The Office of Family Assistance began the Rural Communities Initiative in 2008, and many rural areas expressed an interest in learning more about how to utilize technology in their TANF programs and in their communities. This Webinar included presentations from Ms. Mary Campanola, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development, Telecommunications Program; Ms. Sheryl Rehberg, Executive Director, North Florida Workforce Development Board; and Mr. Stan Brodka, Director of Sales, KeyTrain. (author abstract)

Congress recently passed legislation mandating that food prescribed in the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA’s) Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children (WIC) be provided using electronic benefit transfer (EBT), which operates like a debit card. Ten State agencies currently provide WIC benefits using EBT, and many other States are in the process of implementing EBT technology in the WIC program. The Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act, reauthorizing USDA’s child nutrition and WIC programs, requires that all States use EBT technology by 2020. Utilizing EBT technology will enable WIC moms to purchase WIC foods without the visibility of paper vouchers. The EBT system will also provide data to WIC State agencies on each food item purchased so they can better manage food costs through informed food package decisions and rebates on infant formula. EBT will also assist retailers in efficiently completing WIC transactions.

Authors in this paper, published in the Health Affairs journal, provide estimates of the rates across States for participating children as well as uninsured eligible children. Nationally, 7.3 million were uninsured on any given day in 2008, and around sixty-five percent or 4.7 million were eligible but not enrolled in the public programs. Authors also give variation in participation rates across States, which range from fifty-five to ninety-five percent.

Nationwide, the Housing Choice Voucher Program serves nearly 2 million low-income households mostly in urban areas. From the Urban Institute, this review of the literature explores the evidence on neighborhood location outcomes for people receiving vouchers. Voucher recipients do not experience high poverty rate, but there are disparities by race/ethnicity as neighborhood quality is lower for nonwhite households compared to whites.

This paper is from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, and shows why collaboration and coordination across programs is critical in terms of policy, procedure, and data utilization. Designed for practitioners, authors discuss the challenges to implement this process and how to overcome them. Authors focus on Medicaid and SNAP, but also provide examples of how to include TANF, child care, and other programs in such an effort to better support working families.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation and the Commonwealth of Virginia collaborated to reduce the number of children in foster care and reduce the use of congregate care. This report provides an overview of their efforts by building a family-centered child welfare practice model. Through this model, the Commonwealth increased permanency rates and access to community-based care, and reduced overall spending.

From 2008 to 2009, the nation’s rate of homelessness rose by 20,000 people, or 3 percent. About four out of every 10 of these individuals live on the street, in a car, or another location not intended for human habitation. The National Alliance to End Homelessness released a report on the morning of Wednesday, January 12 analyzing the impact of the recent economic recession on homelessness in America. The report breaks its analysis into four main sections: (1) changes in rates of homelessness, (2) economic risk factors that have shifted due to the recession, (3) subpopulations that have been especially affected by the economic recession and trends within the given populations, and (4) specific States with increased risk factors for worsening rates of homelessness. The State of Homelessness in America is an effective evaluation of the most recent data related to homelessness and presents its findings using maps, tables, graphs and interactive online tools.

From the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, this report provides findings from the implementation evaluation of Head Start programs that participated in the "I Am Moving, I Am Learning" trainings. From the programs that participated in the spring 2006, program administrators, classroom teachers, and home visitors across many programs reported that they had increased children’s movement time and improved the food choices available to children.

This joint letter was signed by program heads in HHS and Agriculture providing information related to the health insurance exchanges, Medicaid eligibility information technology systems, the advance planning process for information technology procurements and how these and other programs can work together.

From the Urban Institute, this report analyzes data from the District of Columbia Frequent Users Service Enhancement Pilot Program, implemented by the Corporation for Supportive Housing. This program was designed to help disabled individuals leaving the city jail by providing housing and coordinating services. Authors use both qualitative and quantitative data to discuss the history, performance, and progress of the program. In the first year, the program was able to target around 12 frequent users to provide services.