Government benefit programs related to food, cash, and medical assistance provide a crucial safety net for many residents across the country. In this blog post, RIPL’s Deputy Director of Policy Kaitlin Sweetin and Senior Product Manager Malavika Kumaran discuss their experience working with the Hawai’i Department of Human Services (DHS) to design and develop the Benefits Finder, a digital tool to help Hawai’i residents quickly understand their eligibility for a set of health and human services, and the key learnings pertinent to others seeking to progress similar initiatives.

Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL), a national tech-for-social-impact nonprofit, partnered with the City of Atlanta to match 1,820 Atlanta youth into right-fit summer internships through the successful 2023 Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP).

Today, the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development (NJDOL) announced the NJ Wage Hub, an innovative and user-friendly portal developed with RIPL that makes it easier for employers to comply with state labor laws and advances worker protections on public job sites.

“This digital platform builds on New Jersey’s proud history of strong worker protections and support to employers,” said Commissioner Robert Asaro-Angelo. “Better tools, data, and analytics help us enforce labor laws and make playing by the rules easy and cost-effective for employers… [and] ensures we can protect our workers equitably.”

RIPL announced this afternoon that it is excited to welcome Mintaka Angell to the role of Chief Executive Officer beginning July 15, 2023. She is joined by new Chief Technology Officer Judson Neer, and new Chief Operating Officer Abby McQuade.

“The work ahead of RIPL is as exciting as it is important, and no one is more ready to lead it than Mintaka. She knows the organization inside out, understand the needs of our stakeholders and partners, and is relentless about innovation. I am thrilled she has agreed to step into the CEO role,” said RIPL Board Chair, Dr. Justine Hastings.

Today, Arkansas’ Chief Workforce Officer Mike Rogers announced in the River Valley Democrat Gazette that the state’s newest initiative will overhaul how the state invests in and supports workforce training.

Arkansas will partner with RIPL to create and launch a data-rich online portal in Fall 2023 that matches the skills, talents, and preferences of job seekers with best-fit positions offered by employers to build high-paying careers.

“We want to build a welcoming relationship with employers and employees,” Rogers said. “We want to let people know their options and give them the tools to connect.”

Former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan highlighted the RIPL-developed Maryland DOORS implementation, the MD Job Genie, today alongside ABC News Anchor Lindsey Davis, at the 2023 JFF Horizons Summit.

Former Governor Hogan discussed the innovative workforce development solutions he implemented during his time in office, including the MD Job Genie — a data-driven tool created for jobseekers in partnership with RIPL, the Maryland Department of Labor, and MD THINK, the state’s cloud-based platform that offers a one stop shop for state resources.

Accenture and RIPL partnered released an op-ed today in Route Fifty on the key steps needed to create a diverse broadband workforce.

As the nation embarks on closing the digital divide utilizing more than $40 billion in federally funded broadband programs, they write, states urgently need to identify and assemble robust statewide workforces or risk being left behind. By defining the scope of the challenge, co-creating solutions for developing more workers, and building building the worker-trainer-employer network, states can begin to design-full-scale solutions to solve these problems and close the digital divide.

RIPL CEO Scott Jensen’s op-ed highlights the importance of leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and technology to change the mindset of government and improve outcomes for the public. Massive amounts of data are what enable ML to do such impressive things. And there’s no shortage of data that only governments have access to that can be used to improve lives — all it takes is the hard work needed to approach technology differently.

State Tech Magazine highlights the revolutionary job search tool implemented by RIPL under previous Governor Larry Hogan, the MD Job Genie. The MD Job Genie was added to MD THINK through the state Department of Labor’s partnership with the nonprofit Research Improving People’s Lives. An upgrade to the state’s pre-existing job search tool, MD Job Genie uses machine learning to analyze a user’s unique skills and recommend career transitions that have been shown to increase earnings.

Today, the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) announced the launch of the Colorado Career Trail Guide — a digital portal connecting jobseekers to personalized career pathway for economic success.

“CDLE is excited to deliver on our mission of promoting a thriving employment environment with opportunity for every Coloradan to prosper,” said Joe Barela, CDLE Executive Director. “In partnership with RIPL, CDLE has created a new tool that helps Coloradans connect their unique skills and experiences to careers, creating a future-ready Colorado.”

GCN dives into the science of the MD Job Genie and the benefits to Marylanders. “This really digs into those skills and that history, and then combines data—your resume, [unemployment insurance], wage data—in order to put together those matches,” said Joseph Farren, chief strategy officer at Maryland’s Labor Department (DOL), which oversees MWE and MD Job Genie. “It provides a deeper-level algorithm-based analysis of specific skills and job history to identify matches, not only in the field that you’re currently in, which a lot of engines do, but really what’s attractive about this tool is that it’s able to analyze different sectors and indus

RIPL CEO Scott Jensen, discusses how historical data can be used as a crystal ball to generate insights into people’s skills to determine if they’ll be competitive in the job market.

The WI Department of Workforce Development (DWD) and RIPL announced a partnership today to deliver an innovative online career service tool in 2023 that uses past wage data to recommend job opportunities and career transitions to users based on their work history, skillset, and goals.

“This technology promises to help job seekers elevate their career potential while making the hiring process timelier and more effective for employers,” said DWD Secretary Amy Pechacek. “[We will] go above and beyond our current career services by offering individual solutions in a way that’s accessible, equitable, and very user-friendly.”

Job seekers and employers use many different variations in titles to describe a job. These real-world differences often make mapping job titles to SOC codes for research or analysis a challenging task.

In partnership with Natural Association of State Workforce Agencies and the NLx Research Hub, RIPL is thrilled to announce the release of Sockit, a new and open-source natural-language processing toolkit. Sockit determines the most likely SOC code for a free-text job title using National Language Processing and data science techniques, and is available to policymakers and researchers across the country. :

The Assistant Commissioner to the New Jersey Department of Labor and Industry, Lesley Hirsch, presented to fellow workforce and labor leaders from across the country on NJ data initiatives, including how RIPL was supporting New Jersey in using AWS cloud managed services to produce replicable and sustainable data-driven insights.

RIPL and the National Governors Association released a case study today of their joint partnership with Hawai’i on launching Hawai‘i Career Acceleration Navigator — an accessible, data-driven and full-service government platform for unemployed people and other jobseekers to search for jobs and access supportive service benefits. The case study highlights how key innovations around innovative cloud infrastructure and cutting-edge data science practices has delivered a seamless user experience that improves access to digital services and reduces time tax for users as they take the next step to a new, high-impact career.

KITV4 highlighted the new digital HI CAN hub, developed in partnership with RIPL, in coverage of how the platform will help connect Hawai’i jobseekers to careers, easily-managed UI work search requirement tracking, and efficient social services connections.

“We’re pioneering a first-of-its-kind data platform to connect job seekers to careers in our post-pandemic economy,” said Gov. David Ige in a press release issued by the HI Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. “Hawai?i is on the cutting edge, using widely available government data for a user-friendly program that creates highly customized job recommendations.”

Today, the Hawaii Department of Labor & Industrial Relations (DLIR) today announced the launch of the Hawai?i Career Acceleration Navigator (HI CAN), a digital hub connecting unemployment insurance (UI) claimants and jobseekers to high-impact career pathways.

The HI CAN platform, built and launched in partnership with RIPL, will help residents searching for a new job and those looking to transition careers, emphasizing supporting those receiving UI benefits for the next steps in their career journey.

RIPL CEO Scott Jensen sits down with WorkRise’s Andrew Boardman to discuss how RIPL’s main initiative, the Data for Opportunity in Occupational Reskilling Solution (DOORS) unlocks a state’s economic mobility. DOORS uses machine learning (ML), artificial intelligence (AI), and data from state agencies to identify promising employment and training opportunities for jobseekers looking to earn more or gain new skills.

RIPL published new research today on its data integration pipeline, SIRAD, which empowers government to rapidly use administrative datasets for policy insights.

SIRAD allows metrics to be quickly developed, put into practice by policymakers, and delivered directly to the public through web and mobile apps. As a central component of RIPL’s Research Data Lake solution, this resource is automated, sustainable, and owned by government. It increases government’s capacity to implement data-driven policy, partner with researchers to measure what works, and continually iterate and improve.

RIPL’s partnership with the State of Hawai’i to seamlessly connect Hawai’i jobseekers with upskilling opportunities, in-demand career pathways, supportive services, and public benefits while they pursue new credentials and careers was highlighted today in a National Governors Association brief on high-impact efforts to deliver integrated job services across the country.

RIPL is a Technical Assistance Partner to the National Governors Association Workforce Innovation Network, a collaborative effort to help governors and states facilitate innovative, state-level policy solutions that improve employment and workforce outcomes.

The Brookings Institution highlighted RIPL in a Metropolitan Policy Program article today around how civic technology leaders across the country are delivering user-centered solutions to support opportunity for American families and communities.

RIPL is proud to work with states across the country to execute President Biden’s vision of improved customer experience of government services by making our programs easier to use, modernized, and transparent.

“Using AI to help match workers to job opportunities has proven to be an effective way to help workers reenter the labor market, something increasingly critical as the existing worker shortage intensifies.”

RIPL’s ‘Netflix for Jobs’ was highlighted by Politico staff this December as one of the 17 pandemic tech innovations that are here to stay for the better. The RIPL team is excited to continue partnering with innovative state leaders across the country to connect Americans with in-demand careers in 2022 using data, science, and cloud technology.

RIPL announced this afternoon that Ambassador Suzan ‘Suzi’ LeVine is joining its Board of Directors. LeVine most recently served as Acting Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration at the US Department of Labor. She was formerly the US Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and the Commissioner for the Washington State Employment Security Department.

“Suzi’s deep cross-sector experience and career-long devotion to public service will help RIPL successfully achieve its mission to help government use data, science, and technoloy to improve lives,” said Dr. Justine Hastings, RIPL’s Board Chair.

Gov. David Ige today announced a partnership with national tech-for-social impact non-profit RIPLto develop HI CAN, a digital hub for seamlessly connecting UI claimants and jobseekers to high impact career pathways.

The National Governors Association-Workforce Innovation Network (NGA-WIN) brought together this forward-thinking team to create an accessible, data-driven, and full-service government platform for job seekers and individuals eligible for supportive service benefits. This first-of-its-kind platform, called the Hawai’i Career Acceleration Navigator (HI CAN), will launch in early 2022.

RIPL headlined this week’s Politico Weekly Shift newsletter in an exploration of how ‘Netflix for jobs’ could aid in the Great Resignation.”

“A new program, DOORS, that uses artificial intelligence and unemployment insurance data to match workers with training programs and new jobs, based on their past experience and which industries are expanding in their state, could help get more Americans back to work as they reconsider what they do to pay the bills, its creators say.”

RIPL released a paper today describing the RIPL-developed Secure Data Enclave system, which allows data owners — such as state and local governments — to control data access and ensure data security while facilitating approved uses of data by other parties. The paper describes the technical requirements for implementing a Secure Data Enclave, and key use cases where the architecture has helped government solve a variety of policy challenges in the public sector, including rapidly delivering unemployment assistance and securely exchanging data between state agencies to reduce benefit processing time.

The RIPL team extends its congratulations to Drs. David Card, Joshua G. Angrist, and Guido W. Imbens on being awarded the 2021 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences on October 11, 2021. Dr. Imbens’ work on research methods has “reshaped the way researchers think about and analyze natural experiments,” reported the New York Times. RIPL Board Member Dr. Susan Athey frequently coauthors with Dr. Imbens on causal science methods, machine learning, and applied econometrics to help researchers answer pressing societal questions using natural experiments. Congratulations to all for their outstanding contributions to science!

While the U.S. spends billions of dollars annually on reskilling programs and unemployment insurance, there are few measures of program effectiveness that workers and government can use to guide training investment decisions and ensure delivery of valuable reskilling and improved outcomes. RIPL released a scientific working paper today describing how RIPL scientists developed causal machine learning methods using Rhode Island administrative data to estimate the causal ROI of workforce training programs. This approach can put facts on program effectiveness at the fingertips of workers and policymakers across the country.

During a panel at the September AWS Summit in Washington D.C., RIPL CEO Scott Jensen spoke about the need for government to help workers displaced by the pandemic restart their careers. StateScoop featured Jensen’s remarks around building digital platforms where people can apply for unemployment benefits, find other assistance programs and seek out retraining and new job opportunities without having to repeatedly re-enter their information. ‘“We’re helping states use the data they have to help people find jobs,” Jensen said. “If we don’t find talent for these employers, [America is] just not going to be competitive in the world.”’

The Florida Department of Education is partnering with PAIRIN, Credential Engine, RIPL, and other leaders in workforce innovation to build a cloud-hosted data and analytics platform to help policymakers and educational institutions determine the best use of funding and resources for education and workforce planning.

In the July 2021 essay, “Digital transformation in labor and education systems: Improving the government response to the next unemployment crisis,” the Metropolitcan Policy Program at Brookings highlighted RIPL’s work with the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training during the COVID-19 pandemic to stand up a new interface to apply for Pandemic Unemployment Assistance quickly through a cloud-based call center platform, with features such as automated messages to end users that allow them to self-correct application errors and avoid long delays in their application.

In April 2019, NOVA, with the assistance of the United States Department of State, led a study trip to the United States with representatives of the Prime Minister’s Office and several other ministries. During the trip, participants met with Professor Justine Hastings, Founder and Director of RIPL, (Research Improving People’s Lives) to learn about the innovative collaboration between RIPL and the Rhode Island state government to establish an integrated database that would serve the government of Rhode Island policymakers and provide inspiration to the Israeli government to undertake a similar project.

A new article in the journal Digital Government: Research and Practice describes how RIPL and the State of Rhode Island developed a scalable cloud solution to collect Pandemic Unemployment Assistance claims as part of a new program created under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act to extend unemployment benefits to independent contractors and gig-economy workers not covered by traditional Unemployment Insurance.

RIPL scientists are partnering with Rhode Island to develop the CareerCompass™ RI bot, a first-of-its-kind job discovery bot that uses Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to successfully connect Rhode Islanders to new jobs and careers with personalized, data-driven recommendations. Read more about the initiative here!

The State of Rhode Island has partnered with Google Cloud and the nonprofit Research Improving People’s Lives to create the virtual career center and job-matching program, Back to Work Rhode Island.

RIPL Founder and Director, Justine Hastings takes part in a panel, moderated by Nicholas Kristof to discuss what it would take to reimagine the American Dream. The panelists attempt to identify the essential elements all individuals must possess to thrive and attain their personal American Dreams.

Data innovation differs greatly across sectors, from national and subnational government, to the corporate sector, to research and policymaking. As we enter the Third Wave of Open Data, there is more work to do when it comes to data collaboration and governance.

Data innovation differs greatly across sectors, from national and subnational government, to the corporate sector, to research and policymaking. As we enter the Third Wave of Open Data, there is more work to do when it comes to data collaboration and governance.

Nearly half of all Americans live paycheck to paycheck, with little savings to respond to an unexpected shock like a car repair or hospital bill. Many low-income and elderly households are reliant on government programs to make ends meet.

RIPL helped the Stated Rhode Island design and launch the first claims system in the country to deliver CARES Act benefits to Rhode Island workers and families, and produced open-source software that can be used by other states. Innovative technology enables state Department of Labor and Training to rapidly scale services for residents impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

In January 2020, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published research by RIPL researchers Justine Hastings, Mark Howison, and Sarah Inman on using anonymized administrative data and machine learning algorithms to predict high-risk opioid prescriptions before they are given.

RIPL researchers Justine Hastings, Mark Howison, Ted Lawless, John Ucles, and Preston White release new research on unlocking the power of data to improve public policy and help government programs better serve those in need. See our featured article in Communications of the ACM here!

“Getting that text or that email reminding you ‘get this done’ was really good, because I actually saw a change in my scores.” Hear directly from the incredible students in the Rhode2College program, our statewide initiative to help low- and moderate-income students step-by-step to successfully prepare for and enroll in college! RIPL is proud to partner with Rhode Island to help students achieve their potential.

RIPL researchers Eric Chyn, Samantha Gold, and Justine Hastings release new research using administrative data from Rhode Island to measure the causal impact of health investments at birth for Very Low Birth Weight infants on educational outcomes and social services usage.

On Monday, September 24th, Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo announced the Rhode2College Program, a new statewide initiative to help low-to-middle-income high school students successfully continue on to college. RIPL is proud to partner with Rhode Island on this important initiative.