This playbook, developed in collaboration between the National Community Action Partnership and the American Public Human Services Association, explores how Community Action and human services agencies partnered together in response to the COVID-19 public health and economic crisis. It presents opportunities for alignment in providing whole family supports, making career pathways possible for SNAP recipients, and tackling structural inequities in accessing services. Examples of these alignments include western Maryland and Virginia (whole family supports), Minnesota and Oregon (SNAP Employment & Training), and rural Ohio and Montgomery County, Maryland (dismantling structural inequities).

This toolkit tracks the steps the federal government has taken to implement new resources and administrative changes within human services and education programs authorized by:

• The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
• The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)
• The Continuing Appropriations Act of 2021
• The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021
• The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) 

Agencies highlighted in the toolkit are the Administration for Children and Families, the Administration for Community Living, the Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Communications Commission.

This toolkit is designed to help states create career pathways systems that integrate and expand partnerships between state human service agencies and community and technical college systems and institutions so that more people have the opportunity to train for a quality career. The toolkit includes recommendations for how SNAP E&T and TANF can support high-quality career pathways system development and partnerships with community colleges. It also illustrates model career pathways frameworks from Arkansas and Oregon.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service has granted waivers to allow states to issue emergency SNAP allotments (supplements) in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. These waivers are only granted when a state also issued an emergency or disaster declaration. This guidance identifies all the COVID-19 waivers, listed by each state, that have been granted from October 1, 2021 through December 3, 2021. Emergency Allotments questions and answers and other resource materials are also provided.

Many workers in hourly front-line retail and food service jobs have been subject to low pay and few benefits for decades. More recently, these workers' challenges have been compounded by increasingly unstable and unpredictable work schedules due to shifts cancelled or shortened with little notice, inconsistent days or times of day they are expected to work, little advance notice when schedules are posted, or having to be on-call without a guarantee of being paid. This policy brief illustrates how schedule unpredictability has a direct connection to how often workers struggle to provide adequate food, housing, and medical care for themselves and their families. The brief also notes how instability can also affect workers' ability to access social safety net programs.

Partnerships between child care providers and food access initiatives are a promising approach to supporting young children’s nutrition. This brief illustrates two of these partnerships that received funding from the Walmart Healthier Food Access grant and highlights three promising strategies those partnerships employ: supporting children and families directly, fostering the capacity of child care providers and their ability to support child nutrition in their own care settings, and organizing at a systems level to better coordinate efforts that target families with young children. Evidence-based recommendations are offered for building these partnerships in local communities.

This Action Lab webinar, held on November 4, 2021, focused on leveraging Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) to expand access to and support student success in education and training programs that lead to good careers. The webinar included a SNAP E&T 101 session from Seattle Jobs Initiative, a discussion with a USDA Food and Nutrition Services representative, and presentations from the International Rescue Committee, American Public Human Services Association, Council on Adult Basic Education, and National Skills Coalition.

This podcast discusses how the COVID-19 pandemic and the social safety net’s response to it have affected food insecurity in the United States. The podcast also illustrates how the permanent increase in SNAP benefits that took effect October 1, 2021, fits into the larger picture of ensuring that people have consistent access to nourishing foods. The podcast is hosted by Judi Bartfeld, a professor in the School of Human Ecology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a food security research and policy specialist at the University’s Division of Extension.

This U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration directive provides a resource guide to workforce investment practitioners who assist job seekers in finding and applying for financial assistance and other supportive services. The guide assists workforce professionals in accurately locating emergency and long-term resources for workforce program customers to gain economic stability. It includes information on rental assistance, supports for utilities and broadband, child care, the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, nutrition and food security, health care resources, and legal aid, among other resources.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this innovation station presentation, the speaker showcased Workforce 1 Connect (WF1), a communication tool created by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). WF1 Connect is a pilot application that participants receiving TANF, SNAP E&T, Childcare Assistance, and DEED Employment and Training Programs such as Blind and Vocational Rehabilitation Services, can download to their phone or tablet. It is a participant-driven tool that can be used to communicate with both county and tribal staff.