Helping 30K Workers Stay Connected During Unemployment:
A Case Study on How Empower Work and Visible Partnered to Support Workers
When workers lose a job, they lose more than income — they lose stability, confidence, and the ability to stay connected while they try to rebuild. Cell phones aren’t a “nice-to-have” during unemployment; they’re how people apply for jobs, schedule interviews, coordinate childcare, and ask for help.
Connection Protection is a partnership between Visible, powered by Verizon, and Empower Work designed to keep workers connected through job hardship. The program provides three months of subsidized Visible wireless service to eligible Visible members experiencing job loss, reduced hours, or other work hardships, and connects them to Empower Work’s confidential peer counseling via text to process the moment and take steps forward.
After 3 years, we’ve supported 30,000 workers — and 7 out of 10 participants report they were able to stay connected with potential employers.
“When money is tight, phone service is one of those things that can quietly become a crisis. Having that discount meant I could keep my phone on reliably, stay connected to job opportunities and important support, and not live with the constant anxiety of missing a call or message because my service got interrupted.”
“I was on the verge of sinking into a dark feeling. Speaking to that peer counselor gave me the confidence boost that I desperately needed at the time to know I have the abilities that I know that I have….I didn’t miss a beat.”
The Challenge
We saw an urgent and recurring barrier: when people experience job loss or reduced hours, or other work hardship, staying connected gets harder precisely when connection becomes most essential. Job searching, applying, interviewing, and getting support are increasingly mobile-first — and yet many people are one missed payment away from losing the phone service they depend on.
At the same time, job loss is not just logistical. It’s emotional. People often carry fear, shame, grief, or overwhelm — and those feelings can stall action at the exact moment forward motion matters.
So our question was twofold:
1. How do we keep people connected to opportunity (and prevent phone service from becoming another barrier)?
2. How do we support the human side of unemployment — the stress, uncertainty, and decision-making that comes with it? And the next steps back into work?
The Solution
Connection Protection is intentionally simple and designed for speed to meet workers where they are at in a moment of crisis and provide fast, seamless, tangible support.
Who it’s for: Existing Visible members on monthly plans who’ve completed their first monthly service payment, and who are experiencing job loss, reduced hours, or work hardship.
How it works: People apply online through Empower Work, applications are reviewed on a rolling basis, and applicants receive an update within three business days.
What people receive:
3 months of no-cost wireless service through Visible (with program-specific plan details), and
Empower Work’s peer counseling support via the worker text line—real-time, confidential support from trained peer counselors to help people process job loss, manage stress, and make a plan for what’s next.
Once approved, participants redeem a unique promo code in the Visible app/account, unlocking benefits right away.
Our Approach
From day one, we’ve built Connection Protection around three essentials: listening closely to workers, a trust first application, and reducing friction through smart automation so support is easier to access.
Listening built into the program
Listening didn’t just improve the program — it helped start it. Visible shared data about how essential mobile phones are during job search, and we were hearing directly from workers about how financial stress and everyday bills spike during job loss. That combination shaped both the program and how we designed the application experience.
User Experience research is built into Connection Protection from the start — not as a one-time study, but as an ongoing feedback loop that keeps the program responsive to real worker needs - with application surveys, 3-month outcome surveys, and 6-month outcome surveys.
Across these touchpoints, we gather input on the job hardship someone is facing, how it’s impacting them, what support would be most helpful, and what their biggest challenge is right now. That early listening also influenced what we consider “work hardship” in the application — not only job loss, but things like reduced hours, rescinded offers, and other disruptions that can quickly put someone’s phone service at risk.
These insights shape how we communicate, what resources we prioritize, and which parts of the experience we expand.
Trust-first, low-barrier application
Our audience is often applying while feeling overwhelmed and juggling a lot at once. We wanted the process to feel simple and respectful, so we designed a low-barrier application that leads with trust. In the application, we ask whether someone has experienced a job setback that has impacted them financially. If they say yes, we invite them to briefly share more about the hardship and how it has impacted them. We review and verify based on clear, specific information versus adding additional hardship barriers.
Automation to scale real human support
At scale, speed matters — and so does quality. We’ve approached automation as a way to reduce friction and expand access, while keeping the emotionally sensitive parts of the service (like peer counseling) grounded in real human support.
In practice, that means we’re working on automating parts of the application and approval workflow so eligible workers can be supported faster. We’ve also built an in-session AI assistant
that supports our peer counselors with real-time guidance and support — helping them manage conversations more efficiently and increase the number of help seekers they can support at once.
The Outcomes
30K workers reached
We’ve now reached 30,000 workers through Connection Protection over 3 years.
“Helped restore my faith in humanity & makes me feel like I actually matter & am cared for , which means more than you know , especially during an extremely vulnerable , sensitive , time in my life .”
Significant year over year increases with 2026 poised to be biggest year yet
The program has shown strong year-over-year growth, with 2026 on track to be our biggest year yet. This reflects both increased need of unfolding economic events and the trust and appreciation from members. Since launching in 2023, Connection Protection grew 244% in 2024 compared to our first year, and grew another 51% in 2025. So far in 2026, we’re on track for a third consecutive year of growth.
2023: nearly 3,000 workers approved
2024: over 10,600 workers approved
2025: more than 14,400 workers approved
2026 (projected): 21,000 workers approved
Real Impact
This partnership is designed to create both practical stability and emotional momentum — because job transitions are both. Just three months after starting Connection Protection, participants report progress like:
68% used their phone to search or apply for job opportunities
More than half secured a job interview
1 in 3 received a job offer
1 in 5 started a new job
“Being on the Connection Protection program helped me get on my feet without the added stress of a heavy phone bill. My new job, applied for with my phone, requires me to be on call so it was crucial to have a working phone number with voicemail. Not having the mental stress of another bill helped me focus on establishing myself in my new workplace. Now, I’m even up for promotion!”
“If I wasn’t offered this, I wouldn’t have been able to look for work and FINALLY able to get transportation!It’s been almost 7 years since I lost my job as a Fire Fighter for the local Fire Dept. and also lost my vehicle. Literally I was stuck in life and the help with my phone bill helped me get myself up and trying again. I have 2 interviews tomorrow and another next week!”
What We Learned
Texting reaches people email doesn’t
We learned that communication channel matters. About 55% of approved applicants never redeemed their codes — even though they applied because they needed the subsidized plan. At the time, our approval and outreach communications were email-only. Our hypothesis was simple: many people weren’t seeing the emails (crowded inboxes, spam filters, not checking email regularly, or incorrect email entries). So we added short text notifications at approval — and saw a 10% increase in applicant conversions within the first month.
Removing confusion when two partners are providing services
We also learned that when two partners are providing support, clarity is everything. Some Connection Protection participants were texting Empower Work with questions about their Visible accounts — assuming we were Visible customer service rather than peer counselors. We responded by identifying the most common questions and creating a clear landing page that answers them, including simple instructions for how to contact Visible support for account-specific issues. We also equipped peer counselors with quick templates and an easy redirect to the landing page so confusion could be resolved quickly and kindly.
Beyond the phone - housing, auto career resources that matter
Through UXR surveys, we found that many of the biggest barriers during job transitions go beyond phone service: 36% cited transportation as a top barrier, 28% cited unstable housing, and 24% cited lack of connections or networking. In response, we expanded our email communications and post-approval experience to include one vetted, trusted resource for each category, so help seekers could get support without cognitive overwhelm. Feedback showed over 20% of participants used the resources we shared.
Capturing small wins during a long job search
Our initial outcome survey focused on “big” milestones like receiving job offers, starting a job, or accepting a job. We realized that during a long (often six-month) job search, those metrics don’t capture the full range of progress people are making along the way. So we added smaller indicators of momentum — and found meaningful progress that we weren’t fully capturing before:
48% applied for jobs
39% networked with others
38% updated their resume
16% engaged in training or upskilling
Conclusions and Next Steps
Now that we’ve confirmed the need and reached the 30,000 mark, we’re focused on how to responsibly continue and deepen impact using automation and AI to make the experience smoother for workers, while keeping human empathy at the heart of our service.
In the near term, we’re exploring ways to reduce manual review time and speed up approvals, so more people can be approved quickly — and in many cases, instantly. We’re currently integrating AI into parts of the application process with the goal of reducing manual reviews from the applications which currently necessitate a 1–3 day wait period from application to approval.
Looking ahead, we’re also exploring deeper automation that could make the experience even more seamless — including the possibility of instant activation codes so eligible applicants can start using benefits immediately after applying.
We plan to release a Connection Protection Case Study: Part 2 this summer, which will focus specifically on what we learn from these automation and AI experiments — what worked, what didn’t, and how we’re approaching scale responsibly. (Link to be added once available.)