6 Outreach, 2605(b)(3) - Assurance 3, 2605(c)(3)(A)

6.1 Select all outreach activities that you conduct that are designed to assure that eligible households are made aware of all LIHEAP assistance available: Place posters/flyers in local and county social service offices, offices of aging, Social Security offices, VA, etc. Publish articles in local newspapers or broadcast media announcements. Include inserts in energy vendor billings to inform individuals of the availability of all types of LIHEAP assistance. Mass mailing(s) to prior-year LIHEAP recipients. Inform low income applicants of the availability of all types of LIHEAP assistance at application intake for other low-income programs. Execute interagency agreements with other low-income program offices to perform outreach to target groups. Web Posting Email Texting Events Social Media Other (specify): Use of social media (Facebook/Meta Platforms, Inc., and X) to inform households of the availability of LIHEAP and share important information. In addition, Local Administering Agencies will continue utilizing the LIHEAP Unreturned Customer report to reach out prior year customers who have not applied for assistance yet. Outreach is one of the Grant Agreement Conditions with our 33 LIHEAP Local Administering Agencies (LAAs). All of these outreach activities are covered by the Department and/or the LAAs. Illinois partnered with DCC Marketing Firm to run a pilot LIHEAP targeted marketing campaign in PY25. Upon analysis of zip code data, certain communities in seven Illinois counties - Lake, Will, Kane, McHenry, Kankakee, Tazwell, and Cook showed under-enrollment for eligible LIHEAP populations. The marketing campaign grouped the counties into three markets: Suburban (Lake, Will, Kane, and McHenry Counties), Rural (Tazewell and Kankakee Counties), and City (Chicago in Cook County) and created customized tactics and strategies for the communities. For each market, specific zip codes were assigned to a target group and are being compared to similarly aligned zip codes in the control group to evaluate the impact of targeted marketing efforts to boost LIHEAP enrollment numbers. The campaign started on January 28, 2025 and ran for at least six (6) weeks ending in March 2025.We do not have any results at this time to report. If any of the above questions require further explanation or clarification that could not be made in the fields provided, attach a document with said explanation here.