The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released the HPOG Annual Report to highlight information regarding the program after its second year of operation. The report provides an overview of HPOG grantees, characteristics of participants, activities in which participants were engaged, training and employment outcomes, and how grantee programs continued to evolve in the second year of the program. The report was developed as part of the HPOG Implementation, Systems, and Outcome Project, which is being led by Abt Associates in partnership with the Urban Institute.

The National Center for Children in Poverty released a policy report offering a summary of the various approaches States are taking or propose to take to balance their budget. The report highlights revenue and spending side approaches that are protective of low-income families and endeavor to identify some best practices that other States might adopt. The report closes by drawing some lessons in fiscal management that may help States better weather future downturns without putting their most vulnerable populations at risk.

The Institute for Research on Poverty released an article discussing a new policy being tested in New York City that adopts the conditional cash transfer principle and that is extended to a broader set of family efforts to build human capital. Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards seeks to boost family income in the short-term while building families' capacity to avoid poverty in the long-term without increasing their reliance on government assistance. In this article, a summary of the results of a published random assignment evaluation is provided, showing that the program had more modest effects than had been anticipated.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families released a report outlining their portfolio of research related to welfare and family self-sufficiency projects for the fiscal year 2013. OPRE's research focuses on four major areas: TANF and the Safety Net, Employment and the Labor Market, Education and Training, and other relevant cross-cutting research.

On September 25 and 26, 2012, Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Administrators along with other key stakeholders gathered in San Francisco for the Region IX 2012 Tribal TANF Technical Assistance Workshop. The central purpose of this workshop was to enable attendees to dialogue with one another and hear from field experts on a variety of critical topics pertaining to Tribal TANF program administration. Attendees were also provided with the opportunity to network amongst their peers and share recent successes and challenges. Over the course of the two-day workshop, a number of important topics were addressed, including: case management to achieve successful outcomes; creating opportunities for Tribal TANF participants via partnerships and collaborations; successful work placements for Tribal TANF participants; TANF penalty process; and supporting Tribal TANF participants with co-occurring substance abuse and mental health disorders.

On August 14 and 15, 2012, State and Territory Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Administrators along with other key stakeholders gathered in San Francisco for the Region IX 2012 TANF Innovations in Action Forum. The central purpose of this forum was to enable attendees to discuss critical issues pertaining to TANF program administration and to explore new strategies for improving TANF programs for low-income and working families in their States and Territories. Attendees were also provided with the opportunity to report on the current status of TANF programs at the local level and to receive updates on current TANF policy developments. Over the course of the two-day forum, a number of important topics were addressed, including: work-oriented programs for vulnerable populations and youth; subsidized employment and transitional jobs programs; innovative case management and service coordination models; career pathways and work study programs for TANF participants; and privatization models and call centers.

On June 26-27, 2012, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Region IX Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Office held the annual Tribal TANF meeting for Arizona Tribes in the Region. The meeting provided an opportunity for Tribal TANF programs to join together to network and share lessons learned and best practices that will help lead to improved program effectiveness. The meeting provided information on key ACF initiatives and provided a forum for discussing strategies for increasing and improving employment and self-sufficiency outcomes for Tribal TANF participants through supportive services, assessments, career pathways models, and healthy relationship skills.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Region IX hosted representatives from Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, and Nevada at the 2013 Region IX TANF Peer Collaboration and Technical Assistance Workshop in American Canyon, California on September 10-11, 2013. State and territory representatives shared strategies they are utilizing to improve program performance and outcomes for TANF participants. Experts from the field added to the discussions with presentations on the role of TANF in resolving homelessness; engaging non-custodial parents as a strategy to facilitating family self-sufficiency; utilizing peer mentor approaches to improve client engagement; and emerging research opportunities in the TANF field.

The Region IV Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA); Region IV U.S. Department of Labor (DOL); and Region IV Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) convened a meeting entitled "Sustainable Employment Strategies: A TANF, Workforce, and Child Support Collaboration" in Atlanta, Georgia, from August 14-16, 2013. The meeting provided TANF, Workforce, and Child Support administrators and staff with an open forum for discussing critical issues impacting the collaboration of their respective entities towards sustainable employment strategies for their TANF and hard-to-serve population, and an opportunity to network both amongst themselves and with Region IV leadership. Region IV staff from each agency--ACF, DOL, and OCSE--shared lessons learned and gathered strategies that can improve their own programs' ability to identify and address multiple barriers, and develop pathways to create sustainable employment and career building opportunities for program participants. In addition, the meeting gave participants an opportunity to meet with their individual State teams to develop action plans that support interagency collaboration.

The second webinar in the 2013 Regions VI & VIII TANF Webinar Series: TANF Data Reporting and Analysis was held on August 1, 2013. The webinar, sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Regions VI and VIII, was open to all Region VI and VIII State TANF Directors and staff, local TANF agencies, and contractors and highlighted Julie Siegel as the featured speaker. Ms. Siegel is a Program Specialist at ACF's Office of Family Assistance who works in the TANF State Policy Division, focusing primarily on policy relating to work activities, work participation rates, and caseload reduction credits. During her presentation, Ms. Siegel focused on the important role that the caseload reduction credit plays in the TANF work participation rate process, including how the credit is calculated, how eligibility changes affect the credit, and how the excess maintenance of effort spending affects the state's work participation rate. Ms. Siegel was joined during the presentation by her colleague Peter Germanis, Senior Policy Advisor/National Expert at ACF's Office of Family Assistance.