This report provides an overview of the promising practices presented at the joint Peer TA/Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Big Five Roundtable. The California Department of Social Services made a Technical Assistance (TA) request on behalf of their largest urban center (Los Angeles) and on behalf of four very similar urban centers (Chicago, Houston, New York City and Philadelphia.) The five target cities were led through a series of facilitated discussions involving the core subject areas of performance management and contracting, saturation engagement, diversion and immediate employment, and re-engagement and sanctions.

While stable housing is important to improve conditions for rural low-income people, additional services are necessary to provide additional support to families. This resource offers information on organizations providing affordable housing plus services, and reports on five case studies on successful programs serving rural populations.

This newsletter provides information around revitalization strategies for rural communities before, during, and after disaster. By reviewing examples of how rural communities have responded to disasters, the major theme throughout the recovery process includes planning, community participation, and capacity building.

Traditional public housing rules that set rent as a percentage of a tenant's income have long been thought to discourage residents from taking jobs, because much of the extra income from employment is simply absorbed by an increase in rent. The Jobs-Plus demonstration project is testing ways to break that cycle by changing rent rules in combination with other incentives that make work pay. Making Work Pay for Public Housing Residents describes initiatives underway at seven public housing developments in six cities across the nation and their potential effects on residents' income and decisions about work.

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.

Authored by Tammy Ouellette, Nancy Burstein, David Long, and Erik Beecroft. This report summarizes what is known about the measurement of material hardship and its application to research with low-income families with children. The report, by Abt Associates, discusses challenges in defining and measuring material hardship, reviews how such measures have been in recent research, and presents analyses of data from the Survey of Income and Program Participation (SIPP).

Authored by John Iceland of the University of Maryland and Kurt Bauman of the U.S. Census Bureau. This report, as part of the Working Paper Series of the National Poverty Center (NPC), uses data from the 1996 Survey of Income and Program Participation and explores the relationship between poverty and material hardship. Food insecurity, basic needs, and possession of consumer durables are examples of measures of material hardship.

The Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) coordinated this rural workshop involving select representatives from twelve States from across four ACF Regions. State agency representatives were present from a variety of agencies including TANF, WTW, transportation, economic development, and domestic violence. Private sector speakers included a town mayor, a chief executive officer for a mass transit district, directors of several State coalitions against domestic violence, and key individuals from various private state-wide welfare service organizations. States represented included Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

The purpose of this one-day workshop was to promote the sharing of ideas and innovative practices designed to assist rural communities to effectively collaborate and utilize community resources to move welfare recipients toward employment and self-sufficiency. During the workshop, participants examined partnership building and the importance of collaboration among and between state, local, and community agencies as a key element in addressing many welfare reform issues. Collaboration among the following agencies was discussed: welfare, transportation, domestic violence, and economic, community, and housing development.

This report summarizes a workshop entitled "Solutions to Rural Issues Through Partnerships - A Community-Centered Approach" that took place on September 24-25, 2003 and was jointly sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and Department of Labor (DOL) Regional offices. The purpose of the workshop was to focus on improving service delivery in rural communities to strengthen rural families and communities and support economic development.

The CalWORKs Project seeks to inform policy makers, using a variety of approaches, in order to positively influence CalWORKs policy and practice, particularly in the areas of identification, referral, and delivery of mental health (MH), alcohol and other drug (AOD), and domestic violence (DV) services to CalWORKs-eligible families.