Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Brief

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Release Date: August 29, 2024

Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin Brief

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Unemployment Insurance

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About the Brief

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This spotlight brief describes outreach and engagement strategies that UI Navigators reported using in Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin to share information about the UI program and UI Navigation services with underrepresented groups and to address several barriers to UI program access. This brief is part of a study funded by the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL), Chief Evaluation Office, that explores the implementation of Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator Grants, which seven states received in 2022. The DOL’s Employment and Training Administration funded these three-year competitive grants, which aim to support efforts to promote equitable access to UI benefits. Visit the Navigator Evidence-Building Portfolio website for additional information about the study’s design and related publications. A full study report will be available in early 2025.

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Key Takeaways

  • Several states have reported using Unemployment Insurance (UI) Navigator grants to fund active and intentional outreach and engagement strategies to share information about the UI program and UI Navigation services to help mitigate barriers to UI program access their focal populations faced.
  • UI Navigator staff reported these barriers to access include: (1) lack of awareness of UI benefits or one’s eligibility for them, (2) language barriers, (3) educational barriers, and (4) distrust of government.
  • UI Navigators in Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin worked to address these barriers by serving as trusted messengers and by using various outreach strategies to best reach their populations of interest. These strategies included: (1) engaging potential claimants at community events, (2) using Facebook groups and Messenger, (3) sending mass text messages, and (4) conducting outreach to employers and at employment sites.

Citation

Joyce, K. (2024). Mathematica. Unemployment Insurance Navigator Outreach and Engagement Strategies: Findings from Maine, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Chief Evaluation Office, U.S. Department of Labor.

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The Department of Labor’s (DOL) Chief Evaluation Office (CEO) sponsors independent evaluations and research, primarily conducted by external, third-party contractors in accordance with the Department of Labor Evaluation Policy and CEO’s research development process.