentation will describe our co-creative practitioner-researcher design process and rapid-cycle evaluation findings for both interventions’ impacts on MCS submissions, case closures, and sanctions.