Say the right words at the SNAP office. In your language. The benefits you're entitled to, named in plain English so the caseworker hears them.
Problem
We arrived from Afghanistan 4 months ago. Our resettlement agency caseworker stopped accompanying us last month. At the SNAP office, the worker waited for me to say what I needed — but I don't know the English words. 'They expect the client to say the magic word: Welfare.' We walked out with only emergency food stamps because I never said 'TANF' or 'Medicaid'. My friend who came through Welcome Corps community sponsorship has it worse — he doesn't even have an agency caseworker for those 3 months. We're losing money we're entitled to because we don't know the vocabulary.
Audience
Refugees, asylees, and SIV holders (Afghan, Ukrainian, Cuban, Haitian, Congolese, Burmese cohorts most active in 2024-2026) in months 3-12 in the US — after the resettlement agency window ends. Plus community-sponsored arrivals (Welcome Corps program) without agency support. Plus their volunteer sponsors who also don't know the vocabulary. ~60-100K arrivals/year (cap-dependent), ~10-20K via community sponsorship; combined ~150-200K including dependents.
Reasoning
Source signals
- SIG-20260426-us-newcomer-navigator-refugee-language-benefits-vocab: "they did not say the magic word: Welfare … they don't know the vocabulary"
- SIG-20260426-us-newcomer-navigator-refugee-resettlement-fragmented-handoff: "agencies … overstretched … further outsourced … never before sought housing or enrolled kids in school" — $2275 per refugee budget
What we ship
**Core features (MVP)**
- **Eligibility Self-Check**: input (household composition, immigration status — refugee/asylee/SIV/parolee, state, monthly income, children yes/no, pregnant yes/no) → output (likely-eligible programs SNAP, TANF, RCA, Medicaid, WIC, LIHEAP, EITC, SSI, school meals — explicit English names)
- **Magic Words Card**: per-program "exact English words to say at the office" + audio playback of pronunciation
- **Scripted Q&A**: 30-50 typical caseworker questions ("Do you have proof of address?" / "Bring a phone bill") with cultural translation ("a phone bill is paper from the company that provides phone service — can be your friend's phone if you live there") in 12 languages
- **Document Checklist**: per-program "what to bring" — tailored for refugee context (no SSN-card → bring I-94 + EAD; no utility bills → bring lease + benefits letter)
- **State-by-state TANF/RCA Differences**: Wilson-Fish state vs state-administered (8 Wilson-Fish states have different RCA rules)
- **Volunteer Sponsor Mode**: parallel simplified UI for Welcome Corps sponsors / volunteers — same content framed as "what to tell your sponsored family"
**Launch languages (MVP)**: Pashto, Dari, Ukrainian, Russian, Arabic, Spanish, Haitian Creole, Burmese, Swahili, French, Mandarin, Tigrinya (12 languages — ~90% of recent arrivals).
**Primary user flow**
1. Multi-language landing with language selector top-right: "Know the word. Get the benefit."
2. Free Self-Check (refugee + sponsor both free): 5-question quiz → likely-eligible programs list
3. Magic Words Card (free) → scripted Q&A (free) → document checklist (free) — ALL refugee-facing features free forever
4. Sponsoring orgs / community-coordinator orgs (Welcome Corps groups, IRC volunteers, church sponsorship circles) subscribe to Region License $99/mo per state — admin panel + usage analytics + ability to add region-specific resources + multi-volunteer dashboard
5. Optional white-label deployment for resettlement agencies $299/mo
**What it looks like**
- **Landing page**: hero in 12 languages "Know the word. Get the benefit." + cohort imagery (Afghan family, Ukrainian mother, Welcome Corps sponsor) + language picker
- **Main app screen**: 3 large cards (Self-Check / Magic Words / Document Checklist), each opens to bilingual EN + native-language pane
- **Output**: printable PDF "Your Benefits Plan" in native language + EN scripts (for the office) + sponsor PDF "What to tell your family this week"
**MVP build plan (13 days)**
- Day 1-3: backend (User, Household, EligibilityRule, Program, MagicWord, ScriptedQA, Audio, Region), JWT, audio storage
- Day 4-7: 12-language i18n scaffold + Claude Sonnet translation pipeline (cultural, not literal — reviewed by sponsoring-org partners)
- Day 8-9: eligibility-rule engine for 8 federal programs + state-by-state Wilson-Fish flag
- Day 10-11: Magic Words audio (Twilio Voice TTS + curated native-speaker recordings)
- Day 12: Stripe Connect for sponsoring-org subscription ($99/mo region license)
- Day 13: deploy + soft launch with Welcome Corps groups (3 pilot orgs: church sponsorship circles)
Reasoning
Double-confirmed pain: 2 SIGs in 18 (language vocabulary + fragmented handoff), both HIGH quality and RECURRING with a 25-year documentation trail (CityLimits 2000, HuffPost 2016, ProPublica 2022, Fremont Tribune 2026) — structural, not transient. Cohort 60-100K arrivals/year + 10-20K community-sponsored + 1-2 sponsors per family = ~150-200K stakeholders. Marketplace_fee monetization fits perfectly: refugees use everything free (nothing to extract from them), sponsoring orgs (church sponsorship circles, Welcome Corps groups, volunteer-driven nonprofits) pay $99/mo Region License — in line with their existing budget for CRM and dashboard subscriptions. Stack fit clean: i18n + audio playback (TTS + curated) + Stripe Connect for marketplace fee. NOT immigration advice (we don't opine on "should you apply for asylum"), NOT legal advocacy (defer to accredited legal services). Strictly orientation/translation. White-space obvious: USA.gov has an EN navigator but doesn't address vocabulary gap; ProPublica has documented the problem for 25+ years but no one built a self-serve tool. Welcome Corps (launched 2023) creates urgent demand for self-serve volunteer onboarding.
Quick competitive read
Quick brave-search:
- **USA.gov benefits navigator**: EN-only, doesn't address vocabulary gap, not cohort-specific
- **CitizenShipper / Boundless / Path To Citizenship**: paid immigration services, not benefits
- **IRC / USCRI / Catholic Charities / HIAS**: case-management orgs (overstretched, $2275 per refugee — no tooling budget)
- **Welcome.US / Welcome Corps**: gov-NGO program, but no self-serve volunteer toolkit
- **r/Refugees / r/RefugeeAid**: community boards
- **Talking Points Memo / Civita / Path**: tangentially adjacent multilingual social services
- White-space: self-serve eligibility checker + magic-words card + 12-lang scripted Q&A — no direct competitor (competitive_pressure 8-9/10)
Initial pricing hypothesis
Refugee-facing tier — FREE forever. Sponsoring Org tier — $99/mo per state Region License (admin dashboard + analytics + ability to add state-specific resources). White-label tier for resettlement agencies — $299/mo per agency. Estimate: 200-500 paying orgs within first 12 months = $20-50K MRR. Long-term: government grant tier (HHS/ACF refugee assistance grants) and philanthropic donor support (donate-a-region buttons on landing).
Distribution hypothesis
1. Welcome Corps program partnerships (launched 2023, ~10K active sponsoring circles by 2026) — embedded in their volunteer onboarding emails
2. Direct outreach to 9 federal Resettlement Agencies (IRC, USCRI, HIAS, Catholic Charities, Church World Service, Episcopal Migration Ministries, LIRS, World Relief, ECDC) with pilot Region License
3. Religious community sponsorship coordinators (LDS, Catholic Charities local, Jewish Family Services, Islamic Relief)
4. Programmatic SEO: "what to say at SNAP office refugee" + "TANF for refugees [state]" + "Welcome Corps sponsor checklist" landing pages
5. Multilingual social media ambassadors from existing refugee communities (Afghan-American TikTok influencers, Ukrainian Telegram channels, etc.)
Source signals (2)
SIG-20260426-us-newcomer-navigator-refugee-resettlement-fragmented-handoff:SIG-20260426-us-newcomer-navigator-refugee-language-benefits-vocab: