How to Be Involved

We are currently a small team of advocates and technologists who want to share what we’ve learned and learn from others as we all work to better understand and fight benefits tech that is contributing to the harms of our public benefits programs.

Initially, we envision a few different ways you can get involved depending on your role and capacity:

Keep me updated

Stay updated on our resources and activities, sign up in the form to the right or at this link to receive email updates from us.

Join our Direct Services Advocacy & Technical Support Community

If you are a legal services attorney/advocate (LSC-funded, protection & advocacy system, and other non-profit legal services organizations) working on benefits technology issues and want to access discussions and resources targeted to legal services, or if you are part of a non-profit organization providing similar services, we hope you will join our Technical Support Community. We also welcome technologists, data scientists, and others from academia or non-profits who consider themselves advocates aligned with our essential mission and values. While all are welcome to join our mailing list to stay updated, government officials, consultants with relationships to government agencies, and employees or members of organizations that sell services or technology to the government will generally not be allowed to join the Technical Support Community. To request to join the listserv, please fill out this form.

Request no-cost technical assistance

If you are a legal services attorney, a community group advocating around benefits technology, or a group of people getting benefits and are looking for support identifying or analyzing a benefits tech issue (or an issue you think might be a tech issue), you can contact us via the form below. We cannot provide legal advice, and contacting us does not form a lawyer-client relationship. This assistance is currently only available for legal services, community groups, and groups of people getting benefits and may vary based on capacity.

To request technical assistance, please fill out this form.

Wondering if you are encountering a benefits tech issue?

Here are some of the common signs we have seen. Check out our Case Study Library for more detailed examples of benefits tech issues and how advocates fought them.

  • Notices that seem to be missing information or are very confusing, resulting in lack of sufficient information about why someone was denied or terminated
  • Notices sent to wrong address even when someone has provided their current address
  • Sudden benefits cuts or terminations for a substantial number of people without a clear policy change tied to it

If you are having trouble accessing public benefits, we encourage you to contact your local legal services organization https://www.lsc.gov/about-lsc/what-legal-aid/get-legal-help.

Offer feedback on the Benefits Tech Advocacy Hub or get in touch

This website is our initial offering of resources and we hope to grow the resources and community around it, including to provide more resources for people getting benefits and community organizations. If you have feedback on our existing resources or thoughts on what you would like to see in the future, please let us know by filling out our contact form. Within our capacity, we will respond to feedback. We are very interested to hear your thoughts, suggestions, and ideas!

Sign up for updates from the Benefits Tech Advocacy Hub