For nearly 20 years, Imagine LA has built upon the initial vision by looking for ways to work alongside families as they tackled the entrenched obstacles between them and their goals.

For the first 15 years, the organization developed and expanded the Family Partnership Model: a combination of clinical case management, robust economic mobility programming, and whole-family mentorship. With this holistic approach, we walked alongside a thousand families as they achieved their housing and financial goals.

In early 2019, we launched the Economic Mobility Initiative to access and analyze the persistent economic barriers our families faced, including insufficient childcare, access to living wage career development pathways, financial fitness skills and navigating the complex public benefit system.  We soon learned that the fears and lack of transparency that surrounded the public benefit system was the most pervasive barrier to economic mobility. Families feared, especially having just emerged from homelessness, that earning more income would mean that they would lose their benefits and their housing. 

In 2020 we decided to partner with the USC Center for Social Innovation and take a deep dive into the “black box” of public benefits and tax credits.  After an in-depth landscape analysis of all Federal, State and LA County public benefits and tax credits, research (which took over 18 months to validate) uncovered 16 distinct benefits available in LA County and revealed a complex labyrinth of applications and compliance processes and highlighting the:

  • Difficulty of identifying, applying for and receiving all benefits and tax credits resulting in the underutilization of available benefits and time delays in receiving benefits which exacerbated trauma and homelessness.   

  • The phenomenon of "benefits cliffs" when a modest income increase surprisingly triggers a severe benefit loss. 

  • Fear of loss of benefits, and the lack of transparency of why it happens, prevents people from earning income.

  • Fear and lack of understanding about taxes and tax credits and that they can actually generate significant cash for low-income tax-filers, especially families, means that impactful tax benefits are often not being utilized by the people that need them most.     

This landscape unwittingly leaves billions of dollars of critical resources untapped, creates an enormous administrative burden for social service providers and enmeshes individuals, and especially families, in poverty.

Based on these findings, Imagine LA decided in late 2022 to create the Benefit Navigator to provide trusted information, transparency, and accessibility, and to empower case managers and their clients with efficient and effective informed decision-making tools to navigate toward economic mobility and financial security. 

In 2023, we piloted the Benefit Navigator, a one-stop-shop online tool for case managers, individuals, and families to help them understand, access, and navigate the complex public benefits and tax credit landscape– quickly, confidently, and in one place. The initial results were revolutionary:

  • 44% more benefits/credits identified (than by the control group not using tool).

  • 24% average increase in earned income in 6 months as compared to a 16% decrease in earned income by control group (attributed to clients’ ability to see impact of income on their benefits).

  • Both case workers and their managers expressed that the tool saved them time and enabled them to better support their clients.

  • In 7 months, the Navigator identified over $31 million in eligible benefits and tax credits – an average of $15,770 per person.

In 2024, our work with the Benefit Navigator expanded greatly to over 500 users across 55 social service organizations, impacting over 11,000 clients and identifying over $125 million in additional benefits and tax credits.

In mid-2024, Imagine LA decided to conclude our Family Mentorship Model.  Our decision was grounded in our mission and maximizing our Impact. We transitioned our families and many of our staff to The Whole Child, a trusted partner organization, and pivoted to focus on the Benefit Navigator, which we see as the future of our work to end the cycle of family poverty and homelessness not only in LA but around the country.