DPAweb

Nation’s Largest Single-Day Food Drive Set for May 12

On May 12, 2012 local communities across America will be asked to join the U.S. Postal Service and its letter carriers to combat one of this nation’s growing problems — hunger.

The following compass piece in the Anchorage Daily News was submitted by Commissioner Bill Streur. Please click the link to go to the Daily News website and see the article:

Commissioner Streur compass piece on child abuse

The Governor’s Denali Peak Performance Award annually recognizes and rewards individuals and teams for excellence in service to the citizens of Alaska and to the State of Alaska Executive Branch. The awards are intended as acknowledgment of service that goes well beyond the norm and demonstrates a unique or significant contribution to the agency’s mission, goals, and objectives.

Alaska among 23 states eligible for bonus

ANCHORAGE— The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $5,660,544 to Alaska as a “performance bonus” for streamlining and improving Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization (CHIPRA) processes.

Thanksgiving is traditionally a time to gather with friends and loved ones to give thanks for life’s blessings. The holiday lends itself to reflection on the things for which one is most grateful. Sometimes just thinking about the subject of gratitude can prompt us to feel more of it. When we are aware of the idea of appreciation, we also become more conscious and aware of our blessings.

Voter Registration

The National Voter Registration Act is a federal law designed to increase citizens’ access to voter registration opportunities. It requires agencies such as the Division of Public Assistance to make every effort to ensure public assistance applicants and recipients have a chance to register to vote. In the past few months DPA staff all across the state have been very successful ensuring that our customers have that opportunity. Vote Here signs are everywhere and in the last few months DPA accepted 744 registrations. A significant increase over the 400 received last year.

Are you ready to expand your skills in working with clients?
Are you interested in learning more about your agency partners?
Do you want more information about the outlook of future services?

Please mark your calendars for:
The Alaskan Families Come First Conference
September 26, 27 and 28
Anchorage Alaska
Sheraton Hotel

Last month the Policy and Program Development Team had their Lean Kaizen Event. As a result this summer and fall we are implementing radical process improvements to meet the needs of our customers.

Here are some improvements we can all look forward to right away:
• Monthly manual changes
• Shorter turnaround time in implementing new and revised policies suggested by field staff
• Increased collaboration with the field and other DPA support teams to create more effective and useful policies

But the biggest improvement on the horizon, and the one thing that all our stakeholders have asked for, is ONE MANUAL.

This week the Food and Nutrition Service is sending a letter to Governor Parnell congratulating the State of Alaska for “ … achievement in obtaining both a payment error rate and a negative error rate that are below the national average…” In fact, Alaska’s payment error rate of only 2.15% placed us 9th in the nation for payment accuracy and garnered yet another SNAP High Performance Award; this one for $232,898!

Beginning in the fall of 2009 with Field Services the Division began taking a critical look at our core business practices in order to develop more efficient and effective ways of doing our work.  By this fall every section of the division will have had the opportunity to have representatives participate in the LEAN/Kaizen process that we are using to implement significant and meaningful changes in our business practices.  To better support the changes in our work processes and to gain additional efficiency, work is also in progress to find an alternative to the Eligibility Information System (EIS).