State, Local and Tribal Governments

OMB Control Number: 0584-XXXX
Expiration Date: XX/XX/XXXX

Attachment A.1b:
State SNAP Director Interview Protocol

Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today. As a reminder, the purpose of today’s interview is to gather information about the partnerships between SNAP and (for Nevada, say “Trusted Partners;” for Florida, say “Community Partners;” for Texas, say “the Texas Food Bank Network;” and for Michigan, say “MiCafe”). We are gathering this information for a study of the Community Partner Interviewer Demonstration projects, which is the name of the project that allows partnering organizations to conduct SNAP applicant interviews.

During the interview, I will ask about how your agency came to partner with (insert CBO names). I’ll also ask about the response of SNAP staff to the involvement of community partners in the SNAP interviewing process, and the impact that those partners may have had on program outcomes. The information and opinions you share will help FNS assess how well the demonstration is meeting its intended objectives.

With your permission, I would like to record the interview so that I have a reliable backup to my notes. The recording will only be listened to by Insight staff, and will be deleted at the conclusion of the study. Is that okay with you?

[If yes, start recorder]
[If no, take detailed notes]

Section A: WAIVER AGREEMENT

First, I’d like to ask you some general questions about the waiver agreement to have CBO staff conduct SNAP participant interviews.

1. What prompted your State to apply for this waiver?

2. Do you know whether the waiver agreement will be automatically renewed when you reach the end date?

section b: the Community Partners

The last report I have from (insert State name) is dated (X) and it shows (X) community partners that are conducting SNAP applicant interviews. Has that changed since that report was submitted?

3. Do you have any plans to expand the number of community partners that can conduct SNAP interviews? If so, can you tell me what prompted you to seek out additional partners?

Do any of the partners limit their services to a specific target group? If so, whom do they specifically target?

Nature of the Partnerships

Now I’d like to find out about the nature of agreements between SNAP and the community partners in your State.

4. Can you describe the procedures for identifying potential partners and any criteria your State uses to select community partners?

5. Please describe the procedures used to choose the community partners that you are currently working with.

6. What specifically do they bring to the table? Do they offer assistance with any other benefit programs, like SCHIP, TANF, SSI, or Medicaid?

7. Were there specific benefits that you were hoping to see as a result of this partnership? If so, what benefits were you anticipating, and who did you think would benefit (e.g., SNAP office workers, SNAP applicants)? Have those benefits been realized so far?

8. Were there any unforeseen consequences to this partnership?

9. Do the community partners receive any reimbursement from SNAP for the services they provide? If so, what is the range of reimbursements or the average reimbursement amount? Is the amount of reimbursement dependent on any particular criteria, i.e. number of applications approved, accuracy of applications, etc.? What is the source of the funds that are used for reimbursement? Has funding from this source increased since the development of partnerships with the CBOs? How often are the community partners reimbursed?    Can you provide a record of all reimbursement to the community partners since xxxx?

10. Are any in-kind materials, equipment, or services provided to the CBOs by your agency? If so, what are they?

11. Please describe any training that you provide community partners in preparation for conducting SNAP applicant interviews. Does the training you provide to SNAP staff for interviewing applicants differ from the training provided to the CBOs? If so, describe how the trainings differ.

12. Do the local SNAP offices provide ongoing support to the community partners around the interviewing process? If so, what is the nature of that support?

13. Is the performance of the community partners being tracked or monitored in any way? If so, who is doing the tracking and what specific performance indicators are being tracked?

14. Have any of the community partners failed to meet your State’s expectations or performance standards? If so, what happened and how was the problem addressed?

15. Are there other measures of performance that you think should be tracked besides those covered in this study?

RESPONSE OF STATE SNAP STAFF TO CBOs

Now I’d like to talk about how SNAP staff have responded to the waiver agreement, and more specifically, the involvement of CBOs in the SNAP interview process.

16. In general, how do you think the SNAP staff—both the eligibility workers and the supervisors—rate the performance of the CBOs with respect to the application process?

17. Generally speaking, what do SNAP staff see as the successes and challenges associated with CBOs conducting applicant interviews? Are these the same successes and challenges that you would identify? What steps have been taken to address specific challenges?

18. I understand that FNS requires States participating in the demonstration to conduct client satisfaction surveys. What do these surveys show you about households that apply through a CBO?

IMPACT ON PROGRAM OUTCOMES

One of the questions FNS would like to answer through this study is whether partnering with CBOs to provide SNAP application interviews has impacted SNAP outcomes. One of the outcomes of interest is payment accuracy.

19. In your opinion, has partnering with CBOs under this waiver had any effect on overall payment error rates in the demonstration counties? If yes, how?

20. What about other outcomes, like timeliness—would you say that the partnerships have affected how quickly applications are processed? If yes, how?

21. In your opinion, are there other ways in which the SNAP-CBO partnerships have impacted program performance? If so, how?

NEXT STEPS

Next, we plan to interview CBO directors.

22. Can you provide a contact for each of the community partners that are conducting SNAP interviews?

Following those interviews, we plan to select up to four CBO sites and four local SNAP offices for site visits.

23. Are there any special factors you would suggest we take into consideration with respect to site selection? If so, what are they?

Thank you again for your time.

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