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.

On June 24, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar that explored the promise and potential of career pathways practices tailored for TANF participants and other low-income, low-skilled individuals and those with barriers to employment. This webinar, "Program Flexibility, Career Pathways, and Improving Employment Outcomes for TANF Participants" featured experts from the field and TANF program representatives who highlighted how to maximize regulatory flexibility to implement career pathways, while strengthening the employment opportunities of participants.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) requested TA from the PeerTA Network to assist in training their TANF and child welfare staff on the wraparound case management process – an intensive, individualized care management process for individuals with complex behavioral needs and/or significant work barriers. CTSI requested a site visit in which an outside trainer visited the Tribal agency to provide wraparound training. OFA PeerTA supported a facilitated site visit for the Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services, School of Social Work, Portland State University to provide CTSI with a 3-4 day onsite training focusing on wraparound case management.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application data for the first, second, third, and fourth quarters of Fiscal Year (FY) 2014. In the fourth quarter of FY 2014, there was a monthly average of 1.60 million families receiving TANF and Separate State Program (SSP) assistance, representing approximately 3.8 million recipients. The monthly average number of TANF applications received in the fourth quarter of FY 2014 was 286,916.

On Tuesday, January 13, 2015 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. EST, the Administration for Children and Families' Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar demonstrating West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources' Reporting and Formatting Tool (RAFT) and Data Dashboard. The RAFT system is an integrated eligibility data warehouse and analytic platform that extracts, transforms, and loads case demographic, eligibility, and benefit information from a variety of public assistance programs (including SNAP, WV Works, Medicaid, School Clothing Allowance, CHIP, Emergency Assistance, and LIEAP) to support worker and management level reporting. This webinar showcased the RAFT and how it was designed and specifically highlighted the user-friendly dashboard system through a live demonstration.

On August 5-6, 2014 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the Tribal TANF Leadership Symposium in Washington, District of Columbia. This Symposium brought together Tribal Council members and leaders from the 65 tribes operating Tribal TANF programs across the United States, along with experts from the field, to share innovative strategies and updates related to Tribal TANF program implementation and collaboration. Over the course of the two-day meeting, participants had the opportunity to attend plenary sessions and workshops, dialogue with ACF and OFA leadership, and network with peers.

The Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network responded to a technical assistance request from the Connecticut Department of Social Services in June and July 2014. Connecticut's technical assistance request focused on understanding how other states have restructured or redesigned their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) service delivery, intake process flows, participant engagement, and service coordination. Eight states were identified as having recently restructured various components of their TANF programs and were engaged in semi-structured conversations by Peer TA Network staff around their processes, procedures, lessons learned, and other information, including assessment, engagement of participants, case management, and service coordination. The eight states interviewed include: California, Colorado, District of Columbia, Hawaii, North Carolina, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin.

On December 11, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance hosted the Online Data Collection Introduction to the TANF 196-R for State Data Personnel webinar. The webinar provided information about the changes with the ACF 196 form. The ACF-196R form was developed to improve financial management and track expenditures and related costs for the TANF program. The webinar provided an overview of the form and online data collection system. Speakers included: Patrick Wells, Director, Division of Mandatory Grants; Peter Germanis, National Expert, Office of Family Assistance; and Anna-Lisa Walters, Senior Training Expert, Synectics for Management Decisions, Inc.