From the Brookings Institution, this article reviews the nationwide spending decisions for TANF block grants, with a focus on Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. Results indicate that all three States spent more funds on providing services and other benefits than on the actual cash assistance.

Between 1996 and May 2006, the TANF caseload has decreased 75%, leaving 65,000 families on the welfare caseload as of May 2006. While Texas has experienced a high rate of caseload decline, statistics show that many families have left welfare for reasons other than employment, including sanctioning due to noncompliance.

From the School of Social Work at the University of California–Berkley, this resource offers different perspectives of poverty throughout social science disciplines, including Economics, Sociology, Political Science, Psychology, and Anthropology. Additionally, this paper provides views of poverty held by students entering and exiting graduate social work programs, and provides an overview of staff training around welfare reform at a local social service agency.

This brief, from the Heritage Institute, outlines the objectives of the TANF program and progress towards meeting its goals. In the past ten years of welfare reform, authors argue that the legislation was a success in reducing welfare dependence and increasing employment; reducing child poverty; and reducing out-of-wedlock childbearing and strengthening marriage.

The welfare reform of 1996 granted states more flexibility in spending for TANF by receiving block grant funding. This policy brief from the National Poverty Center reviews TANF spending, and found that state spending on public welfare programs increased from 19.4 percent in 1980 to 26.9 percent in 2003, which is attributed to medical vendor payments for Medicaid.

From Mathematica Policy Research, this report outlines the implementation of the TANF in New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, and provides the different approaches across the States. Authors examine how the approaches have affected caseload declines, as well as the employment among their caseloads.

This research brief, from the Harvard Family Research Project, provides a program evaluation of family-strengthening intervention programs that offer support to parents and help change family behaviors to encourage healthy child development. Authors highlight best practices surrounding this intervention program model to inform educators, service providers, and local evaluators in schools, intermediary and community-based organizations, and social service agencies.

This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation reports on the discussions and lessons learned about social networks gathered from visits with families. Authors discuss the importance of the link between strong, positive social networks and achieving successful outcomes for families, as well as provide examples on how a social networks approach can support families.

This article outlines the critical components of community-monitoring systems (CMSs), designed to monitor the well-being of children and adolescents and the factors that influence their development. This resources from the Society for Prevention Research outlines key strategies to advance widespread and effective implementation of CMSs.

This report, from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, provides strategies for implementing state-funded TANF programs to better serve the families on the caseload. Authors offer information on why a solely state-funded program is beneficial as well as a target population for such services.