Report
Reducing Administrative Burdens For Families in Need 2024-2025: Capstone Final Report
University of Iowa, Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities
05/2025
DOI: 10.17077/rep.006713
Abstract
Individuals seeking essential social services across the United States often face significant administrative burdens that make accessing aid time-consuming, complex, and discouraging. In rural areas like southeast Iowa, these challenges are intensified by geographic isolation, limited digital access, and a lack of centralized service infrastructure. Pathfinders RC&D sought strategies to reduce administrative burdens for residents in six Southeast Iowa counties: Davis, Keokuk, Jefferson, Mahaska, Wapello, and Van Buren.
For their capstone project, a team of public affairs students worked with Pathfinders to:
* Develop the Southeast Iowa Resource Finder (SIRF): an electronic tool designed to streamline access to local social service providers and reduce the learning costs for individuals seeking assistance. While SIRF doesn’t eliminate compliance steps, it can minimize them by helping users more quickly find the correct programs, thus avoiding wasted time applying for services they don’t qualify for or missing necessary documentation.
* Create a standardized phone script for service providers to help frontline staff communicate more effectively with clients, identify their specific needs, and provide accurate, efficient referrals to the appropriate resources. It primarily addresses the psychological costs of administrative burden and secondarily helps reduce learning costs.
* Utilize survey data from clients and service providers to identify the most pressing obstacles, gaining insight directly from those experiencing them.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Reducing Administrative Burdens For Families in Need 2024-2025: Capstone Final Report
- Creators
- Benedicte ChubakaCamille ManaryAiriana MohrSophia Wilson
- Contributors
- Carrie Schuettpelz (Mentor) - University of Iowa, School of Planning and Public AffairsTravis Kraus (Mentor) - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Report
- DOI
- 10.17077/rep.006713
- Publisher
- University of Iowa, Iowa Initiative for Sustainable Communities; Iowa City, Iowa, USA
- Number of pages
- 73 pages
- Copyright
- Copyright © 2025 the authors
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 05/2025
- Academic Unit
- Public Affairs Final Projects; School of Planning and Public Affairs
- Record Identifier
- 9984965847202771
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