Why Unlock My Benefits?
Meet Sarita.
Sarita is a single mother raising her children on a part-time income that barely covers their needs. Each month, Sarita faces impossible choices: does she pay her rent, cover her electric bill, or buy medicine for her daughter’s asthma? She’d received some help before, but it was only once. She’s tried applying for other support, but each attempt was met with long waits, piles of paperwork, and complex online systems. Eventually, like so many, she has given up.
Sarita’s story is multiplied across more than 500,00 families in Harris County. These are families—our neighbors—struggling to stay afloat, living paycheck to paycheck. Like Sarita, they face impossible daily choices between housing, food, or medical care. When they try to get help, they often see the cracks in our benefits system. Even when they qualify, they face obstacles: daunting applications, language barriers, and the stigma surrounding “welfare.” These challenges create a gap—one that leaves families unsupported and benefits meant to provide a safety net, unused. By addressing the gaps in access at a local level, we can keep more households from slipping deeper into poverty.
Unlock My Benefits is a pilot program with the goal of building and testing initial technical infrastructure for the Public Benefits Hub. In partnership with select social service agencies, the pilot will increase access to public benefits in targeted areas and build housing and economic stability for participating families.
Connective is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization guided by empathy, data, and a devotion to accessibility. In the five years since its founding, they have experienced exponential growth - transforming from an idea to a pilot embedded within another nonprofit serving 1,000 families per year to a rebranded organization serving over 100,000 families per year. During that growth, Connective has maintained the delivery of high-quality products and built a strong reputation as a social service and disaster assistance coordinator in our region.
Connective places a strong emphasis on a human-centered, data-driven, and empathetic approach that simplifies processes, improves local systems, and sets precedents for other communities. The organization's extensive experience, reflected in consulting services, encompasses human-centered program delivery, innovative technology solutions, and collaborative community engagement—all of which contribute to a significant enhancement of social services.
Learn more at www.connectivetx.org.
