Increasing Use of Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in New Mexico

We will deliver up to 56 trainings to 65 frontline health workers and 25 staff of our partner organizations. The training will include: 1.) Information about what ACEs are, and the risk and protective factors associated with ACEs and 2.) Information regarding EITC benefits, eligibility, application procedure and logistics, referrals for free tax preparation assistance, and use of EITC tools., and 3.) frontline health workers will receive additional training in protocols for reporting to support Objective #2.

"Our partners will screen and refer a minimum of 5200 clients (65 CHWs x 10 clients per quarter x 2 years) for EITC. Our evaluation team will track the number of individuals screened, the number found to be eligible/not eligible, the number referred out and to which free tax prep service, and if available, the number who use the free tax prep service, the number who file a tax claim for EITC, the number who receive EITC benefits, and the amount of the benefit.~We will conduct community-level EIT outreach by integrating EITC outreach and education into planned community events in the neighborhoods and service areas of our partners. The events will provide information about the EITC to the public. We will have a minimum of 48 events to reach a minimum of 480 potential filers (48 events x 10 participants each)."

"We will conduct a statistical analysis of the impact of EITC funds on ACEs risk and protective factors in the lives of EITC benefit recipients. Project CHW team members will invite 200 clients who qualify to receive EITC benefits to participate in the study using an approved recruitment script. With those who agree to participate, the CHW team member will obtain consent and administer a baseline survey. A post-survey will be administered at 4 months.~In addition, we will gather qualitative data to help us understand impacts of this project. The post-survey will contain an open/qualitative response question asking participants to describe how the EITC benefit impacted them, how they felt when they received it, how important it was, and what they did with the funds. In Y2, the Research Team will conduct interviews with a subset of 20 clients who participated in the pre/post survey."