The Office of Family Assistance published data tables which cover TANF and maintenance-of-effort (MOE) separate state program caseloads by state and at the national level from October 2017 through December 2018. The tables are cross-tabbed to include total recipients, total families, total children, one-parent families, two-parent families, no parent families, adults, and monthly caseload data.

The Office of Family Assistance convened a webinar on November 13, 2018 to introduce two documents – the TANF Introduction Grantee Guide and the TANF SF-424M Grantee Guide – created by an Administration for Children and Families workgroup to facilitate the process of submitting the SF-424M cover document for Plans, Amendments, and Annual Reports via GrantSolutions’ Online Data Collection (OLDC). The webinar included a live demonstration of validating, certifying, and submitting the cover document in the OLDC environment.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), held the Policy Academy for Innovative Employment Strategies (PAIES) Kickoff Meeting in Arlington, Virginia on January 7-9, 2019. Through PAIES, state teams receive 18 months of coaching and technical assistance to help design, plan, and implement innovative and comprehensive approaches to increase employment outcomes for TANF participants through coaching and career pathways. Working with ACF staff, local evaluators, and other partners, coaching teams work to move from traditional case management models to coaching models in local TANF programs, and career pathways teams strive to improve career pathways through the provision of training, work experience, and support services.  

The PAIES kickoff meeting provided an in-person opportunity for coaching and career pathways teams from across the U.S. to meet with each other, their coaches, subject matter experts, and federal and contract staff. Objectives of the meeting were to: share promising and research-informed practices in coaching, career pathways, organizational culture, and change management; discuss key levers and processes to implement, evaluate, and monitor PAIES activities; support dedicated team times, peer exchanges, and expert consultations to inform action planning; and lay the foundation for team work over the course of PAIES with coaching, expert consultation, and other supports.

 

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) presents a set of 14 videos which profile participants who completed training programs and have moved into economic independence from public assistance to employment. These success stories demonstrate that OFA programs are making a meaningful difference in people’s lives across the country.

This Office of Family Assistance-sponsored webinar on February 26, 2019 discussed the complexities of engaging two-parent families in TANF, and featured strategies to improve employment outcomes through relationship education. Representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Insight Policy Research, Public Strategies and the Urban Institute participated.

Federal benefits programs, such as TANF and SNAP, and tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit, can help encourage work and reduce poverty among working families. In the 2016 tax year, almost 26 million working families and individuals in every state received the EITC, which is available to low- and moderate-income families and individuals. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), families often use these credits to pay for necessities, repair homes or vehicles, and in some cases, obtain additional education or training to boost their employability and earnings. Additionally, research indicates that children in families receiving the tax credits do better in school, are likelier to attend college, and earn more as adults. Looking at the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM), the Brookings Institution reports that these tax credits lowered the national poverty rate by three percent in 2015, equivalent to lifting 9.2 million people above the poverty line. Many states and municipalities also operate state tax credit and subsidy programs that can enhance the benefits associated with federal credits.

This facilitated webinar on January 30, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET shared how they use their state and local programs, strategies, and informational tools to deliver valuable services and disseminate information about the value of tax credits and their impacts on low-income, working families. Presenters discussed strategies for how TANF programs and others can promote and leverage these programs to support the families they work with.

This Office of Family Assistance-produced resource guide intends to support HPOG grantees’ ability to implement stronger employer engagement and employment services. The guide includes case studies and tools created as a result of the HPOG Employment Virtual Learning Cohort technical assistance activity that involved 10 HPOG grantees meeting virtually for learning opportunities.

The State Plan is a mandatory statement that states submit to the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); it is comprised of an outline describing how the state's TANF program will be administered, as well as certifications required by the state's Chief Executive Officer. States are required to submit new plans within a 27-month period. HHS/Administration for Children and Families (ACF) proposes to continue information collection without change, and copies of the proposed collection can be obtained by writing to ACF. The Office of Management and Budget is required to make a decision regarding the collection of information between 30 and 60 days after publication of this document in the Federal Register.

The Systems to Family Stability (SFS) National Academy was an OFA initiative that consisted of eight teams (comprised of state TANF agencies, OFA representatives, and subject matter experts) that were organized to design and build collaborative systems within and across agencies to improve family economic security. In this second of three videos that were produced as a result of this initiative, leaders from the SFS National Policy Academy offer advice and ideas on supporting change.

The Systems to Family Stability (SFS) National Academy was an OFA initiative that consisted of eight teams (comprised of state TANF agencies, OFA representatives, and subject matter experts) that were organized to design and build collaborative systems within and across agencies to improve family economic security. In this first of three videos that were produced as a result of this initiative, SFS National Policy Academy participants share practical tips and ideas based on how they implemented strategies to expand their agency's capacity and support system-wide changes.