This was a session at the Urban Partnerships Initiative's National Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Chicago and Houston city partners shared strategies from their cities on getting to full engagement through integrated case management teams.

This is a presentation on motivational interviewing that was given by Alyssa Forcehimes, Ph.D. at the New Mexico Works 2009 Conference in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Client motivation is the key to change in terms of addressing barriers to work such as substance abuse.

This newsletter is from the What Works Clearinghouse and provides an overview of the New Chance program. The program supports TANF recipients who have dropped out of school through GED preparation, life skill training, parenting programs, childcare assistance, and case management. New Chance was found to be successful in helping participants complete education.

At the request of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, the OFA Peer TA Network sponsored this event to assist participants in improving systems and resources for providing services to TANF participants residing in rural areas. This Roundtable included participants from the Utah Department of Health and Welfare’s Regional Offices, and representatives from programs in Texas, New Mexico, Virginia, and Vermont. Partner states presented on innovative ways to serve rural families and address barriers to employment in States with large rural areas. Networking sessions afforded participants the opportunity to leverage the Roundtable as a catalyst for action planning efforts across and among regions in the State of Utah.

This report sponsored by the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) describes the key decisions and activities undertaken in privatizing TANF case management and documents the lessons learned in six study sites from their experiences in privatizing TANF case management.

This article reviews how the three states of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania have fared under the 1996 welfare reform. Researchers from Mathematica Policy Research, provide information on how the policy changes have affected the TANF population with regards to short and long term outcomes.

This GAO report discusses the size and distribution of the rural TANF caseload, the challenges and strengths of various rural TANF programs, the current strategies being used to deliver social services in rural areas, and current Federal efforts to support rural services.

Authored by Robert G. Wood, Anu Rangarajan, and John Deke. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. report compares the characteristics and experiences of two groups of Work First New Jersey clients: 1) an early group that participated in the first year of program operations from July 1997 to June 1998; and 2) a later group participating from July 2000 to June 2001. The report finds that the caseload characteristics changed substantially during the recent period of rapid caseload decline, with a growing proportion of clients facing employment challenges.

Because many welfare recipients reaching time limits face barriers to employment, Minnesota implemented the Minnesota Integrated Service Project (ISP). This project aims at improving service delivery to clients who would benefit from multiple systems working together to address their needs. From the Urban Institute, this article reviews the implementation of integrating services to improve outcomes for low-income families in Minnesota.

This issue brief by the Institute for Community Inclusion examines how welfare reform affected Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) caseworkers in Massachusetts and describes the impact of these reforms on the lives of people with disabilities receiving welfare benefits.