On August 14 and 15, 2012, State and Territory Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Administrators along with other key stakeholders gathered in San Francisco for the Region IX 2012 TANF Innovations in Action Forum. The central purpose of this forum was to enable attendees to discuss critical issues pertaining to TANF program administration and to explore new strategies for improving TANF programs for low-income and working families in their States and Territories. Attendees were also provided with the opportunity to report on the current status of TANF programs at the local level and to receive updates on current TANF policy developments. Over the course of the two-day forum, a number of important topics were addressed, including: work-oriented programs for vulnerable populations and youth; subsidized employment and transitional jobs programs; innovative case management and service coordination models; career pathways and work study programs for TANF participants; and privatization models and call centers.

In March of 2012, the WPTA Network collaborated with Supporting Employment Empowerment (SEE) Hawaii Work and the Hawaii Department of Human Services to learn more about their private-public partnerships between their working participants and local employers.
 
This podcast highlights SEE Hawaii Work (SEE), which is a program that assists Hawaii's employers with their labor market needs, while placing work-eligible Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants into subsidized job-training programs. Staff from the State of Hawaii Department of Human Services provide an overview of key components and activities in the SEE Hawaii program model, discuss how the program engages, markets and conducts outreach to businesses and employers, as well as provide information on how data is collected within the program.

On October 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) convened an orientation meeting in Washington, D.C. for the Promising Pathways Initiative. The three primary meeting goals of the Promising Pathways All-Site Orientation Meeting were to orient site representatives to the Promising Pathways Initiative, provide hands-on, interactive training for site coordinators on how to define and document their practice using logic models, and plan the first intensive full team site visit. Participants included one or two representatives from each of the ten selected Promising Pathways sites, OFA staff, and ICF International site coaches and team staff. This executive summary describes the proceedings of the All-Site Orientation Meeting and includes the meeting agenda, participant list, and materials as appendices.

On November 13-14, 2008, the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network sponsored a two-day site exchange to New York City (NYC) Human Resources Administration (HRA). The purpose of the Technical Assistance (TA) was to provide the Hawaii Department of Human Services the opportunity to observe NYC’s use of JobStat, which allows the city to set goals, monitor, and measure outcomes of performance indicators established for NYC Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) participants, workers, job centers, and vendors. Hawaii was also able to learn about NYC HRA’s Wellness, Assessment, Rehabilitation, and Employment (WeCARE) program that serves NYC TANF and Safety Net participants who have clinical barriers to employment.

This report summarizes a national conference that took place in Arlington, VA, on March 20-21, 2003. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This conference brought together substance abuse treatment agency directors and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) administrators from forty States, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. The conference provided a forum for these policymakers and administrators to share information about their experience and concerns, and their promising strategies used in strengthening the collaboration and partnership of TANF and substance abuse treatment directors.

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC), the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) and Emergency Assistance programs wit the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Under TANF, the nature of public assistance changed from an entitlement program to one that requires individuals to work in order to receive time-limited support. This change in the welfare delivery system was accompanied by an increase in State-level flexibility in program design and operation. Welfare reform required no less than a redefinition of the role of decision makers at the Federal, State and local level, including the role played by front line workers when interacting with welfare recipients. In the journey toward reinventing the social safety net, States have met a variety of formidable challenges. Five years after the passage of welfare reform, this report takes stock of the past and current challenges that States have encountered. This report focuses on the policies and services provided to the hardest-to-serve and on the network of collaborations that States have developed to address the needs of these populations.

This short report describes the Roundtable entitled Developing Strategies to Address the Child-Only Caseload that was held April 8-9, 2003 in Colorado Springs (El Paso County). The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network conducted discussion with State TANF administrators around the country to assess their current policies and programs designed to meet the needs of the child-only caseload, and to gauge their level of interest in participating a Roundtable on this topic. The full report fully describes the meeting, attended by California, Colorado, Hawaii, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Texas, Virginia, and Washington, and includes important highlights and lessons learned.

The Pacific Hub State TANF Directors Meeting took place in Seattle, WA on July 25-26, 2001. States heard presentations on the following: national perspective on welfare reform, a learning disability program, case manager training and retention, and caseload dynamics and time limits.

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.