This is a November 2003 Newsletter generated by the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network on how TANF and Child Support Enforcement can partner to better serve families.

Authored by Lynne Fender and Jen Bernstein. This Urban Institute report was sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation. This study describes policies and practices in Connecticut, Minnesota, and Texas designed to coordinate the child support enforcement program, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) to secure and sustain appropriate health care coverage for child support-eligible children. Based on site visits to the 3 States, the report documents both successes in cross-program coordination as well as challenges to effective coordination.

This report details the three day Leadership Conference of ACF's West Central Hub. Topics discussed include fatherhood, healthy marriages, faith-based and community initiatives, and positive youth development.

A new article by Mark Ragan, Senior Fellow of the Rockefeller Institute, "Study Identifies Multiple Strategies and Critical Factors for Integrating Human Services," was published by The Research Forum on Children, Families, and the New Federalism in March 2003.

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.

From early 2001 to spring 2002, Hudson Institute researchers undertook an examination of faith-based contracting for social services in 15 states. Researchers attempted to determine how many contracts each state (or local government agencies within the state) held with faith-based organizations (FBOs), including houses of worship, under the four federal social welfare programs regulated by the charitable choice guidelines. The information gathered from this study was published in mid-2002 in the Collaborations Catalogue: A Report on Charitable Choice Implementation in 15 States. The study found 587 FBOs holding a total of 726 contracts totaling nearly $124 million dollars.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy that took place in Dallas, Texas from February 2-4, 2003 at the Fairmont Hotel-Dallas.

The Urban Partnerships Initiative was designed by the Administration for Children and Families to support the work of TANF stakeholders in urban environments by promoting shared learning, enhancing cities' performance management, and developing strategies to improve services to families so that they may achieve and maintain self-sufficiency. The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Leadership Forum that took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

Produced by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., the "Integrating Alcohol and Drug Treatment Into a Work-Oriented Welfare Program: Lessons from Oregon" publication is a case study of Oregon's approach to serving the needs of welfare recipients with substance abuse problems.

This report summarizes the ACF Rapid Response Technical Assistance workshop, Collaborating to Address the Needs of Multi-Barrier Families, held August 29-30, 2001 in Boise, Idaho. The workshop designed to help Idaho move low-income families with substance abuse problems toward recovery and self-sufficiency. The workshop was intended to increase knowledge and understanding of substance abuse and treatment, and to provide opportunities to explore how existing substance abuse treatment systems operate and connect, and how they can be strengthened in the State of Idaho.