Developed by the Urban Institute for the U.S. Department of Education, this guidance document recommends data collection strategies and data system structures to ensure Promise Neighborhoods can manage and produce measurable results. While this guidance document is written specifically for Promise Neighborhoods, these recommendations can be applied to other place-based initiatives.

On September 18 - 19, 2014, the Office of Family Assistance sponsored a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) technical assistance (TA) site visit to the Oregon Department of Human Services (DHS) (Region X). This visit was in response to rising TANF caseloads in the State, challenges addressing budgetary concerns, issues meeting the employment and service needs of TANF participants, and other concerns stemming from the ongoing effects of the recent recession. During this visit, TA coaches facilitated sessions in the following areas: program assessment, performance-based contracting, and change management. Staff visited the Community Works Project in Portland, Oregon and the Oregon Department of Human Services headquarters in Salem, Oregon and participated in the TANF Alliance Meeting at Central City Concern in Portland, Oregon. After each session, TA coaches were able to provide recommendations and key steps for implementing changes to their processes to improve collaboration with contractors and case management for TANF clients.

This e-learning guide from the Office of Community Services, Compassion Capital Fund (CCF)/Strengthening Communities Fund (SCF) is designed to help organizations identify, evaluate, and incorporate effective practices into their service delivery to improve organizational performance. Sections include: benchmarking basics; identifying areas of need; identifying effective practices; validating and classifying practices; and promoting and implementing effective practices.

The Office of Family Assistance held a webinar on Tuesday, January 19, 2016 from 2:00-3:30 pm EST on Service Options for Relative Caregivers in Child-Only Cases. Today almost half of the national TANF caseload consists of child-only cases, where the child is the only individual in the household receiving cash assistance. In a significant portion of these cases, a relative is caring for the child. There has been limited literature, however, on the strengths, barriers and needs of these children and their relative caregivers. There has also been limited information about the supportive services they may receive through TANF or other human services programs. In this facilitated webinar, presenters provided a descriptive and demographic overview of the relative child-only caseload, as well as the policies and practices that support them. It included examples from a kinship navigator program, as well as a TANF and child welfare system collaboration initiative.

In this webinar participants were able to:

• Understand the importance and prevalence of, as well as the strengths, barriers, and outcomes related to, relative caregivers and children in TANF child-only cases.
• Hear experiences and lessons learned from a kinship navigator program that is providing supportive services to relatives and children in child-only cases.
• Learn about collaborations between TANF and Child Welfare systems to share data and provide services to relative caregivers and children.

For users interested in the transcript of the webinar, the webinar recording is closed-captioned. 

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation presents findings from a study of two behavioral interventions: one that used behavioral messaging postcards and text messages to encourage participation in an optional meeting, and one that made the meeting easier to attend. The meeting was for Paycheck Plus, an earnings supplement program in which participants had previously enrolled. The study found that behavioral messaging led to a significant increase in the percentage of attending participants, sending text messages in addition to postcards was more effective than solely sending postcards, and there was no significant difference in response rates between the phone and in-person participants. The evidence shows the promise of using behavioral insights in marketing materials for more effective outcomes, as well as the challenges of engaging a low-income, urban population.

In this publication, the U.S. Census Bureau presents data on income and poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2015 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC). It notes that in 2014, the median household income was $53,657, which was not statistically different from the 2013 median household income of $54,462. The official poverty rate was 14.8% (46.7 million individuals) in 2014, which was not statistically different from the 2013 poverty rate. The data is also categorized by demographics such as race, ethnicity, and region. For most demographic categories, income estimates did not statistically differ between 2013 and 2014.

The Office of Family Assistance recently published the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application for the third quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. During that quarter, an average of 1.6 million families were receiving TANF and Separate State Program (SSP) assistance per month. This indicates a decrease of about four percent from the same time period in FY 2014.

This Office of Family Assistance Program Instruction (PI) reminds TANF jurisdictions that federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) funds cannot be used to provide juvenile justice services. The Office of Family Assistance identified that several states are using federal TANF and/or MOE funds to provide services to individuals who are under the jurisdiction of the state's juvenile justice system. This PI is to remind TANF agencies about established policy in this area.

In this interactive feature from the Center on the Developing Child, users will learn how the choices our government and service-providers make can help children and their communities as a whole become more resilient in the face of significant challenges.

This Information Memorandum (IM) encourages TANF and child welfare agencies to coordinate and share data on the children, youth, and families they both serve. It reminds TANF programs that they are permitted under federal law to determine their own confidentiality rules and recommends cross-training and information sharing across TANF and child welfare to maximize resources and services, and help families meet the requirements of both programs.