2-1-1 Flyers in DPA Offices

2-1-1 flyers will soon be available in all DPA offices. 2-1-1 is an easy to remember telephone number that connects callers to free information about critical health and human services available in their community. Until 2-1-1, there was no single, comprehensive statewide provider of information and referral for Alaskans.

Schooling Up for 2009 with the SNAP Salmon Challenge

From: Mary Riggen-Ver, Chief, Program Integrity and Analysis

Just a couple more months of the Preliminary Swim remain before we see some indication of how our salmon are starting out on their Successful Navigation to Awesome Performance. While some of you may be excited about this, others may be asking what on earth salmon have to do with program accuracy. The answer to that is nothing really. However, we are known world-wide for our wild Alaska salmon, and our state fish is the king salmon. So what better way to ride out the waves to awesome performance than with our winning Alaskan salmon?

SNAP Salmon Preliminary Swim

Successfully Navigating to Awesome Performance with the SNAP Salmon Challenge!

2009 Accuracy Improvement Campaign

From: Mary Riggen-Ver, Chief, Program Integrity and Analysis

Our little SNAP salmon are now testing out the water in the “Preliminary Swim”. The Preliminary Swim reflects the first 9 months of FFY 2008 Food Stamp payment accuracy (October 2007 through June 2008). The plan to use a 4-month rolling average wasn’t feasible as some really large unrepresentative client caused errors occurred during those 4 months that skewed the data and inaccurately reflected our work. Our little salmon have been struggling a bit lately as they try to figure out how to navigate. Our FFY 2008 Food Stamp payment accuracy rate now stands at 92.8%, well below our 96% payment accuracy rate for FFY 2007.

DPA Stars

“Great people are those who make others feel that they, too, can become great." ---Mark Twain

Please join me in recognizing and congratulating three of DPA’s Stars that model and inspire this attitude every day. Collectively, these Stars have dedicated more than 50 years of service to DPA and devote countless hours toward our mission “to Promote Self Sufficiency and provide for basic living expenses to Alaskans in need”