Michigan just made a choice that will echo across generations. A $270 million investment in Rx Kids, a program giving cash directly to mothers and babies. The results aren't abstract policy talking points. They're real: evictions fell 91%. Preterm births dropped. NICU admissions down 29%. Postpartum depression declined from 46% to 33%.
This is what's possible when investment meets infrastructure, when government decides that speed and dignity matter as much as compliance and verification.
I've spent years building platforms that help governments deliver care at scale. And I'm watching something shift in how we talk about what's possible. The conversation is no longer about whether direct support works. The evidence is overwhelming. The conversation is about whether we have the collective will to invest in systems that match the urgency of human need.
What We've Learned About Investment
When Michigan invested $270 million in Rx Kids, they invested in more than baby supplies for 100,000 families. They invested in housing stability. Mental health. Better birth outcomes. The breathing room parents need to be present with their children instead of drowning in impossible choices between rent and food, medicine and utilities.
This ripples across every sector we care about. Housing becomes stable when families can pay rent. Children develop better when parents aren't in constant crisis. Communities grow stronger when survival isn't consuming every resource. Economic mobility becomes possible when people have the foundation to build from.
Through our work at Unify, we've seen this pattern repeat across 16 states and hundreds of thousands of individuals. When help arrives fast, when systems work with people instead of against them, transformation happens at individual and community levels simultaneously.
The returns aren't just economic, though those matter. Every dollar preventing evictions saves the much higher cost of emergency shelter. Every dollar in prenatal support reduces expensive NICU admissions. Every dollar keeping families stable keeps children in school and parents working.
But there's something beyond what we can measure in spreadsheets. There's dignity. There's the restoration of trust between communities and the systems meant to serve them. There's the visible evidence that government can work for people, not just process them.
The Dignity Factor
Let me be direct about something we don't talk about enough in policy conversations: dignity matters as much as outcomes.
When a pregnant mother receives $1,500 and knows she can buy what she needs for her baby without explaining every purchase to a caseworker, that's dignity. When a family facing eviction gets rental assistance that arrives in days instead of sitting in review for weeks, that's dignity. When someone in crisis doesn't have to prove their worthiness through endless documentation before receiving help, that's dignity.
I've watched countless government workers struggle with this tension. You know the people you serve deserve better. You see the gaps between what your systems can deliver and what your communities need. You carry the weight of every family that falls through cracks you didn't create but are expected to fill.
Dignity isn't a line item in a budget proposal. But it might be the most important thing government can provide. Because when people receive help with dignity intact, everything else works better. Engagement increases. Outcomes improve. Trust rebuilds between communities and the institutions meant to serve them.
Modern infrastructure makes dignity and efficiency work together instead of in opposition. We can verify identity in seconds while keeping the process respectful. We can detect fraud without treating every applicant as suspect. We can process applications at massive scale while maintaining the human touch that matters.
This is the shift that's possible now. Systems that protect dignity while maintaining accountability. Programs that move fast without cutting corners. Support that reaches people when they need it, how they need it.
The Readiness No One Talks About
Here's what strikes me most about this moment: everything is ready except the decision to move forward.
Organizations know how to design programs that meet their communities' specific needs. They understand local context, the populations they serve, the challenges their people face. They're not waiting on instructions. They're waiting on partnership and resources.
Communities themselves have been clear about what they need for generations. The research validating direct support isn't revealing new truths to people who've lived without resources. It's providing evidence that policymakers require before making choices communities already know work.
The technology infrastructure exists to deliver programs at scale with speed and care. We can process 65,000 applications in a week. We can issue payments to one person or 100,000 with the same reliability. We can provide customer support in over 50 languages. We can detect fraud without punishing legitimate applicants.
The missing piece isn't how. The missing piece is will.
You Already Know This
Here's what I've learned working with government agencies across the country: you already know what your communities need. The challenge isn't understanding the problem. The challenge is finding pathways to deliver solutions at the speed and scale that need demands.
Every conversation I have with government officials, whether at city, county, state, or federal level, carries the same undercurrent. You're looking for ways to better engage your communities. You want to strengthen programs that work and launch new initiatives that could transform outcomes. You see the potential for technology to reduce burden instead of add to it.
You're working with systems stretched impossibly thin. Staff doing heroic work to serve communities while wrestling with platforms designed decades ago. Budgets that haven't kept pace with need. Processes built around paper forms and in-person verification that made sense in 1985 but create barriers in 2025.
And you're watching other jurisdictions make different choices. Michigan investing $270 million in direct support. Cities launching emergency relief in days. Counties processing thousands of applications with approval times measured in hours instead of weeks. Programs that work.
The question isn't whether you want better systems. The question is whether you have a clear path to get there.
Scale Meets Any Government Where They Are
This is not just a state-level possibility. This transformation isn't reserved for states with massive budgets. Cities can launch emergency relief in 48 hours. Counties can deploy rental assistance reaching thousands. States can fund guaranteed income pilots. Federal agencies can modernize benefit systems that haven't changed in decades.
The infrastructure scales to whatever level government is ready to operate at. A small city serving 500 families uses the same platform technology as a state program reaching 100,000 people. The systems adapt to your scale, your budget, your community's specific needs.
Small investments create measurable impact. Medium investments transform local communities. Large investments like Michigan's create generational change.
Through our partnerships with AmeriCorps, housing authorities, workforce agencies, and emergency response teams, we've learned that readiness looks different across contexts but the fundamentals remain the same. Leadership willing to invest. Organizations ready to implement. Technology capable of scaling. Communities ready to receive support with dignity.
Large investments like Michigan's create generational change.
What Returns Look Like
When we talk about return on investment, we're talking about multiple forms of value that compound over time.
There's economic return. Reduced emergency costs. Increased workforce participation. Local economies functioning because people have resources to spend. Businesses that stay open. Tax bases that remain stable.
There's health return. Better birth outcomes. Lower maternal mortality. Reduced chronic stress. Fewer emergency room visits. Less trauma accumulating and passing to next generations.
There's community return. More resilient neighborhoods. Stronger social connections. Schools that work better because children aren't carrying household crisis into classrooms. Local institutions that can focus on growth instead of constant crisis response.
And there's something harder to quantify but perhaps most important: the democratic return. When government demonstrates it can deliver help efficiently and with dignity, trust rebuilds. When systems work for people, civic engagement increases. When investment creates visible change, the social contract strengthens.
This Is The Moment
If you're a government official reading this, I want you to see yourself in what I'm describing. Because this is for you.
You came into public service to make a difference. To serve your community. To be part of solutions that improve lives. But too often, you're spending time managing inadequate systems instead of building programs that reflect your values and meet your community's needs.
Now is the perfect time to reduce the labor on systems stretched too thin. The infrastructure exists to handle scale. The evidence shows what works. The organizational capacity is ready. And importantly, there's growing recognition across government that modernization isn't optional anymore, it's essential.
You don't have to build this infrastructure yourself. You don't have to become a technology expert. You don't have to figure out procurement and security and compliance and user experience and fraud prevention all on your own.
Organizations like ours exist specifically to partner with government at every level. To provide the platforms that let you focus on program design and community engagement while we handle the technical complexity. To reduce the burden on your staff so they can do what they came to public service for.
This is your invitation to choose a better way forward.
Choose systems that work at the speed of need. Choose platforms that treat people with dignity while maintaining security. Choose infrastructure that scales to your community's size and adapts to your programs' specific requirements. Choose partnerships that reduce your team's workload instead of adding to it.
The path exists. Other governments are already walking it. The results speak clearly. What remains is your choice to take the first step.
What's Next
For governments ready to make this choice, the path is clear. Assess community needs. Identify existing programs that could be strengthened or new programs that should be launched. Partner with organizations that have infrastructure to deliver at scale.
The technology can accept applications on any device, verify eligibility in hours not weeks, detect fraud without creating barriers, issue payments flexibly, provide real customer support, track impact in real time.
Organizations are ready. Communities are ready. Infrastructure is ready.
The only question is whether we're ready to invest in what we know works.
Our success won't be measured in dollars processed or applications reviewed. It will be measured in families that didn't have to choose between impossible options. In communities that grew stronger instead of more fragile. In systems that finally worked at the speed of human need.
The infrastructure is ready. The question is: are we?
Your commitment is to people. Ours is to building the systems that help you reach them. Let's get started together
