This guidance addresses challenges encountered by Welfare-to-Work (WtW), Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Child Support Enforcement (CSE) agencies in the provision of services to WtW participants, and seeks to assist States and local communities to improve WtW program operations and enhance inter-agency collaboration.

Child abuse and domestic violence often co-occur in families, and such data has led child welfare programs to re-evaluate service delivery protocols for families. This article reviews Family to Family Grantee experiences and offers guidance on how to better serve families in the child welfare system facing domestic violence issues as well.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this speech by author and policy expert Lisbeth Schorr outlines challenges and opportunities in creating systems change. Schorr offered lessons and recommendation for how to improve service delivery through networking to increase positive outcomes for children and families.

This report summarizes a national conference that took place in Arlington, VA, on March 20-21, 2003. The conference was jointly sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). This conference brought together substance abuse treatment agency directors and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) administrators from forty States, the District of Columbia, and the Virgin Islands. The conference provided a forum for these policymakers and administrators to share information about their experience and concerns, and their promising strategies used in strengthening the collaboration and partnership of TANF and substance abuse treatment directors.

This research report, from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, discusses measurement and data gathering strategies to measure efforts to alleviate homelessness. While there is a recent charge to end chronic homelessness in local communities, this article provides baseline information for comparison purposes. As of January 2005, it is estimated that 744,313 people experienced homelessness -- 56% of whom residing in shelters and transitional housing, and 44% unsheltered.

This paper, from the National Poverty Center, analyzes current housing policy with relation to the recent trends of the low income population becoming decentralized. Authors seek to investigate if this strategy equates to increased economic efficiency by reviewing data from large metropolitan areas across the country.

From the National Center on Substance Abuse and Child Welfare, this paper provides an overview of methamphetamine, as social workers are seeing an increasing number of children and families affected by meth. Authors present the most current research on methamphetamine, its effects on families, and treatment options available.

This report from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) outlines best practices in policy regarding children's mental health and offers views on the status of family and youth support and advocacy systems. Authors conclude by highlighting selected innovative interventions.

A National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) publication entitled "Broke But Not Deadbeat: Reconnecting Low-Income Fathers and Children" addresses the circumstances faced by low-income fathers who are not able to meet their required child support payments, the implications and consequences for the children, and the opportunities available through the TANF, Welfare-to-Work, and Workforce Investment Act to assist this population.

This paper from the Center for the Study of Social Policy is part of a series on improving service delivery to victims and families affected by domestic violence. Particularly, domestic violence can have a wide range of effects on children, including developmental difficulties. However, many children develop resiliency to the violence at home due to caregiver attachment. This specific resource offers recommendations to help low-income families access support programs to help improve programs serving families.