Center for Employment Opportunities

On September 10-11, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance hosted the Regions V & VII TANF Priority Update Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. Representatives from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin met to network and share lessons learned and promising practices and to seek guidance from Federal and Regional staff in a number of different areas, including: planning to implement TANF EBT requirements, understanding the implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, addressing homelessness through TANF, utilizing data to inform program practices, developing career pathways for TANF participants, and discussing key TANF issues with Federal ACF leadership.

This first webinar in the 2013 Region VI and VIII TANF Data Reporting and Analysis Webinar Series was held on Thursday, June 27, 2013. The webinar, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Regions VI and VIII, was open to all Region VI and VIII State TANF Directors and staff, local TANF agencies, and contractors. The webinar featured Patrick Brannen, a Statistical Consultant to ACF's Office of Family Assistance. He was responsible for statistical aspects of data collection and reporting of the TANF Data Report and the Separate State Programs – Maintenance of Effort (SSP-MOE) Data Report and for data analysis, including the calculation of the Work Participation Rates. Patrick Brannen provided a brief overview of the Section 1-4 reports, Work Participation Rate files and feedback, TANF sampling, and common edits and error flags.

On September 11-12, 2012, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions V and VII convened State TANF program directors and other key stakeholders in Chicago, Illinois to strategically engage with peers on effectively providing services to families in a recovering economy and to brainstorm better ways to help TANF participants achieve self-sufficiency. The TANF Priority Update Meeting consisted of multiple sessions covering an array of topics, including: business process management; strategies to improve postsecondary career pathways for low-income workers; developing and sustaining employment entry, access, retention, and advancement for TANF participants and low-income clients; improving services and tracking outcomes for special populations; innovative strategies for client assessment and service coordination; and effective strategies for engaging workforce partners through summer youth employment and subsidized employment.

The Peer TA Network hosted a Webinar on providing services to low-income teen parents. The Webinar highlighted the program design and implementation of two programs serving low-income teen parents, provided information to TANF organizations on program models for serving low-income teen parents, discussed key partnerships and strategies for developing partnerships, and shared strategies for overcoming challenges and barriers to service delivery. Presenters include representatives from the D.C. Teen Parent Assessment Project (TPAP) and the Ohio Learning, Earning, and Parenting (LEAP) Program.

The Work Advancement and Support Center (WASC) is testing a strategy to support low-wage workers in increasing earnings. The WASC offers services to help workers improve skills, access support services, and ultimately, increase earnings by working additional hours or finding higher-paying jobs. From MDRC, this report outlines the early impacts of the WASC Demonstration in Bridgeport, Connecticut; Dayton, Ohio; and San Diego, California from a random assignment research design.

The Urban Partnerships Initiative cities of Cleveland, Oakland, and Portland presented during this session of the National Academy, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia. Partner cities explained how they have improved technology to better serve children and families on the TANF caseload in their localities.

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.

At the request of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, Peer TA sponsored this event to assist participants in improving job retention among TANF participants who have relocated to new areas. The Roundtable’s intent was to address systems and resources for providing services to TANF participants residing in rural areas. This Roundtable included participants from the Mississippi Department of Human Services Regional Offices, and representatives from partner programs in Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, and Ohio. Features of the Roundtable included interactive dialogue among participants to facilitate action planning for Mississippi to strategize about next steps for necessary programmatic and policy changes, and opportunities for participants to learn from one another and share ideas.

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.