A number of states have created free Reality Check Calculators to help youth, students, and adults understand how salary, wages, careers, education, training, and budgets all interrelate. Reality Check Calculators can be used to estimate the cost of living in a particular state or community. There are several examples of these in California, Minnesota, and Texas. These tools help the users think about what the cost of living is, and how education and training correlate to salary and careers. The Calculators allow users to think about:

• Type of housing they would like (apartment, condo, house);
• Utility Costs (phone, electricity, cable, etc.);
• Food (eating out, cooking at home, combination);
• Transportation needs (public transportation, used or new car);
• Entertainment and other miscellaneous charges; and
• Savings.

Once the user has established their “ideal” cost of living and budget they are linked to state salary, occupation, and labor market information sites.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy II that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October, 26-29 2003 to continue partnerships and foster collaboration to improve service delivery and TANF implementation for families residing in urban areas.

Recognizing the importance of expanding transportation options for their TANF participants, the North Dakota Rural Communities Initiative site sought to learn more about innovative car ownership programs serving individuals on public assistance. Through contacts at Opportunity Cars, a network of 150 innovative car ownership programs, it was suggested that the team visit programs in Minnesota, which has one of the highest number of car ownership programs in the country. The director of Opportunity Cars nominated three innovative programs that had distinctly different implementation models and were also centrally located in the state: (1) Free to Be, Inc. – Blaine, Minnesota; (2) People Responding in Social Ministry (PRISM) – Golden Valley, Minnesota; and (3) Minnesota Valley Action Council (MVAC). During site visits to these three organizations in late June 2009, the North Dakota site members met with program staff to discuss the background of their car ownership programs, service delivery models, and partnering strategies. These resources and ideas promise to be incredibly useful as the site begins moving forward on implementing their own transportation assistance program.

This presentation was given as part of the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform's National Academy, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia in May 2006. Hennepin County, Minnesota (Minneapolis) shared strategies on utilizing diversion and emergency assistance programs.

This report provides an executive summary of the Rapid Response Technical Assistance event in Chicago, Illinois, sponsored through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. In response to a joint technical assistance request from Regions V (Chicago) and VII (Kansas City), the Rapid Response project team conducted secondary research and telephone discussions on a variety of TANF issues, identified as being of concern to the constituent States of these regions, to present at the event. This report includes an overview of the meeting as well as the descriptions of TANF promising practices from around the country that were discussed by participating States.

Welfare Peer TA conducted a Site Visit to the Mille-Lacs Band of Ojibwe Tribal TANF Program based on their request for TA. Welfare Peer TA staff partnered with consultants from the U.C. Davis Extension at the University of California to provide the Tribe with an in-depth needs assessment in order to strategize on developing solutions for programmatic improvement. The consultants, Julie Gondry and Dr. Geni Cowan, are Tribal TANF subject matter experts with program based skills in training, case management, and data reporting. Based upon the assessment results, Mille-Lacs will receive valuable recommendations to further enhance aspects of their program’s structure and administration to reach the end goal of self-sufficiency for their TANF participants.

This publication is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Family Assistance under contract with ICF International. Through the Urban Partnerships Initiative, this resource shows the outstanding efforts of ten cities to meet the needs of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). The innovative practices highlighted in this piece can be applied in other urban areas throughout the Nation to enable other cities to write their own success story during the next decade of welfare reform.

This discussion paper, from the Urban Institute, summarizes how States are serving clients with multiple barriers on their TANF caseloads and provides information on recent changes in States’ approaches to serving this population. Authors interviewed TANF program officials in the States of California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy that took place in Dallas, Texas from February 2-4, 2003 at the Fairmont Hotel-Dallas.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy III that took place in St. Louis, Missouri from March 8-11, 2005 to foster collaboration to improve administration and delivery of services to TANF families.