The Office of Family Assistance held a Webinar on Introduction to Social Capital on April 27, 2016 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT. Traditionally, attention has been focused on the human capital (education level; technical expertise; soft skills; hard skills) of TANF participants in order to improve their connection to and success in the labor market. Additional focus has been paid to an individual’s social capital (education, faith-based, neighborhood, cultural, and social networks; access to information and institutions; interpersonal interactions) and the important role it plays in improving employment and economic stability. Research has demonstrated that social capital provides valuable assets for families as they move out of poverty. Increasing a person’s potential for upward economic mobility involves strengthening three forms of capital that a person needs to possess: financial, human, and social. This webinar built upon the September 2015 Gateway to Opportunity: Improving Parental Employment and Family Well-Being Outcomes plenary session in Washington, D.C. 

Presenters for the Introduction Webinar on April 27th included: Dr. Natasha Pilkauskas, Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy, University of Michigan; and Andrew Freed, TANF Senior Manager, Cook Inlet Tribal Council.

The Office of Family Assistance held a Webinar on Integrating Two-Generation Strategies into TANF Programs on Thursday, April 28, 2016 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. EDT. The two-generation approach to serving low-income or disadvantaged families has seen renewed interest in recent years, with models focused on combining comprehensive, career-focused employment and training opportunities for parents with educational and enrichment opportunities for their children. However, state, territory, and tribal TANF program leadership and staff have suggested a need for more targeted TA and information around two-generation approaches and TANF integration and implementation strategies. In this facilitated webinar, presenters provided an overview of the policy components of an intentional two-generation approach and offered tools and resources that may be applicable to the audience’s TANF programs, wherever they lie on the two-generation continuum. Through a “Town Hall” format, presenters also provided planning, policy, and implementation strategies and lessons learned from their own experiences with two-generation integration.

Presenters included Dr. Monica Barczak, Senior Advisor, Administration for Children and Families; Peter Palermino, Program Manager, Economic Security Unit, State of Connecticut Department of Social Services; Elaine Zimmerman, Executive Director, Connecticut Commission on Children; Sisifo Taatiti, TANF Program Manager, Utah Department of Workforce Services; Tracy Gruber, Director of the Office of Child Care and Senior Advisor of the Intergenerational Poverty Initiative, Utah Department of Workforce Services; and Dr. Sharon McGroder, Program Director, Economic, Human Services & Workforce Division, Center for Best Practices, National Governors Association.

The OFA Peer TA Network developed Tribal TANF Community Assessment and Planning Tool is intended for federally recognized Indian Tribes interested in starting a Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. The Assessment is a practical tool designed to help Tribal community members consider critical issues, build a profile of their community, and outline any strengths to be leveraged or needs to be addressed prior to developing a Tribal TANF Letter of Intent (LOI) and plan. The Tool is intended for Tribes’ internal use only, and includes detailed questions regarding demographics, employment and training activities, partnership opportunities, Tribe infrastructure, and staff capacity. The Tool can be used to outline the Tribe’s current situation and highlight any gaps to address prior to developing a Tribal TANF LOI and future plan. The Tool also provides space for goal setting, which should be aimed at addressing identified gaps or needs; this process is essential for successful program development and implementation. The Tool is available in Word format and can be completed in paper or electronic form.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application data for fiscal year (FY) 2015. The data includes families receiving assistance through state TANF and Separate State Program Maintenance-of-Effort (SSP-MOE). In FY 2015, there was a monthly average of 1.6 million families receiving TANF & SSP-MOE assistance, representing approximately 4.1 million recipients. This was a slight decline of 1.1 percent compared to the prior fiscal year. The monthly average number of TANF applications received in FY 2015 was 267,650.

These resources collected by the Systems to Family Stability National Policy Academy discuss various tools for assessing family functioning in welfare or healthcare settings. Some of the measures that are used to assess family functioning and relationships by practitioners are also discussed. Additional information is provided about agencies that are using whole-family assessments to take a family-focused approach to service delivery.

The Systems to Family Stability National Policy Academy (Policy Academy) is an 18-month initiative sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. Through the Policy Academy, eight teams are designing and building collaborative systems within and across agencies to improve family economic security. The Policy Academy has three primary objectives:

1) Build career pathways through job-driven training and alignment of TANF and workforce systems;
2) Improve business processes and systems coordination; and
3) Enhance case management by understanding brain science and applying two-generation approaches.

The TANF/WIOA Learning Community is an initiative sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. Developed in response to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which offers an opportunity for significant and improved collaboration between workforce agencies and partners such as TANF, the community brings together seven teams from states across the country to explore strategies for successful integration of TANF and workforce programs. Through the initiative, teams focus on WIOA planning and implementation strategies ranging from creation of a common vision to on-the-ground implementation. The learning community kicked off in September 2015 with a Peer Exchange Workshop and continues through 2016 with ongoing technical assistance including webinars, conference calls, peer-to-peer support, and resource sharing.