Featured Case Study
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With Jefferson Health, we launched a six-week community challenge that brought thirty-five volunteers together to develop twelve responses to emerging Medicaid and SNAP barriers.
More than a million Philadelphians rely on Medicaid and SNAP. A single policy shift could put coverage at risk for families, patients, and whole neighborhoods at once.
In 2026, new federal rules began reshaping Medicaid and SNAP for over a million Philadelphians. Renewals moved to every six months. Work requirements arrived with paperwork most recipients would never learn existed.
Philadelphians affected
New federal rules began reshaping Medicaid and SNAP for more than a million people in a single city.
Lost it to paperwork
During the last major eligibility change, most people who lost Medicaid nationally lost it over paperwork rather than eligibility.
Renewal cycle
Renewals moved to twice a year, with work requirements layered on top and almost no one told in advance.
“What if the community designed the response?”
Jefferson’s Health Design Lab and United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey saw the moment coming and asked a question most institutions do not. Launch Point Labs was brought in to design, build, and run the answer.
Thirty-five volunteers from across the region.
College students, software engineers, retired physicians, community health workers, and benefits navigators joined the challenge. Participants ranged from their twenties to their sixties, and most began without knowing anyone else in the program.
A structured arc, run end to end.
Weeks 1–2
Discovery
Participants learned directly from the front lines: the program manager running one of the region's busiest benefits helplines, Pennsylvania Department of Human Services data and policy leadership, benefits navigators, and community health workers who see exactly where coverage gets lost. Every session was captured in branded knowledge documents so learning compounded across teams.
Week 3
Ideation and scoping
We coached each participant from broad concern to a single buildable idea through one-on-one working sessions, written concept snapshots, and honest redirection when scope outran six weeks.
Weeks 4–5
Prototype
Teams built working web applications, AI-assisted screening tools, service blueprints, and full workforce program designs. Each concept was shaped by ongoing feedback and a shared pitch structure mapped to public scoring criteria.
Week 6
Demo Day
Twelve solutions were presented live to an advisory panel drawn from the system itself: Clarifi, Jefferson Health Plans, Jefferson Community Health and Impact, Jefferson College of Population Health, United Way, and the creator of SnapScreener.com. Every presentation received five minutes of expert questioning. There was no prize and no winner, by design. The goal was surfacing ideas worth continuing.
Twelve solutions. The range tells the story.
Ranked outreach dashboard
Tells community health workers exactly who to call before a deadline passes.
Medical-exemption screener
Turns dense federal criteria into a letter a doctor can sign in ninety seconds.
Plain-language portal companion
Walks applicants through the state's application portal in words they actually use.
Volunteer-hour verification
A QR-based system for verifying the hours that satisfy work requirements, live at its own domain by Demo Day.
Certified navigator corps
A trained corps of community benefits navigators embedded where people already go for help.
Reliable-address service
A mailing solution for the people the mail system fails, so notices actually arrive.
What Launch Point Labs delivered.
Launch Point Labs designed the program, recruited and coached participants, coordinated expert speakers and institutional partners, produced every program resource, and ran Demo Day.
Program architecture
Recruitment, team formation, and the six-week arc across thirty-five volunteers.
Session design
Speaker coordination across state agencies, nonprofits, and health-system partners.
Participant coaching
Weekly one-on-one coaching from broad concern to a single buildable idea.
Program operations
Pitch guides, slide frameworks, scoring rubrics, session recaps, and run-of-show.
Demo Day production
A full live virtual production, advisory-panel prep, and real-time stage management.
Policy research
Verified research underpinning every build, from federal rulemaking to state form numbers.
Demo Day was designed to be a beginning.
In August 2026, the advisory panel reconvenes to select which ideas move forward into pilots, with network guidance, funding introductions, and community access behind the strongest. Every concept leaves with documentation, expert feedback, and a path forward.
Participants received direct access to frontline expertise, a six-week development structure, and regular coaching as they built. Demo Day placed their work in front of leaders who could guide the strongest ideas toward pilots.
The same model can help a health system, foundation, school district, university, or company invite communities into the process of solving a defined challenge.
Explore more initiatives
Solving complex challenges. Building better futures.
Interested in running a challenge like this with your institution?
Let's talk.
