Fact / Tip Sheet
This tip sheet identifies five tips that support program staff members’ effectiveness while offering high-quality services to participants in a virtual environment. The tips also provide guidance on protecting participant confidentiality, which is a principal challenge in remote communications. These tips cover how practitioners can create a plan for remote service delivery, connect with participants, set up staff members for success at home, maximize participant engagement, and adjust plans to support staff members as needed.
June, 2020
Stakeholder Resource
The National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics is hosting a series of virtual workshops that address research on topics of interest to human service professionals throughout the summer. Future workshops will cover Machine Learning in Human Services Contexts, Cross-System Collaboration to Serve Justice-Involved Clients, and the Family First Prevention Services Act. Recordings of previously held workshops on TANF Responses to COVID-19 and Domestic Violence during COVID-19 are available.
May, 2020
Fact / Tip Sheet
This fact sheet illustrates how Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio offered non-recurrent short-term TANF benefits as flexible responses to address the needs of TANF-eligible populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sheet also briefly notes how Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida have implemented flexible adaptions to TANF work requirements. SNAP approved waivers are also highlighted.
May, 2020
Webinar / Webcast
The National Association for Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) held the first session of the NAWRS 2020 Virtual Workshop Series on April 29, 2020. This session brought together four state TANF representatives from Alabama, Colorado, Vermont, and Washington State to discuss TANF programs and the persons they serve. In light of the COVID-19 pandemic, the panelists discussed changes in caseloads and policy changes, the transition to a virtual environment for operations and service delivery, and the key challenges that TANF clients now face.
April, 2020
Toolkit
This toolkit offers steps and guidance on how to use virtual communications for client engagement and internal staff management. Information is provided for voice and conference calls using Google Voice, FreeConferenceCall.com, and Google Hangouts; video conferencing using Zoom and WebEx; creating and sharing documents with Google Drive and Microsoft Office 365; and internal messaging using Slack and Google Hangouts Chat.
April, 2020
Fact / Tip Sheet
This fact sheet shows how a non-recurrent short-term benefit program could operate in Georgia in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of how non-recurrent benefits might address emergency situations are presented and include short-term benefits to make up for lost wages, short-term rental or mortgage assistance, utility and energy assistance, housing search and placement services, and family support services.
April, 2020
Webinar / Webcast
The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison will host a webinar on April 1, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT to discuss the relationships that human services programs develop with the participants they serve, as well as the relationships that programs help participants develop outside their organizations. Speakers from the Yale Schools of Medicine and Public Health, the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S.
April, 2020
Research-To-Practice Brief
This issue brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers guidance on how to implement virtual case management in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic guidelines for social distancing. These considerations include how to identify appropriate technology, how to provide training to caseworkers and clients on the use of the identified technology, and how to incorporate privacy concerns and information sharing among systems in a virtual environment.
April, 2020
Research-To-Practice Brief
This research-to-practice brief profiles a needs assessment of TANF child-only cases undertaken as part of the Office of Family Assistance’s Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement (ASPIRE) project. Researchers first conducted a literature search and then select interviews with state and local TANF agency officials in California, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington State.
April, 2020
Research-To-Practice Brief
This brief notes key issues that state TANF agencies can consider when using TANF funds for families impacted by COVID-19. The brief also identifies five examples of program options these agencies might use to implement non-recurrent benefits drawn from current state TANF fund allocations.
March, 2020
