Work Supports

Core Values | Common Ground | Equal Justice

Nebraska Appleseed’s Work Supports project is a collaborative effort with other Appleseed centers the goal of which is to partner with the small business community to raise awareness of and help connect small business employees with programs that can support them, including child care subsidies, food stamps, Medicaid and children’s health insurance, and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). Through the Works Supports project, we hope to educate and inform both employers and employees about these public work support programs. These public programs help working families make ends meet while their employment situation improves and simultaneously help small businesses retain good, trained employees while they build their profits and are more able to provide better wages and benefits. While we firmly believe that employers should be paying living wages that would make these work supports programs unnecessary for working families, we recognize that many businesses simply cannot afford to pay higher wages or offer benefits such as health care and child care. We also know that many employees do not participate in these programs, even if they are eligible. Through this project, Nebraska Appleseed hopes to raise awareness of these benefits, break down the barriers to enrollment in the programs, and help ensure that these critical work supports are available to eligible employees and their families.

Nebraska Appleseed has developed an information packet for small business employers and their employees. The employer tool kit describes each of the four programs and includes suggestions for simple ways that employers can help their employees access these benefits. We have also created information packets that employers can distribute to their employees which contain fact sheets on each of the work supports programs, including information on how to apply.

Work Supports Toolkits

Employer Toolkit:

• Contact Information for Benefit Applications
• Child Care Subsidies
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
• Food Stamps
• Kids Connection & Medicaid
• What You Can Do To Help Your Employees

Employee Toolkit:

• Contact Information for Benefit Applications
• Child Care Subsidies
• Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC)
• Food Stamps
• Kids Connection & Medicaid