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.

On September 10-11, 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance hosted the Regions V & VII TANF Priority Update Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri. Representatives from Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, and Wisconsin met to network and share lessons learned and promising practices and to seek guidance from Federal and Regional staff in a number of different areas, including: planning to implement TANF EBT requirements, understanding the implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, addressing homelessness through TANF, utilizing data to inform program practices, developing career pathways for TANF participants, and discussing key TANF issues with Federal ACF leadership.

This publication provides an in-depth, systematic description of program implementation, operations, outputs, and outcomes of four Tribal TANF programs (the Navajo Nation Program for Self Reliance, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Athabascan Self-Sufficiency Assistance Project, and South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency).  The publication also identifies promising practices and other areas for further study.

Overall, the study found that tribes use the flexibility of Tribal TANF to create diverse programs that reflect their unique circumstances, opportunities, and cultures.  Elements of tribal culture were evident in the program design, in the way program staff and clients interacted, and in the types of activities in which clients were engaged.  The Tribal TANF programs in the study generally focus on the broad goal of self-sufficiency, beyond the narrower goal of employment.(author abstract)

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions I, II and III hosted representatives from 14 States in the Northeast region at the 2013 Tri-Regional Technical Assistance Meeting entitled "Developing an Exit Strategy for Leaving TANF on the Pathway to Family Stability." This meeting was held on September 17-19, 2013 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) stakeholders were brought together to engage with peers on innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well-being for individuals, families and communities. State and territory representatives shared strategies they are utilizing to overcome barriers to self-sufficiency. In addition to peer networking and dialogue with ACF and OFA leadership, experts from the field presented on topics ranging from the intersection of learning disabilities and TANF families, to maximizing collaborations to improve TANF program outcomes.

This short paper examines the effects the Great Recession had on both TANF and SSI take up rates. It also examines the effect that welfare reform had on SSI rates and concludes that since welfare reform in 1996, SSI has been playing a larger part in the general safety net for low-income individuals and families.

In response to the technical assistance and program needs of States throughout the Southeast, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Region IV, and the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Region IIII, hosted a technical assistance meeting from July 24-26, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. This meeting allowed member States to work alongside their peers to outline specific challenges faced by TANF and WIA agencies and the families they serve and posit plausible peer-based solutions for moving low-income and working families toward economic self-sufficiency. State TANF and WIA directors and program staff also discussed ways to promote interagency collaboration. Topics included: engaging veterans and military families in the TANF and WIA systems; leveraging partnerships to strengthen subsidized employment and transitional job initiatives; developing demand-driven career pathways for low-income individuals and TANF participants; maximizing WIA youth and TANF funds to support summer youth employment initiatives; and improving skill-building for low-income individuals and TANF participants with barriers to employment.

A strong, stable, and comprehensive social safety-net is critical to the well-being of low-income and working families. Strong partnerships not only improve the quantity of services delivered, but also contribute to the overall quality of available services that families rely on in order to become economically self-sufficient. The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Regions I, II, and III hosted the 2012 East Coast Strategic Collaborations Workshop in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on September 18-20, 2012 in an effort to bring together TANF, workforce, child support, responsible fatherhood, housing, and community services stakeholders to map out a plan for better communication and collaboration. The workshop included targeted discussions with policy, research, and service delivery experts and culminated with an interactive building of a self-sufficiency puzzle made up of specific next steps, action items, and technical assistance needs. The workshop brought together State TANF directors, local Workforce Investment Board (WIB) directors, and other human service administrators and leaders to strategize on ways to better coordinate services for low-income and working families while improving program performance and service delivery outcomes. Workshop topics included the role of TANF in the safety-net, the current and future research agenda, career pathways, subsidized employment, and partnership development.