MyFriendBen Partners with Child Poverty Action Lab to Launch Texas Accelerator

Coalition of early adopters, anchored by Center for Transforming Lives in Tarrant County, will expand access to public benefits across urban and rural Texas communities

DALLAS, TX — May 19, 2026 — The Child Poverty Action Lab (CPAL) and MyFriendBen today announced a partnership to launch the Texas Accelerator for MyFriendBen, a new initiative incubated at CPAL to rapidly expand access to public benefits, tax credits, and nonprofit programs for families across Texas. The Accelerator launches with a growing coalition of early adopters, with Center for Transforming Lives (CTL) in Tarrant County as one of the first organizations in Texas to deploy MyFriendBen.

As part of the partnership, CPAL will host a full-time MyFriendBen Director responsible for structuring partner-led pilots, designing and running marketing and outreach tests, and accelerating adoption of MyFriendBen with organizations serving both urban and rural Texas communities.

MyFriendBen is a free, anonymous online tool that helps users find out — in about six minutes — what public benefits, tax credits, and nonprofit programs they may qualify for. Nationally, MyFriendBen has connected more than 115,000 households to public benefits, unlocking an estimated $58 million in impact. An independent evaluation by the Urban Institute found that 64% of users discovered a benefit for the first time, 91% planned to apply within three months, and 93% would recommend MyFriendBen to friends or family. Demand from Texas organizations has grown quickly since the tool became available in the state, and the Accelerator is designed to meet that need.

CPAL has served as an early anchor funder for launching MyFriendBen in Texas, with support from the Rainwater Charitable Foundation. The Accelerator builds on that foundation, deepening CPAL’s commitment from financial backer to operational home for the next phase of statewide growth.

The Accelerator will provide shared infrastructure, a testing and learning agenda, and support to help partners of all sizes — community-based organizations, health systems, school districts, faith communities, staffing agencies, and more — adopt MyFriendBen quickly and effectively.

First Step Staffing: Connecting Benefits to the Workforce

Among the Accelerator’s earliest partners is First Step Staffing, a national workforce organization dedicated to lifting individuals experiencing homelessness into stable employment. First Step’s Dallas office will be the first to partner in this effort with plans to expand into their seven other markets. First Step Staffing has integrated MyFriendBen into its employee support workflow, with 100–130 individuals using the tool each week to identify benefits that stabilize housing, food security, health care, and family well-being alongside their return to work. The partnership demonstrates how benefits access and workforce development reinforce each other — helping individuals not just find jobs, but build the financial foundation to keep them.

Early Momentum with Tarrant County

Center for Transforming Lives anchors the Accelerator’s early adopters in Tarrant County. Since 1907, Center for Transforming Lives has focused on lifting Tarrant County families out of poverty, today serving nearly 4,000 individuals each year — 77% of whom live below the federal poverty level. The nonprofit’s recent launch of MyFriendBen complements its two-generation model and offers a real-world foundation the Accelerator will build on as it recruits additional coalition members across the state.

“Very often, poverty isn’t a personal failure; it’s the result of a cycle that’s very good at repeating itself,” said Carol Klocek, CEO of Center for Transforming Lives. “Our job is to make sure Tarrant County families are connected to the systems that help disrupt that cycle. MyFriendBen has already changed how we open that door for the families we serve, and we’re proud to help other Texas organizations do the same through this Accelerator.”

“Texas is big, diverse, and the need is enormous. Scaling responsibly here means working shoulder-to-shoulder with partners who already know their communities,” said Laura Glaab, CEO of MyFriendBen. “CPAL and CTL are anchor organizations in their communities with an aligned mission — economic mobility for children and families. CPAL has a proven track record of testing evidence-based interventions and turning data into action in Dallas County, while CTL works with women and children day in and day out in Tarrant County, stacking interventions for maximum impact. For anchors like these, MyFriendBen isn’t just another tool — it’s a practical way to activate their work on the ground and in the neighborhoods they serve. Together, they’re the right foundation for a coalition we expect to grow quickly.”

About the Accelerator

The Texas Accelerator for MyFriendBen will focus on three priorities:

• Growing the coalition of early adopters across Texas, recruiting partners in urban and rural markets and providing onboarding, training, and technical support tailored to organizations of varying size and capacity.
• Designing and running outreach and marketing tests to identify the most effective ways to reach eligible families — including digital campaigns, community-based referral channels, and trusted-messenger strategies tailored for Texas communities.
• Generating shared learnings about what drives benefits uptake, so coalition members — and partners in other states — can apply evidence-based approaches rather than starting from scratch.

The full-time MyFriendBen Director will be based at CPAL in Dallas, working directly with MyFriendBen’s national team and partners.

About MyFriendBen

MyFriendBen is a nonprofit technology organization working to make public benefits access faster, simpler, and more dignified for families across the U.S. Incubated at Gary Community Ventures, MyFriendBen’s screener covers government benefits, tax credits, and nonprofit programs with over 90% accuracy, and is available in multiple states. More than 115,000 families have used the platform to unlock an estimated $58 million in benefits. MyFriendBen’s screener is available in 21 languages and takes about six minutes to complete. Learn more at myfriendben.org.

About the Child Poverty Action Lab (CPAL)

The Child Poverty Action Lab is a Dallas-based nonprofit that operates as an unofficial R&D department for Dallas County, working to reduce child poverty by 50% in a generation. CPAL’s work spans benefits delivery, maternal health, housing, criminal justice, and public safety. Learn more at childpovertyactionlab.org.

About First Step Staffing

First Step Staffing is a nonprofit staffing agency that provides employment opportunities to individuals experiencing homelessness, offering a dignified pathway back into the workforce alongside wraparound support services. Learn more at firststepstaffing.com.

About Center for Transforming Lives

Center for Transforming Lives is a Tarrant County-based nonprofit founded in 1907, dedicated to lifting women, children, and families out of poverty through housing, early childhood education, economic mobility services, and counseling. Learn more at transforminglives.org.

Media Contacts

MyFriendBen: Martha Shaughnessy— martha@thekeypr.com — 415.987.0285 or Laura Glaab — laura@myfriendben.org — 303.990.3187

CPAL: Lane Lowe — lane@cpal.org — 703.217.2076

Center for Transforming Lives: Trish Rodriguez — trodriguez@transforminglives.org — 817.996.7330 (c) or 817.332.6191 (o)

First Step Staffing: Lindsay Cox — lindsay@firststepstaffing.com — 404.348.0277