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.

On May 16, 2012 the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Region X hosted a Webinar on how Tribal TANF programs can use Federal TANF and State maintenance-of-effort (MOE) funds for the creation and expansion of subsidized summer youth employment programs. The Webinar provided information on how Tribes have operated summer youth employment programs within a Tribal TANF System, strategies for leveraging funds for subsidized youth employment programs through Workforce Investment Act (WIA) and the Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), and presented promising practices of Tribal TANF agencies that currently operate summer youth employment programs. The Webinar was facilitated by Judy Ogliore and Karen "Jack" Granberg from Region X, and included presentations from Tammy Kieffer, the 477 Youth Employment Coordinator for the Spokane Tribe in Washington State; Lu Ann Warrington, the Assistance Director of the Menominee Indian Tribe of Wisconsin; and Arlene Templer, the Director of the Department of Human Resource Development for the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana.

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.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funded a study to determine how local management of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs has adapted practices to address changing needs and improve program results. To understand these local adaptations, the research team—which included staff from the Lewin Group and the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government—visited five local TANF offices to interview staff and collect data. The sites selected were among locations where field research was conducted several years ago in order to gauge changes since the early years of TANF implementation. The five sites were in Phoenix, Arizona; Macon, Georgia; Kansas City, Missouri; Newark, New Jersey; and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Site visits were conducted between February and July 2006. This report presents major findings from the site visits. Several cross-cutting findings emerged from the study: (author abstract)

The capstone event for the Rural Communities Initiative was the Rural Leadership Forum that took place in Charleston, South Carolina on September 1-2, 2009. Representatives from the 16 rural TANF sites met to share lessons learned; explore leadership and sustainability plans; and discuss successes garnered and challenges encountered from the implementation of the Rural TANF sites’ TA plans over the past year.

The Rural Communities Academy was the "kick off" event for the 16 selected rural sites and included time for each rural site team (consisting of four/five team members) to participate in information gathering, networking, and action planning. The team members who attended the Academy participated in workshops and plenary sessions, and met with Rural Content Specialists and representatives from other rural communities who shared their insight into strategies being utilized in rural areas with TANF participants.

This presentation was given as part of the Eleventh Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference, which is sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation. Wisconsin presented how they have been using performance-based contracting within the State, and offered lessons learned from the evaluation of these contracts.

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.

This Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network site exchange was conducted to support the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families in exploring the WeCARE (Wellness, Comprehensive Assessment, Rehabilitation, Employment) program of the Human Resources Administration (HRA) in New York City. The site exchange took place on October 31, 2008, and the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network facilitated the visit and interaction between the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, staff from the New York City Human Resources Administration (HRA) and Arbor, the contractor who operates WeCARE in Brooklyn. The site exchange featured presentations by both HRA and Arbor staff responsible for the program, tours of the Brooklyn facility; a tour of a community partner’s office, a tour of the medical facility at a local hospital and dialogue among participants to discuss the details of operations and the implementation of the current program.