The Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services (DWSS) provides public assistance benefits and child support services to eligible residents, aiming to promote safe, stable, and healthy lives for Nevadans. It has been part of the universal caseload trend among state agencies to increase service capacity while caseload demands rise and available staff lessens.
From “yet another system” to an invaluable tool
When the Nevada DWSS first adopted SaraWorks in 2019, “Workers were not really sure that they wanted yet another system,” Chief of Employment and Support Services, Maria Wortman-Meshberger, shared. Today, Wortman-Meshberger reports that she’s “not sure they would know what to do without Sara. They continue to utilize it readily, all the time.” So much so that Sara is incorporated into the state’s standardized procedures.
Keeping thousands informed across the caseload
Communicating important updates to thousands of clients at once is a key capability of Sara for Nevada DWSS, which they describe as operating on a hybrid caseload and universal caseload (or task-based caseload) model. The department recently changed systems and was able to get the word out easily so that everyone understood the impact and next steps. Along with updates such as systems changes, extreme weather, and facility construction, Sara’s mass communication capabilities help the DWSS boost enrollment by informing clients of services they might be interested in and eligible for. The key for the department’s leadership was to have a client communication tool “flexible enough” to shift according to their needs.
Supporting individuals, task by task, toward their goals
In addition to the mass communication that impacts all clients, Sara has helped the Nevada DWSS with the high volume of individualized communications it takes to help clients pay their bills, get trained, and land jobs. These include appointment reminders, check-ins, and work verification requests. “We give them vouchers and we encourage them: ‘As soon as you’re out of the store, just take a picture of that receipt and send it to us through Sara.’ So we do see quite a few receipts that way. Which is very, very helpful — to get all those bills paid,” said Wortman-Meshberger.
To date, Sara has helped Nevada DWSS automate the collection of nearly 3,000 documents for this workstream.
Tracking client progress and maximizing in-house resources
For Nevada’s NEON program participants, caseworkers introduce them to Sara post-TANF approval, during their initial meeting or Personal Responsibility Plan (PRP) to let them know this is how they’ll communicate.
Sara provides a centralized hub for that two-way client communication, allowing supervisors to track progress and assign outstanding work with ease. Caseworkers can then jump in within the task-based model, picking up where the last counselor or the client left off. All communication flows and is filtered out through Sara, establishing a consistent standard of service as the department navigates a shifting landscape.
