Policy & Practice October 2016

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Policy&Practice October 2016 30
technology speaks
By Lori Wolff
Idaho Simply Seeking to Help Families ‘Live Better’
Ask yourself this…“what
is the role of a health and
human service agency?” The
list of administrative respon-
sibilities is a mile long but
when you think about what
we are trying to do, it is fairly
simple…we are here to help
families “Live Better.”
Each family seeking help
has a unique set of circum-
stances that limits that family
or individual from reaching
self-sufficiency or stability.
It might be health issues, job
opportunities, child care,
substance use disorders,
affordable housing, educa-
tion, training, or many other
factors. The problem is not
that the services or programs
don’t exist to address these
multiple challenges, but
rather our ability to connect
people to them. There are a plethora
of services in our states designed to
address these challenges for families.
Through state and federal agencies,
nonprofit organizations, local com-
munity programs, and faith-based
organizations, many services have
been designed to help children,
adults, disabled individuals, veterans,
seniors, and other vulnerable popula-
tions. Providers need a better way to
reach those seeking their services.
Creating a connection between
families and individuals and services
typically takes two forms: people
travel to different locations and
interact in many ways or agencies
integrate services in a single location
in an effort to serve all who come
looking for help. Both connection
strategies require herculean effort by
the family or the agencies, yet neither
is very effective. We must approach
solutions from a multigenerational
and a multiservice approach and we
must connect families with a unique
set of services that address their own
special circumstances. Without this
right combination of services, families
and individuals may be missing the
key ingredients to their own successful
transition to stability.
Live Better Idaho (livebetteridaho.
org) provides a simple way to connect
people to services. It is designed from
a customer-centric perspective with a
vision that our community members
feel empowered to discover services
within their communities to improve
their lives. Families or individuals
should be able to walk into any agency
at any location and connect to the
existing umbrella of services that exist
to help their unique situation.
A few key principles guided the
development of Idaho’s
solution:
„ „ Create simple navigation to allow
customers to take actionable steps
to access services
„ „ Organize content with an intuitive
customer-centric design
„ „ Organize services to help cus-
tomers discover programs and
services that fit their unique
circumstances
„ „ Allow content owners to create
and maintain their own content
with minimal administrative
overhead
„ „ Ensure use of the website is
intuitive and agencies can use the
content to help anyone
See Idaho on page 34