ACF Regions II and III held a Maximizing ARRA Funding in the TANF Program Meeting in New York City, New York on February 4-5, 2010. This meeting explored how States in these two ACF Regions were utilizing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 which included the TANF Emergency Contingency Fund—which appropriated $5 billion for the provision of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program for creating/enhancing subsidized employment programs, providing basic assistance (cash grants to low-income families), and providing non-recurrent short-term payments (e.g. four months of rental assistance for homeless families, security deposit and first month’s rent, utility assistance). In order to assist States in implementing innovative initiatives to respond to rising caseloads and/or rising expenditures, ACF Regions II and III coordinated this strategy forum for States to share experiences and work together to determine next steps.

This report details the September 2002 Conference on ACF's Positive Youth Development initiative and provides information on how to effectively incorporate the initiative into a cross section of ACF supported programs such as TANF, Child Support, Head Start, Child Care, Child Welfare, Independent Living, and Runaway and Homeless Youth.

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.

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.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, coordinated this one day workshop presentation by Ms. Toby Herr, the Founder of Project Match. Ms. Herr provided an in-depth description of the Pathways System developed through Project Match. This workshop was the result of a collaborative effort between the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network and the New England Promising Practices Workgroup. The technical assistance event was a multi-state workshop with a focus on providing participants with a thorough understanding of the Pathways System philosophy and approach to serving a large and diverse welfare population with serious or multiple barriers to employment and self-sufficiency.