During this Roundtable, participants heard presentations from El Paso County, Colorado, and the States of Alabama and New Jersey about innovative practices in those locations. South Carolina shared results of a large-scale research effort regarding the demographics and wellbeing of the TANF child-only caseload. The Roundtable also enjoyed sessions regarding economic security, presented by staff from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the AARP. Thanks to the hospitality of the State of Alabama Department of Human Resources, Roundtable participants were given a tour of Alabama’s Kinship Care (KC) program. Participants in the Roundtable were also able to speak with program specialists, staff, and clients of these child-only services.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network sponsored this multi-State Roundtable event on November 19-20, 2003. The Roundtable showcased promising practices from around the country and provided an opportunity for participants to think strategically about how to design and implement these programs, as well as the occasion to learn about and discuss “what works” in serving this at-risk population. Participants included representatives from the States of Colorado, Virginia, and Wyoming. Roundtable speakers included State and local government agencies, service providers, practitioners, Federal personnel, and leaders of national  organizations.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network under contract from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Administration for Children and Families (ACF) coordinated a workshop on the topic of Post-employment Services: Making Job Retention and Post-Employment Services Work. The contractors on the Network are AFYA, Inc. and Caliber Associates. This one day technical assistance event was a multi-state workgroup designed to review the lessons learned from the Post-employment Services Demonstration Project (PESD) and to explore strategies for job retention and post-employment support.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), in collaboration with the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network hosted, a teleconference to discuss strategies, lessons learned, and ideas to develop successful work experience (WEX) sites. The teleconference was a response to several frontier State inquiries regarding the development of WEX sites in both tribal and non-tribal rural areas. Participating Sates included Colorado, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, Utah, and Wyoming. Federal ACF and Welfare Peer TA contract staff also participated in the call.

CDHS requested TA regarding innovative and proven strategies for utilizing subsidized employment, supervised work experience and community service to meet work participation rates and increase self-sufficiency outcomes.