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CalWORKs Home Visiting Program Findings of the Outreach Pilot
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CalWORKs Home Visiting Program Findings of the Outreach Pilot

Published: Feb 28, 2025
Publisher: Mathematica
Technical Assistance Early Childhood Child Development Family Support TANF and Employment Issues State and Local

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Clients

CalWorks. Benefits to Build On. California Department of Social Services logo

Authors

Nickie Fung

Emily Metallic

Key Findings

  • The coordination from CDSS minimized the workload burden on counties.
  • Counties are interested in collaborating with CDSS on future outreach pilots.
  • Future pilots should explore outreach methods beyond emails and phone calls.
  • About 40 percent of the counties that participated in the outreach pilot indicated in a post-pilot survey that their outreach produced a slight increase in interest in the HVP.
  • Counties suggested that in the future, the timing of outreach should not conflict with holidays.
The CalWORKs Home Visiting Program (HVP) launched an outreach pilot in November 2023 and 20 counties volunteered to participate. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS) conducted the pilot in response to the Communication and Outreach strategy recommendations made in 2022 meetings of the Continuous Quality Improvement Workgroup. This pilot focused on increasing awareness of the CalWORKs HVP program and participant enrollment. Counties tailored automated voicemail messages and emails for selected CalWORKs program recipients who had not participated in HVP services in the prior year and had a child younger than age 2. The CDSS sent the county-specific voicemails and emails to recipients. This resource summarizes the lessons learned in the pilot.

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