OFA Project IMPROVE
About Project IMPROVE
Project IMPROVE, funded by the Office of Family Assistance, aims to bridge the gap between human services research and practice. Through IMPROVE, Mathematica collaborates with TANF practitioners, empowering them to incorporate research findings and methods into their work in order to better serve families in need. Specifically, Project IMPROVE works through the Learn, Innovate, Improve framework (or LI2), which includes a series of evidence-informed program improvement activities and analytic methods to help programs design, implement, and iteratively test and refine program changes. Project IMPROVE has helped programs strengthen practice areas such as leadership and supervision, coaching, science-informed goal pursuit, rapid-cycle evaluation, behavioral insights to streamline policies and procedures, and business process management.
State and local leaders who administer programs like Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) often face challenges associated with improving their services to help lift families out of poverty. This new video, which Mathematica developed for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), depicts how a program improvement approach—known as Rapid-Cycle Evaluation—can provide program leaders with evidence about what works to improve services. With this approach, program administrators can use the data they already collect to generate timely evidence that informs service delivery by addressing the unique circumstances of TANF recipients.
Leaders in TANF and related programs operate in a complex, rapidly changing service environment. In fall 2022, OFA’s Project IMPROVE launched a nationwide Leadership Initiative to support leaders and emerging leaders from state, local, and Tribal TANF and related programs. The Leadership Initiative covered strategic and visionary leadership, tools for managing change and continuous improvement, operational management, supporting and advancing leaders of color, developmental supervision, and changing culture and practice. This brief summarizes the Initiative and links to slides of the...
Millions of food and cash assistance customers rely on cash transfers each month to meet their family’s needs. Much of today’s benefits available to families are deposited directly onto electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards that are assigned to customers. EBT card skimming is a growing challenge to TANF and SNAP participants, putting them at risk of losing crucial benefits. Challenges related to protecting beneficiaries from theft have taken on significance for human services programs as they seek to improve the level of customer protections similar to those afforded credit card...
Survivors of intimate partner violence (IPV) are overrepresented among people who receive TANF services. In recognition of National Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Office of Family Assistance Project IMPROVE team hosted a webinar on October 26, 2022. The webinar featured a panel of TANF leaders and their system partners who are integrating IPV services with services from TANF and other programs which support low-income families to improve long-term outcomes for children and adults. Panelists presented a continuum of strategies to address IPV and highlighted the realities of what...
The Office of Family Assistance’s Project IMPROVE team hosted a webinar entitled Building Resilience and Reducing Trauma in TANF and Workforce Programs Leaders and Staff on August 25, 2022. This webinar was designed to support TANF agencies across the country as they manage staff trauma and improve resilience in public human service and workforce systems. Project IMPROVE has assembled a panel of experts on trauma-informed care and two TANF program directors from the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA), who are applying these principles and practices in cultivating...
The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has published several resources under Project SPARK and ...
TANF agencies across the country are preparing to or beginning to reinstate participation requirements that had been waived during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Office of Family Assistance’s Project IMPROVE team moderated a panel of TANF leaders across the country on this topic on July 21, 2022. In this evolving service context, this webinar provided space for TANF leaders and staff across the country to share experiences, challenges, and lessons around participant engagement in TANF work activities. Panelists shared their plans for supporting staff and program participants...
This brief outlines how New York City’s Human Resources Administration (HRA) successfully restructured its upfront assessment process for individuals receiving Cash Assistance by utilizing data-driven reflection. In particular, HRA used a method called Learn, Innovate, Improve, an approach that supports rapid agency changes and ongoing improvement through the incorporation of data-informed reflection into the process of evaluating and refining solutions. HRA found that implementing this collaborative, evidence-based decision-making technique is both feasible and effective.
This brief describes how Iowa’s Family Development and Self-Sufficiency (FaDSS) program used a data-driven reflection process to understand how well virtual coaching is meeting the needs of families. The brief also examines whether families may want a mix of remote and in-person coaching options in the future. It describes lessons learned through this process and aims to help TANF and other human services agencies generate ideas on how to use data-driven reflection to make decisions in their own organizations.
Drawing on the partnership experience between Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Employment Development, MOED’s Workforce Reception Center, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and Mathematica, this brief describes lessons learned and potential strategies that technical assistance providers can use to encourage successful public-private partnerships, as well as highlights considerations for funders of similar initiatives. This 5-page brief is for foundations or other private organizations that provide technical assistance to programs as they make changes to their program. Mathematica and MOED...
This brief captures staff experiences, successes, lessons learned, and recommendations from designing and implementing a transitional jobs program called Baltimore Health Corps (BHC). Designed by the Mayor’s Office for Employment Development (MOED), Baltimore City Health Department, and other community partners, BHC is a transitional jobs program for unemployed and underemployed city residents in response to the COVID-19 global pandemic. This 5-page brief is for leaders and frontline staff who are thinking about or implementing a program change and want to draw inspiration and lessons from...