This issue brief identifies the correlation of racial trauma and trauma caused in family violence. The brief covers issues of structurally embedded inequalities, how individual actions cause racial trauma, and racial trauma’s impact on communities of color. Beyond the research, the brief features approaches taken in Virginia that individuals, communities, organizations, and service professionals could adopt to prevent and mitigate race-based traumatic stress.

This research-to-practice brief profiles a needs assessment of TANF child-only cases undertaken as part of the Office of Family Assistance’s Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement (ASPIRE) project. Researchers first conducted a literature search and then select interviews with state and local TANF agency officials in California, Idaho, Minnesota, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Virginia, and Washington State. The brief describes three major categories of child-only TANF cases and provides a historical overview of how the TANF child-only caseload has changed in size over time. Additionally, the brief identifies needs pertaining to specific types of TANF child-only families, including non-parent caregivers, ineligible immigrant parents, and SSI recipient parents. Innovative models for alternative service delivery are highlighted.

This research-to-practice brief describes the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration project and its integration of procedural justice principles into enforcement practices in six child support agencies in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. The premise of PJAC is that if defendants perceive the dispute resolution process to be fair, they will comply with the outcome of the process, regardless of whether the decision was favorable to the defendant. The target population of the PJAC demonstration project is noncustodial parents being referred for civil contempt of court-mandated child support even when these parents have been determined to be able to pay it. Implementation of PJAC addresses noncustodial parents’ perception of the court system proceedings and reasons for nonpayment, how to improve consistency of their payments, and ways to promote their positive engagement with the child support agency as well as the other parent.

This study, prepared by Mathematica, is the fourth annual report to Congress that evaluates 10 SNAP Pilot Projects in California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The report identifies grantees’ enrollment goals and services, as well as their respective programs’ achievements and challenges. The evaluation used a random assignment research design to assess the level of support offered to SNAP participants on job search assistance, training, and basic and vocational education, as well as subsidized and unsubsidized work experience.

This U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service report reviews demonstration projects and innovative strategies to address childhood hunger and food insecurity. Authorized by the 2010 Child Nutrition Act, findings from the planning and implementation stages of projects within Chickasaw Nation, Kentucky, Nevada, and Virginia are presented and are drawn from document reviews, technical assistance phone calls, field interviews, and focus groups convened at each location.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar entitled "Building Social Capital for Families on Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Other Low-Income Populations: The Important Role of Community-Based and Faith-Based Organizations" on Wednesday, November 28, 2018. Many efforts to stop the cycle of poverty have focused on employment as the answer, especially after the legislation of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996 and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) of 2014. However, TANF eligible families need access to forms of capital beyond economic capital to move out of poverty. These families benefit from access to trust-based networks that provide other types of resources, also known as social capital.

Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) and Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) play a critical role in providing culturally sensitive social capital to TANF eligible families that create pathways out of poverty as they are embedded in the communities they serve. In this webinar, participants heard from FBOs and CBOs that serve TANF eligible families.

Qaadirah Abdur-Rahim from the Future Foundation and Juanita Epps from Pathways Virginia presented.