Some of the unemployed claimants featured over the past few months in Spectrum Bay News 9 stories about Florida's broken system said the Department of Economic Opportunity fixed their problems within weeks.

"I got a lump sum within five working days. Which was awesome," said Doug Syphers, 56, from Clearwater. "I was able to get ahead of my bills."

Back in February, Syphers was nearly out of money due to a glitch that stopped his unemployment payments for two months. The Clearwater man said he was grateful for the media coverage and for the unemployment advocate we featured, Kelly Johnson, who helped him out a lot.

"I'm able to sleep a little better at night. I'm just really grateful for what you (Spectrum News) were able to do for me," said Syphers. ​"The unemployment advocate that helped me out, Kelly, she kind of stepped up and contacted her people."

Kelly Johnson started a Facebook page one year ago called "Action Group For Florida Unemployment and Reemployment." The Dunedin single mom was unemployed at the time and experienced the broken system first hand. 

That's why Johnson's still willing to help out strangers who are going through the same thing.

"I'm a very motivated individual when I find people that I can help," she said. "People like Doug, who are out there in the world, who need help, they cause me to step out of my skin to become this kind of brave advocate that I never even thought I was." 

Elizabeth Calderon, 50, from Hudson told us last December that she was near homelessness because of a glitch in the CONNECT system that caused her to miss out on more than two months of payments. Calderon said about three weeks after her story aired, the DEO deposited a lump sum back payment of nearly $4K into her account.

"I just want to (say) thank you to the people who are helping us trying to move forward with what's going on in the community," she said. "People like you guys and people like Kelly." 

Calderon said Johnson even brought her a turkey for Christmas knowing that she was surviving on the generosity of  food banks at the time.

"I seen that she went to Tarpon Springs with a truck with turkeys and I had just missed it," Calderon said. "I text her and she said 'Oh, OK, let's just meet here.'" ​

Johnson said she considers it an honor to help out people like Calderon.

"I just became kind of the bridge between her and the DEO," said Johnson. "It worked out and she was able to get paid."

Johnson said the DEO is very aware of their media coverage. She got on their radar after creating the Facebook group and doing a podcast about the unemployment problems.

"I said that the DEO, I felt, had done the very best with what they had been given," she said. "They watched that podcast and someone on the press team reached out to me."​

Johnson said it's impossible to track but estimates between her media coverage and Facebook group that she's helped thousands of Floridians over the past year.

"All of the claimants that I've been able to help, so many of them have been able to help me as well," she said. "As I've been able to gather data and research and try to figure out the things that we can all do to make our claims go smoother." 

Johnson returned to work at Okeefe's Tavern in Clearwater a couple of weeks ago but plans to still manage her unemployment page.