The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy II that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October, 26-29 2003 to continue partnerships and foster collaboration to improve service delivery and TANF implementation for families residing in urban areas.

The capstone event for the Rural Communities Initiative was the Rural Leadership Forum that took place in Charleston, South Carolina on September 1-2, 2009. Representatives from the 16 rural TANF sites met to share lessons learned; explore leadership and sustainability plans; and discuss successes garnered and challenges encountered from the implementation of the Rural TANF sites’ TA plans over the past year.

The Rural Communities Academy was the "kick off" event for the 16 selected rural sites and included time for each rural site team (consisting of four/five team members) to participate in information gathering, networking, and action planning. The team members who attended the Academy participated in workshops and plenary sessions, and met with Rural Content Specialists and representatives from other rural communities who shared their insight into strategies being utilized in rural areas with TANF participants.

This was a session at the Urban Partnerships Initiative's National Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Chicago and Houston city partners shared strategies from their cities on getting to full engagement through integrated case management teams.

During this session of the Urban Partnerships National Academy, Baltimore city participants offered information to other partner cities on developing internal quality assurance models within their TANF programs.

This Webinar took place on February 11, 2009 and included presentations from John Squires, Executive Director, Community Resource Group, Donna Shaunsesy, JAUNT Program, Virginia, and Sandy Conner, Workforce Transportation and Referral Center/Transportation Institute Partnership, Maryland.

This is a breakout session from the Rural Communities Initiative Academy.

The Rural Transportation Roundtable was held January 27-28, 2009 in Charleston, West Virginia. Attendees included representatives from seven of the Rural Communities Initiative Sites and various content specialists. One of the key challenges and issues facing rural TANF agencies and organizations is providing reliable and cost effective transportation. The purpose of the Rural Transportation Roundtable was for sites to learn more about additional programs in the field of rural transportation, resources on forming partnerships with local transportation stakeholders, and funding for these types of projects. Content faculty presented on lessons learned from current rural transportation models and participants had time to engage in action planning to develop programmatic and funding solutions to rural transportation challenges. Participants also conducted a site visit to the Good News Mountaineer Garage to see their service delivery model, their facilities, and meet with staff for a question and answer session.

This publication is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Family Assistance under contract with ICF International. Through the Urban Partnerships Initiative, this resource shows the outstanding efforts of ten cities to meet the needs of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The innovative practices highlighted in this piece can be applied in other urban areas throughout the Nation to enable other cities to write their own success story during the next decade of welfare reform.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Region III convened two strategic planning meetings in eastern Pennsylvania on February 12, 2004 and February 18, 2004 to provide information to county officials about the advantages of the Earned Income Tax Credit. This short summary provides a brief on the content of these meetings.