This brief highlights an innovative collaboration forged between a corporation, government agencies, and a community partner in New Hampshire to create a career pathway for TANF participants. Read more about how the partners designed a phased training model to directly integrate TANF program requirements and prepare participants for a pharmacy technician career.

This brief is part of the Emerging Practice Series of the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative, which highlights the strategies of TANF agencies and their partners to help low-income individuals gain and sustain meaningful employment. Each brief describes an emerging practice that has been implemented in one site, an overview of the program model, and the results that have been achieved. Compelling stories of participants’ success and suggestions from TANF agency staff to their peers provide actionable insights and on-the-ground perspectives.

This National Academy for State Health Policy report spotlights initiatives undertaken by Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Virginia to combat the opioid crisis and support citizens affected by opioid use. Interviews conducted with state officials in Medicaid, child welfare, and behavioral health provision roles resulted in recurring themes of effective practices, including care access for at-risk children and parents, family-focused and trauma-informed care, and sharing data and funding across systems. After discussing multi-agency strategies for helping those affected by opioids, the report also offers ways to support children and families. These include expanding training for child-service professionals, removing stigma against medication-assisted treatment so that children can remain in their biological homes, coordinating funding streams, and bridging gaps between state systems serving children and families.

Investments in early childhood programs are on the rise due to a growing emphasis on their benefits for supporting childhood development. In this report, the RAND Corporation analyzes the benefits and economic returns of three early childhood interventions in New Hampshire: early home visiting, high-quality child care, and high-quality preschool. The report found that many New Hampshire children are at risk for facing early adversity and future achievement gaps, but the intervention programs studied do offer benefits. Also included are recommendations to guide State investment in early childhood programs.

The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), Office for Family Independence (OFI) and the New Hampshire Division of Family Assistance convened a peer-to-peer site exchange funded by the Welfare Peer TA Network in Concord, New Hampshire to (1) provide cross-site networking between the two States; (2) foster dialogue on strategies for improving work participation among TANF participants; (3) discuss strategies for data collection methodologies that improve the calculation of work participation rates; and (4) share dialogue on strategies for integrating education and training opportunities into TANF programming. The site visit included discussions with program, data, and administration staff and a series of site visits to the New Heights Data Management Center and the Combined Services/Community Action Program. During this peer-to-peer exchange, Maine learned about the collection, analysis, and reporting methodologies New Hampshire uses to achieve its work participation rate and to improve the overall data-driven philosophy of their local TANF program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions I, II and III hosted representatives from 14 States in the Northeast region at the 2013 Tri-Regional Technical Assistance Meeting entitled "Developing an Exit Strategy for Leaving TANF on the Pathway to Family Stability." This meeting was held on September 17-19, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) stakeholders were brought together to engage with peers on innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well-being for individuals, families and communities. State and territory representatives shared strategies they are utilizing to overcome barriers to self-sufficiency. In addition to peer networking and dialogue with ACF and OFA leadership, experts from the field presented on topics ranging from the intersection of learning disabilities and TANF families, to maximizing collaborations to improve TANF program outcomes.