On August 14-16, 2017, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the 2017 Linking TANF Families to Employment and Economic Opportunities Meeting, which brought together TANF administrators, stakeholders, and leaders to discuss the current successes and challenges facing TANF programs. For those who were unable to attend, OFA livestreamed the meeting’s plenary sessions to ensure that the vital information and promising practices were shared to a wider audience.   

Plenaries streamed included Reimagining TANF and the Human Services with remarks by Steven Wagner, Assistant Acting Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families, and The American Safety Net – Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow, which featured a panel comprised of Clarence H. Carter, Director of OFA, Robert Doar, Morgridge Fellow in Poverty Studies for the American Enterprise Institute, and Susan Dreyfus, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Alliance for Strong Families and Communities.

Mr. Carter also moderated the Examples of Employment Excellence plenary discussion, which featured four organizations from across the nation that have successfully increased employment outcomes for various hard-to-employ populations. Finally, the meeting closed with the TANF/WIOA Integration – State and County Innovation in Action plenary, highlighting the efforts of three states (Maryland, Massachusetts, and Missouri) to develop workforce partnerships that help meet the needs of individuals, families, and employers.

The 2016 Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Region I (Boston), Region II (New York), Region III (Philadelphia), and Region IV (Atlanta) East Coast TANF Directors Meeting was held on July 12‐14, 2016, in Providence, Rhode Island. The theme, Reflecting on the Past: Looking Forward to the Future, was an opportunity for TANF program directors and other key stakeholders to engage with peers about innovative ideas, strategies, and collaborations that promote economic and social well‐being for individuals, families, and communities. Meeting participants engaged with OFA leadership, their peers, and experts in the field to discuss some of the pressing challenges facing TANF participants and low‐income, vulnerable families today and ways that TANF programs can serve as a comprehensive support system for these families. Sessions focused on two‐generation approaches to breaking the cycle of poverty, TANF/WIOA coordination and implementation, career pathways and apprenticeships, targeting the hard‐to‐serve and executive functioning, and additional opportunities for TANF programs in 2016 and beyond. The context of these discussions was grounded in using data to measure program effectiveness and drive decision‐making.

Kentucky has been providing education-focused and work participation-driven case management to the TANF population since 1998. The TA Requestor, Ms. Shauna King-Simms, Director of Transitional Education Programs at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) heard a description of Crittenton Women’s Union’s (CWU’s) Mobility Mentoring® Model and was interested in integrating components of it into Kentucky’s program. Kentucky conducts similar case management activities with its Ready to Work and Work and Learn programs, but was interested in enhancing the current practices using this model. CWU is an economic mobility organization and the largest provider of transitional housing for homeless families in the greater Boston area. The organization provides job readiness training, parenting programs, and adult education. Almost 1,300 individuals are served each year. Ninety-two percent have a high school education or less. CWU’s clients are largely TANF participants with average earnings of $730 per month per family and the population is racially diverse. Their Mobility Mentoring® Model is the long-term developmental partnership between trained staff and program participants through which participants acquire the resources, knowledge, and skills necessary to attain and preserve economic independence.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services requested TA to support the integration of components of CWU’s Mobility Mentoring® Model for case management. The OFA PeerTA team agreed to support this request and created a TA plan with the following objectives:

• Collaborate with CWU to provide Kentucky with a tailored, two-day training on CWU’s Mobility Mentoring® Model for their Ready to Work staff at the KCTCS system office in Versailles, Kentucky. The training was prepared to accommodate approximately 45 Kentucky Ready to Work staff and three staff from the Department for Community Based Services (a Kentucky TANF agency), with a maximum of 50 participants in total.
• Support an outcomes-focused training that encourages implementation and sustainability of what is learned, so Kentucky can integrate the core concepts learned into their program(s) at a statewide level.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), hosted the Gateway to Opportunity: Improving Parental Employment and Family Well-Being Outcomes national TANF convening on September 1 – September 3, 2015 at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Downtown Hotel. The convening brought together TANF program administrators and national experts to promote dialogue around topics such as job-driven and career pathways training, TANF-WIOA coordination, client assessment and case management strengthening, the role of executive skills in employment outcomes, and two-generation approaches to family economic security. Gateway to Opportunity: Improving Parental Employment and Family Well-Being Outcomes provided attendees with opportunities to engage with their peers and experts from the field, to discuss best practices and the latest research, to converse with federal commissioners and ACF staff, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families in their communities.