The Administration for Children and Families' Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII hosted a webinar, "TANF Children Endangered by Drug Use" on Tuesday, August 12, 2014 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EDT. This webinar was the first in the 2014 Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII Tribal TANF webinar series: "Addressing the Needs of Children." It addressed the growing issue of protecting children in environments of increasing drug use. Key topics included: identifying when a child is exposed to drug use in his/her home; implementing processes for addressing the needs of drug endangered children; and strategies for keeping a child's life stable when his/her family is unstable.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance Region VIII held the 2014 ACF Region VIII State Meeting, entitled “Collaboration and Innovation: Keys to Engaging TANF Customers” on September 18 - 19, 2014 in Denver, Colorado. This meeting brought together Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program directors and staff from six States to learn strategies, engage in strategic dialogue, and build linkages with peers to improve program outcomes and promote economic and social independence for individuals, children, and families. During the meeting, State representatives had opportunities to share promising practices in collaborating with State, local, and community agencies to successfully serve TANF participants. There was also a State of the State’s Panel Discussion with ACF/OFA leadership. Meeting attendees also heard from subject matter experts in the areas of program performance, employment outcomes and career pathways, kinship care and home visiting programs, housing and homelessness issues, supporting refugee populations, assisting victims of human trafficking, and engaging rural communities, among others. This interactive and collaborative event allowed for rich discussion and training opportunities.

In response to a technical assistance request from the Minnesota Department of Human Services pertaining to gaining a more clear understanding of the different state supervised/county administered models, the Peer Technical Assistance Network organized a peer-to-peer roundtable in Chicago, Illinois on July 18-19, 2012 with directors and staff from state supervised/county administered Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs. This report describes the technical assistance request and response, as well as the overall findings from the roundtable event and lays out potential recommendations for future discussions about the state supervised/county administered structure.

On Wednesday, May 7, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance's Peer TA Network, along with partners from the U.S. Departments of Labor, and Housing and Urban Development, hosted the Investing in Youth and the Community: Summer Youth Employment Programs Webinar. This Webinar explored emerging initiatives, partnerships, and strategies for implementing summer youth employment programs. The Webinar highlighted federal, state, private, and public services available to engage youth in summer employment, while also providing TANF-serving organizations and other stakeholders with the opportunity to learn how to engage various partners in support of summer youth employment activities. Presenters included representatives from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Brandeis University's Center for Youth and Communities, and the Denver Public Housing Authority's Youth Employment Academy.

 

As a followup to this presentation, OFA created a series of Summer Youth Employment Program Profiles – providing more in-depth information on the background, program model, lessons learned, outcomes, and successes for a number of programs engaging youth in summer employment. These profiles highlight the activities of the City of Richmond, Department of Employment and Training's YouthWORKS Division; the City of Buffalo, Buffalo Employment and Training Center; and the Denver Housing Authority’s Youth Employment Academy.

The OFA Regions VI & VIII TANF Webinar Series: TANF Data Reporting and Analysis Webinar # 3: Using Research to Inform Practice: ACF's Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Research Consortium (FSSRC), was held on September 12, 2013. The webinar, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Regions VI & VIII, featured Mr. Brendan Kelly, a Senior Social Science Research Analyst and the Dissemination Team Leader in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE); Dr. Michelle Derr, a Senior Researcher at Mathematica Policy Research; and Ms. Kinsey Dinan, the Deputy Director of the New York City Human Resources Administration's Office of Evaluation and Research. Speakers provided an overview of the structure of and opportunities available through the three components of ACF, OPRE, FSSRC including the Scholar's Network, Data Center, and Project AWESOME. The webinar also included a discussion of how State and local program administrators can work with in-house researchers to gain insight into the impact of their programming.

The second webinar in the 2013 Regions VI & VIII TANF Webinar Series: TANF Data Reporting and Analysis was held on August 1, 2013. The webinar, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Regions VI and VIII, was open to all Region VI and VIII State TANF Directors and staff, local TANF agencies, and contractors and highlighted Julie Siegel as the featured speaker. Ms. Siegel is a Program Specialist at ACF's Office of Family Assistance who works in the TANF State Policy Division, focusing primarily on policy relating to work activities, work participation rates, and caseload reduction credits. During her presentation, Ms. Siegel focused on the important role that the caseload reduction credit plays in the TANF work participation rate process, including how the credit is calculated, how eligibility changes affect the credit, and how the excess maintenance of effort spending affects the state's work participation rate. Ms. Siegel was joined during the presentation by her colleague Peter Germanis, Senior Policy Advisor/National Expert at ACF's Office of Family Assistance.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Division of Tribal TANF Management hosted the first national Tribal TANF Summit to Improve Program Performance and Strengthen Native Families on August 12-14, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The workshop focused on Tribal TANF program administration and participant engagement. Experts from the field shared information on a variety of topics including: career pathways and subsidized employment, TANF policies and procedures, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, opportunities for economic development, and effective prevention and treatment programs for substance abuse and co-occurring disorders.

On August 14 and 15, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII convened the 2012 Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII Tribal TANF Workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. Designed to bring together Tribal TANF program directors and other key stakeholders, this workshop focused on the dual issues of effectively providing services to Tribal families in a recovering economy and helping TANF participants achieve self-sufficiency. Workshop attendees were provided with opportunities to strategically engage with their peers in order to share promising practices and the latest research, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families. Over the course of the day and a half workshop a number of specific topics were covered including: Dialogue with the OFA Division of Tribal TANF Management; Youth Programming and Summer Youth Employment; Subsidized Employment Programs and Employer Engagement; Use of Skill-Building Activities; Audits, Financial and Grants Management, and Data Reporting; Collaboration with Child Support Enforcement and Child Welfare; and Financial Literacy and Asset Building. The wide reach of the workshop was evident with 24 Tribes represented from four OFA Regions. During the workshop, Tribal TANF program representatives also spent time networking and dialoguing on their program strengths, challenges, partnerships, and program policies/integrity, to garner new and innovative ideas from others for serving their TANF participants.

On October 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) convened an orientation meeting in Washington, D.C. for the Promising Pathways Initiative. The three primary meeting goals of the Promising Pathways All-Site Orientation Meeting were to orient site representatives to the Promising Pathways Initiative, provide hands-on, interactive training for site coordinators on how to define and document their practice using logic models, and plan the first intensive full team site visit. Participants included one or two representatives from each of the ten selected Promising Pathways sites, OFA staff, and ICF International site coaches and team staff. This executive summary describes the proceedings of the All-Site Orientation Meeting and includes the meeting agenda, participant list, and materials as appendices.

The Chippewa Cree Tribal TANF program operates on the Rocky Boy Reservation in northern Montana. At the request of Elaine Topsky (TANF Director for the Chippewa Cree Tribal TANF Program), the WPTA Network hosted a webinar for Ms. Topsky’s staff that addressed Wraparound services and how to use them effectively to best help Tribal TANF participants. The Wraparound approach is an outcome based approach that “ties the goals of the plan to observable or measurable indicators of success."

One of the key components of Wraparound services is that the program is “specialized to the unique needs of the child and their family.” The program utilizes the family, their community, case manager, and others to serve as sources of trust, collaborators who share the responsibility of accountability, and teammates who offer unconditional care. Through the duration of the Wraparound services, the case manager, who is often the facilitator, will help the family discover their strengths and determine their needs, at the same time helping the family set goals and develop strong options for their success. The WPTA Network engaged Dr. Geni Cowan of Eagle Blue Associates to facilitate the training.