On Wednesday, May 7, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance's Peer TA Network, along with partners from the U.S. Departments of Labor, and Housing and Urban Development, hosted the Investing in Youth and the Community: Summer Youth Employment Programs Webinar. This Webinar explored emerging initiatives, partnerships, and strategies for implementing summer youth employment programs. The Webinar highlighted federal, state, private, and public services available to engage youth in summer employment, while also providing TANF-serving organizations and other stakeholders with the opportunity to learn how to engage various partners in support of summer youth employment activities. Presenters included representatives from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, Brandeis University's Center for Youth and Communities, and the Denver Public Housing Authority's Youth Employment Academy.

As a followup to this presentation, OFA created a series of Summer Youth Employment Program Profiles – providing more in-depth information on the background, program model, lessons learned, outcomes, and successes for a number of programs engaging youth in summer employment. These profiles highlight the activities of the City of Richmond, Department of Employment and Training's YouthWORKS Division; the City of Buffalo, Buffalo Employment and Training Center; and the Denver Housing Authority’s Youth Employment Academy.

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.

A strong, stable, and comprehensive social safety-net is critical to the well-being of low-income and working families. Strong partnerships not only improve the quantity of services delivered, but also contribute to the overall quality of available services that families rely on in order to become economically self-sufficient. The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Regions I, II, and III hosted the 2012 East Coast Strategic Collaborations Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 18-20, 2012 in an effort to bring together TANF, workforce, child support, responsible fatherhood, housing, and community services stakeholders to map out a plan for better communication and collaboration. The workshop included targeted discussions with policy, research, and service delivery experts and culminated with an interactive building of a self-sufficiency puzzle made up of specific next steps, action items, and technical assistance needs. The workshop brought together State TANF directors, local Workforce Investment Board (WIB) directors, and other human service administrators and leaders to strategize on ways to better coordinate services for low-income and working families while improving program performance and service delivery outcomes. Workshop topics included the role of TANF in the safety-net, the current and future research agenda, career pathways, subsidized employment, and partnership development.

The Urban Institute released a document discussing the expanded State and local poverty measures that have been developed by New York City, New York State, the Institute for Research on Poverty, and the Urban Institute itself. State and local expanded poverty measures have been used to provide new insights into poverty among population subgroups and regions of the State; estimate the extent to which government benefits, taxes, and work-related and medical expenses affect poverty; and estimate the effect of potential changes in government programs. The Stanford Center on Poverty and Inequality and the Public Policy Institute of California are developing an expanded poverty measure for California and has released their testimony before the California State Senate Human Services Committee.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted the "Leveraging Private/Public Partnerships and Funding to Improve Summer Youth Employment Opportunities" Webinar on Tuesday, December 11, 2012 from 1:00 p.m. - 2:30 p.m. EST. This Webinar provided background information on funding strategies for summer youth employment activities and discussed methods for leveraging both public and private funding streams. The Webinar featured speakers from the LA Conservation Corps, the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, ABCD Inc., and the Philadelphia Youth Network. The speakers encouraged those implementing a summer youth employment programs to collaborate with TANF agencies, the business community, community action agencies and other CSBG-funded programs, workforce investment programs, and private foundations in an effort to better serve youth, reach TANF participants, and engage key stakeholders.

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.

August 22, 2011 marked the 15th anniversary of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program which was passed in an effort to “end welfare as we know it.” Although TANF cash assistance caseloads have fallen dramatically over the past 15 years, the need for assistance has remained high as the economic recovery continues to batter low-income and working families. Analyses of Federal and State caseload data, food stamp data, poverty data, and unemployment data show that TANF has not kept pace with the rates of food stamp usage or kept pace with unemployment and poverty increases, but remains an important component of the work-based safety-net for many Americans. State and Territory TANF programs are continuously challenged with developing and implementing effective work readiness, job skills, barrier reduction, and job placement activities for their TANF participants and as a result the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance. Regions I, II, and III convened the TANF at 15: Where Do We Go from Here 2011 Tri-Regional TANF Directors’ Meeting in Providence, Rhode Island on November 1-3, 2011 to discuss the status of the TANF program and to determine appropriate next steps for programs and families. The TANF at 15 meeting focused on pertinent issues impacting TANF families and the TANF programs including improving responsiveness, engagement, fiscal management, domestic violence, asset-development, the TANF/SSI connection, and the work-based safety net during periods of sustained and increased unemployment. The meeting brought together national experts, Federal officials, researchers and program officials from the Urban Institute, MDRC, ICF International, and State and TANF directors representing nearly a third of the country to strategize around peer-developed practical solutions to common challenges facing TANF programs and participants. TANF at 15 represented a beginning of a tri-regional discussion on the status of TANF programming and laid the foundation for continued dialogue, focused planning, and increased responsiveness.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was developed to assist low-income and working families transition into employment and achieve greater levels of economic self-sufficiency. State/Territory/Tribal TANF grantees are responsible for managing more than $16 billion in Federal funds and successfully managing TANF programs requires skill and understanding. On June 15-16, 2011, the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Regions I, II, and III hosted the first ever fiscal management workshop for TANF programs. The 2011 Tri-Regional TANF Fiscal Management Symposium in New York, New York covered topics from caseload reduction credits and maintenance of effort (MOE), to cost allocation, audits, and penalties and provided TANF program representatives with the most comprehensive and hands-on training on managing TANF programs available.