Appendix R. FNS State recruitment email for case studies_revision2_clean

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Appendix R. FNS State recruitment email for case studies

OMB No. 0584-[NEW]

Survey of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) Case Management

July 5, 2021

Project Officer: Kristen Corey

Office of Policy Support

Food and Nutrition Service

U.S. Department of Agriculture

1320 Braddock Place

Alexandria, VA 22314

survey of snap E&T case Management

FNS State recruitment email for case studies

Subject: Seeking [State name]’s Participation in a SNAP E&T Study

Dear [Name of SNAP director],

The Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) is sponsoring a new study to better understand how SNAP agencies are providing case management in their SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) programs as well as conducting assessments and delivering participant reimbursements and other supports after referral to E&T. An important goal of the study is to help develop best practices and lessons learned to support SNAP E&T programs. To meet the goals of the study, FNS has contracted with Mathematica and its subcontractor, Social Policy Research Associates (SPR), to conduct a survey of all 53 SNAP agencies as well as case studies of four States or territories. Please see the attached study description for more details.

FNS has selected your State to be highlighted in a case study. The case study will involve a three day site visit to your State during which trained interviewers on the study team will interview State and local SNAP staff and E&T providers. The study team will observe case management and assessment activities and seek to collect aggregate administrative data and documents for review. The case studies will showcase how your program provides case management, conducts assessments, and provides participant reimbursements and other supports to E&T participants. This will provide FNS and other SNAP E&T programs best practices and lessons learned. In addition to the case study, we will also be requesting that you complete the 45-minute online survey that all SNAP agencies will receive as part of the study at a later date.

Participation in this study is voluntary. Be assured that there will be no penalties if you decide not to respond, either to the information collection as a whole or to any particular questions. The information you provide will be private and will not be maintained or disclosed in identifiable form to anyone, except as otherwise required by law.

Thank you in advance for your participation in this study. The study findings will be published in a final report that will summarize how SNAP E&T programs across the country are conducting case management, assessing participants, and offering participant reimbursements and other supports. The report will include a case study chapter about your State, as well as a [State name] profile that will highlight your State’s practices gathered from your agency’s response to the survey. The report will also include profiles for each State and territory that you can use to learn how others are implementing these important program elements. You will have the opportunity to review your case study chapter and profile before the final report is published.

In the next few days, you will receive an email from [Mathematica or SPR] to schedule a call to discuss the case study data collection in more detail. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact the FNS project officer, Kristen Corey, at [email protected], or Kristen Joyce, the Mathematica project director, at [email protected].

Public Burden Statement

According to the Paperwork Reduction Act of 1995, an agency may not conduct or sponsor, and a person is not required to respond to, a collection of information unless it displays a valid OMB control number. The valid OMB control number for this information collection is 0584-xxxx. The time required to complete this information collection is estimated to average 4 minutes per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing the collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden, to the following address: U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Services, Office of Policy Support, 1320 Braddock Place, Alexandria, VA 22314, ATTN: PRA (0584-xxxx). Do not return the completed form to this address.