Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore job center and its partners have streamlined TANF and WIOA assessment and referral processes, as well as sharing staff, spaces, and resources across programs, to improve service delivery to TANF customers. Job center partners aim to match job seekers with employers through opportunities such as a “reverse job fair,” a job search database, and a regional job developer to specifically work with customers. Maryland also focuses on serving rural populations, with transportation subsidies and a mobile job center that delivers select WIOA services to TANF clients in rural areas.

This brief is organized into sections on joint service delivery, resource sharing, shared learning, and managing collaborative activities. Readers may also access links to the state TANF plan and funding information for more context and resources. This brief is part of the TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series, through which the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative seeks to highlight innovative coordination strategies of TANF and WIOA programs to serve low-income or vulnerable populations.

This case statement highlights the collaboration between American Job Centers (called WorkSource) and TANF agencies in Spokane, Washington. WorkSource and partners have restructured staffing, resource allocation, and approaches to workforce development services with a customer-centered design. Leaders are also investing in organizational change through staff training, cross-program communication, and building support among staff at all levels.

This brief is part of the TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series, through which the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative seeks to highlight innovative coordination strategies of TANF and WIOA programs to serve low-income or vulnerable populations. Sections of the brief describe joint service delivery, resource sharing, shared learning, and the management of collaborative activities. Readers, especially TANF programs looking to scale or replicate the practices, may also access links to the state TANF plan and funding information for more context and resources.

As described in this case statement, TANF and WIOA programs at the Employment Services Centers of Weld County are maximizing resources to serve target populations by sharing a work-based learning team, infrastructure costs, and flexible staff across programs. This collaboration also facilitates the coordination of two-generation and immigrant/refugee services.

The brief is organized into sections on joint service delivery, resource sharing, shared learning, managing collaborative activities, and a special focus on immigrant and refugee populations. Readers may also access links to the state TANF plan and variations in funding for more context and resources. This brief is part of the TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series, through which the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative seeks to highlight innovative coordination strategies of TANF and WIOA programs to serve low-income or vulnerable populations.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report provides a qualitative review of the Mobile Coaching model used in La Plata County, Colorado to address transportation barriers that TANF participants in rural communities face. Under the Mobile Coaching model, case managers drive TANF participants to service providers and deliver case management while participants are in transit. The report documents case managers’ and participants’ perspectives.

This policy evaluation from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison assesses the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration project. The report covers 18 implementation sites, where half of the 10,161 demonstration project enrollees received enhanced child support services, employment assistance, parenting education delivered in a peer-supported format, and case management. The other half of enrollees were in a control group and did not receive extra services. Report findings suggest that future programs might invest in strong partnerships and communication systems as well as support customer-oriented approaches for enrollees. There are also recommendations on recruiting staff who can manage large caseloads and designing and delivering services to support sustained engagement among program participants.

Visitors to this webpage can select states and territories in a drop down list or click on states and territories on an interactive map to view state caseload trends provided by The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE); the map links to IV-D Child Support Caseload Fact Sheets for each state of the United States and three territories. The source of the information on the fact sheets is the OCSE 157 Report.

The Systems to Family Stability (SFS) National Academy was an OFA initiative that consisted of eight teams (comprised of state TANF agencies, OFA representatives, and subject matter experts) that were organized to design and build collaborative systems within and across agencies to improve family economic security. In this second of three videos that were produced as a result of this initiative, leaders from the SFS National Policy Academy offer advice and ideas on supporting change.

A paper from Economic Mobility Pathways discusses the importance of setting high goals and standards when helping families navigate their way out of poverty. Coach-navigator programs that seek to build resiliency and decision making view high expectations as a self-fulfilling prophecy and a crucial step to success for struggling participants. Thus, coaching relationships are most effective when they hold people to ambitious yet achievable standards that participants then willingly work to strive toward.

In response to several proposed federal changes to safety net program requirements, the Urban Institute developed a Well Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) and published a report on the status of individual and family health and well-being. The data serves as a baseline against which to measure deviations as a result of potential policy change. Despite a low unemployment rate and growing labor market, the first round of WBNS data from 2017 shows that nearly 40 percent of adults had trouble meeting at least one basic need, a number which may increase due to proposed safety net changes. Hispanic, black, female, young, ill, and less educated demographics are the most likely to face hardships. The survey will continue to measure potential effects of policy changes and highlight areas of programmatic need.

The Urban Institute was contracted by a Washington State housing authority to evaluate its 2013-2016 Student and Family Stability Initiative that provided supportive housing and employment to homeless or vulnerable families with elementary-aged children. Case management for those willing to work was combined with short-term financial assistance for housing-related costs, like searching or moving expenses. The program successfully raised participants’ income and promoted housing stability and income gains after the program ended, but also had high attrition rates. Households that opted out, failed to find housing, or failed to complete the program because they fell out of touch with case managers represent areas for programmatic improvement. The program may be more cost-efficient than providing long-term assistance like Housing Choice Vouchers, but it was difficult to understand how well the housing pilot program worked.