Two-generation models aim to interrupt the cycle of poverty by providing services for low-income children and their parents. However, the models themselves vary widely and policymakers and practitioners need guidance on how to best design them to achieve their ambitious goals and capitalize on their multiplier effects. This brief from the Urban Institute builds on the insights from the Housing Opportunities and Services Together (HOST) Demonstration and presents an updated theoretical framework for two-generation models. The framework emphasizes the importance of using family goals as the lens for targeting individual family members, setting individual goals, and aligning tailored solutions.

This brief from the Family Welfare Research and Training Group looks at the experience of individuals after participation in Maryland’s Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program. The findings indicate that a substantial number were “disconnected leavers” with no source of income after they exited the program. Disconnected leavers are those who are simultaneously not participating in the workforce and not receiving cash assistance, whether TCA benefits or Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits. The brief provides a profile of short-term disconnected leavers and shows how they differ from longer-term disconnected leavers.

This resource from CLASP presents 12 key lessons from the Work Support Strategies (WSS) initiative, which provided grant funds and technical assistance to help six states (Rhode Island, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Colorado, and Idaho) analyze their service delivery systems and implement improvements to ensure that more families get the full package of work support benefits for which they are eligible. The information can help leaders and advocates in other states review programs and streamline processes to ensure that low-income working families can access and keep benefits for as long as they are eligible.

On Tuesday, March 15, 2016 the Office of Family Assistance hosted an Affinity Call Webinar for the Systems to Family Stability National Policy Academy sites. The webinar highlighted the recently launched OFA PeerTA Systems to Family Stability National Policy Academy Resource Hub, which serves as a repository for research, resources, and tools related to the focus areas of the eight site teams. Each team also provided an update on the accomplishments they had made to date through their Policy Academy efforts, and their plans moving forward.

This Year in Review from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) highlights the Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Research Consortium’s individual and collective efforts to make meaningful contributions to the family self-sufficiency field in 2015. The goal of the Consortium is to improve the lives of low-income families and children by integrating research, policy, and practice on family self-sufficiency and stability. The projects within the Consortium include the Advancing Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Research Project, the Family Self-Sufficiency and Stability Research Scholars Network, and the Family Self-Sufficiency Data Center.

The goal of this manual, created by the Motivational Interviewing Network of Trainers, is to provide guidance on training staff to utilize motivational interviewing techniques in their work with clients. It includes training exercises and activities, which can also be translated for work with adolescent and young adult clients.

The Office of Family Assistance published a Program Instruction (PI) on the adequate access provisions of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) EBT regulation. Section 4004 of Pub. L. 112-96, the Middle Class Tax Relief and Job Creation Act of 2012, requires states to maintain policies and practices that prevent TANF-funded assistance from being used in any electronic benefit transfer (EBT) transaction in any liquor store, casino, gambling casino, or gaming establishment, or any retail establishment that provides adult-oriented entertainment in which performers disrobe or perform in an unclothed state for entertainment. Public Law 112-96 also requires states to include in their state TANF plans an explanation of how the state will ensure that recipients of TANF assistance: have adequate access to their cash assistance; have access to using or withdrawing assistance with minimal fees or charges, including an opportunity to access assistance with no fees or charges; and are provided information on applicable fees and surcharges that apply to electronic fund transactions involving the assistance. The state must also ensure that such information is made publicly available. This PI provides examples of strategies that state TANF agencies may use to ensure access to cash assistance and minimize or eliminate fees for recipients, as required by law.

The Office of Family Assistance posted the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Eleventh Report to Congress. The report provides data through Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 and presents information regarding TANF expenditures and caseloads, work participation and earnings, the characteristics and financial circumstances of TANF recipients, TANF performance measures, interactions between TANF and child support, and specific provisions of state TANF programs. The report also documents current family self-sufficiency and stability-related research, describes federal efforts to promote healthy marriage and responsible fatherhood, provides national data on out-of-wedlock births, and presents child poverty statistics.

In the webinar, Ascend shared examples of 2Gen work currently being implemented across the country and highlighted opportunities ahead. The webinar occurred June 29, 2016 from 4:00-5:00 p.m. EDT.