On November 29, 2011 the TANF Faith-Based and Community Organizations Initiative, sponsored by the Office of Family Assistance, hosted a Webinar that featured an innovative community-based homeless shelter, a TANF agency that successfully uses volunteering and a presentation from the Corporation for National and Community Service on ways to strategically integrate volunteers in your own community.

This brief was published by the Office of Disability Employment Policy of the U.S. Department of Labor’s National Technical Assistance and Research Center to Promote Leadership for Increasing the Employment and Economic Independence of Adults with Disabilities. The brief examines activities in place to help TANF recipients with disabilities move forward on the path to employment. It looks at opportunities and challenges for state governments in crafting supports and services, and offers a glimpse of strategies and approaches that some state TANF agencies are using to help recipients with a mental or physical disability secure and maintain employment.

Annually released by the Giving USA Foundation, this report details trends in charitable donating throughout 2010, the types of organizations giving money, and which charitable causes are receiving the funds. In 2010, contributions totaled $290.89 billion, which was a 3.8 percent increase over 2009, and 35 percent of the total was given to religious organizations and 14 percent to education.

In recent times, in part due to the economic recession, a focus on accountability and performance measurement has become more important across government agencies and programs. State and local Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs and researchers have shown an interest in the use of alternative/supplemental measures or differential metrics for measuring TANF program success and an interest in strategies for better understanding rates of poverty among families. In keeping with these salient foci, the National Association of Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop committee and the Colorado Department of Human Services submitted a joint technical assistance request to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance to convene a session at the workshop entitled Understanding the Supplemental Poverty Measure and Developing Differential Metrics to Strengthen the Effectiveness of TANF Programs. The session took place on September 13, 2011 and included representation from ACF leadership, TANF policy experts, and State representatives. The technical assistance request merged the two topics in order to maximize resources and to provide the attendees the opportunity to collectively engage in discussions on strategies to tailor recommendations on the TANF program that are (1) more responsive to the economic self-sufficiency, poverty reduction, and employment needs of low-income families; and (2) better measure States’ performance in achieving greater employment and poverty reduction objectives for low-income families based on a more clear understanding of who is indeed in poverty.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, created in 1996, is one of the key federal funding streams provided to states to assist low-income families. A critical aspect of TANF has been its focus on employment and self-sufficiency, and the primary means to measure State efforts in this area has been TANF's work participation requirements. When the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 (DRA) reauthorized TANF, it also made changes that were generally expected to strengthen these work requirements. Given the impending extension or reauthorization of TANF, this testimony primarily draws on previous GAO work to focus on (1) how the welfare caseload and related spending have changed since TANF was created and (2) how States have met work participation rates since DRA. To address these issues, in work conducted from August 2009 to May 2010, GAO analyzed State data reported to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS); surveyed State TANF administrators in 50 States and the District of Columbia; conducted site visits to Florida, Ohio, and Oregon, selected to provide geographic diversity and variation in TANF program characteristics; and reviewed relevant federal laws, regulations, and research. In July 2011, GAO updated this work by analyzing State data reported to HHS since that time. In addition, GAO gathered information on caseload changes through its forthcoming work on TANF child-only cases.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance Region IV convened the 2011 TANF Priority Update Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia on August 17-19, 2011 to discuss the status of TANF programs and foster peer dialogue among State TANF directors to discuss key issues impacting their programs and share best practices and lessons learned with their peers. The meeting brought together State TANF directors and program staff from across Region IV to strategize ways to guide low-income individuals and families to greater economic self-sufficiency while providing input and feedback on TANF legislation. Specific topics included asset building strategies for domestic violence survivors, service improvement for refugees and immigrants, career pathways and education, innovative solutions for economic recovery, and collaboration improvement strategies.

The Welfare Peer TA Web site has received an APEX award for publication excellence in the area of Web site writing and content. APEX awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence. For 2011, there were 3,300 entries across a variety of categories, and 957 winners were named across 130 subcategories.

State TANF programs are continuing to develop and implement strategies to improve the economic self-sufficiency of low-income families as they await a full reauthorization of the program scheduled for September 30, 2011. From improving outreach and engagement of eligible refugees and immigrants to successfully utilizing data to effectively make programmatic decisions, these programs are finding innovative ways to maximize resources to meet the needs of increasing families in need. The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance Regions V and VII convened the 2011 TANF Directors' Technical Assistance Meeting in Kansas City, Missouri, on June 28-29, 2011 to discuss the status of TANF programs and foster improved peer dialogue around practical solutions to common challenges facing TANF programs and recipients. The meeting brought together State TANF directors and program staff to strategize on ways to move low-income and working families closer to economic self-sufficiency while providing important input on the development of new TANF legislation. Specific topics included improving service delivery for domestic violence and trafficking victims, and asset development strategies to improve long-term economic development, maximizing TANF funds, policy/program innovations for streamlining services, and using data to influence program development and service delivery.

The Department of Health and Human Services launched Home Visiting Evidence of Effectiveness (HomVEE) to conduct a thorough and transparent review of the home visiting research literature and provide an assessment of the evidence of effectiveness for home visiting program models that target families with pregnant women and children from birth to age 5.

The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program was developed to assist low-income and working families transition into employment and achieve greater levels of economic self-sufficiency. State/Territory/Tribal TANF grantees are responsible for managing more than $16 billion in Federal funds and successfully managing TANF programs requires skill and understanding. On June 15-16, 2011, the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Regions I, II, and III hosted the first ever fiscal management workshop for TANF programs. The 2011 Tri-Regional TANF Fiscal Management Symposium in New York, New York covered topics from caseload reduction credits and maintenance of effort (MOE), to cost allocation, audits, and penalties and provided TANF program representatives with the most comprehensive and hands-on training on managing TANF programs available.