An America without poverty is possible.

The People-Centered Digital Benefits Project is grounded in the belief that real progress towards people-centered digital benefits delivery depends as much on how government agencies are structured and led as on the technology they use. The Project launched in September 2025 to explore how states are reimagining the delivery of public benefits systems that too often leave people feeling frustrated and defeated, rather than supported. This final blog summarizes the lessons learned from the four states profiled over the course of the project—Massachusetts, New York, Maryland, and Colorado—and finds the most impactful investments were not in platforms or contracts, but in skilled professionals who had the influence and expertise to drive real change.

The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is an essential source of assistance for working families struggling to shoulder the ever-growing cost of child care. Millions of children across the country meet CCDF eligibility criteria – but the current program does not meet the full need, and recent federal actions threaten to put child care even further out of reach for many families.

The brief explains the basic structure and function of the CCDF, and how recent funding freezes and rule changes could make child care even more challenging for families to access. At a time when child care costs are skyrocketing, the piece encourages policymakers to bolster the program to support families in addressing barriers to affordable child care.

Millions of people rely on public benefits to meet their basic needs, but families face delays and barriers to access when state enrollment and eligibility systems are running on outdated, burdensome technology. GCPI’s People-Centered Digital Benefits Project highlights state innovations for modernizing benefits delivery systems to meet people’s needs.

In this fourth and final case study, Visiting Fellow Andrés Argüello explores Colorado’s shift to state leadership of its public benefits system, building the internal capacity to redesign systems around the real needs and experiences of Coloradans. The brief highlights the conditions and strategic decisions that enabled the transformation and shows how increased state capacity will improve service delivery to families.

For millions of Americans, public benefits play a critical role in helping make ends meet, but the way these benefits cut off as income rises can mean families face a financial setback when their earnings increase. This brief explains what benefits cliffs are and shares recommendations with policymakers for creating clear, understandable step-downs in benefits programs to help families translate increased earnings into increased financial security.

Families are feeling the strain of rising child care costs, unstable work, and the growing gap between wages and the cost of living. While these challenges are often framed as questions of personal responsibility or family choices, this blog shows that women’s economic security has always been shaped by policy decisions. Drawing on history from the fight for credit access and workplace protections to the veto of a national child care system, it connects past decisions to today’s affordability crisis. By grounding current conversations about work, care, and family policy in this context, the piece encourages policymakers to move toward structural solutions that support economic stability.