As part of Phase 1 of the project (2007-2008), the TANF FBCO team collected information on 139 promising partnerships between Federal, State, or local governments and FBCOs that provide employment and self-sufficiency services to TANF participants and other low-income populations. This Compendium documents the core competencies and organizational components of each local organization. Site profiles identify each organization’s demographics, characteristics of the population served, services and outcomes, and information on their partnership. From this information search, 23 programs were selected for further study.

This innovative program highlight is from the Center on Law and Social Policy, and provides information on the Arkansas Career Pathways Initiative (CPI) program. CPI provides academic and support services for low-income, low-skill individuals to acquire the degrees and credentials necessary to secure a job. The program is funded with TANF dollars, and students are eligible for the program if they are adult caretakers of children under 21 and have incomes below 250 percent of the federal poverty line.

This innovative program highlight is from the Center on Law and Social Policy, and provides information on Kentucky’s Ready-to-Work program. A collaboration between the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS), this program helps TANF participants pursue postsecondary degrees at Kentucky community and technical colleges.

From the Government Accountability Office (GAO), this report provides information on an evaluation that the GAO is conducting on the uses of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act). In this report, the GAO provides an update of the status of agencies’ efforts to implement previous GAO recommendations, and also makes new recommendations to improve accountability to the Departments of Education, Transportation (DOT), Energy (DOE), Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services, and to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and to the Office of Management and Budget (OMB).

This report is from MDRC and includes an evaluation of the Family Rewards cash transfer program in New York City, which began in 2007. The program offers cash rewards to specific family activities and outcomes to help families address immediate barriers but also to build human capital. Among the preliminary findings, researchers found that the program reduced current poverty and hardship, including hunger and some housing and health care hardships.

Chapin Hall conducted this study on multi-system families in Illinois and their use of services. Families using two or more social service programs consume 86 percent of the funding allocated for services. Researchers identify characteristics of multi-system families that receive more than one service from five programs, including mental health, substance abuse, foster care, adult incarceration, and juvenile incarceration.

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) authored this report on the TANF program to assess the state of the TANF program in the midst of the economic recession. Of 21 states surveyed, the TANF caseload grew from June 2008 to June 2009 in 12 states. Researchers provide an overview of factors that contributed to the decline in the TANF caseload since 1996 and give demographic data on participating versus nonparticipating families. The GAO concludes with the impact of the high participation more recently in the TANF caseload on child poverty.

On Wednesday, March 24, 2010, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance- Regions V and VII and the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration- Region V hosted an interactive videoconference on the uses of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 to improve summer employment for youth and low-income Americans. In addition, representatives from Los Angeles County presented on the successful use of ARRA funds, their strong TANF-WIA partnership, providing real life examples of how TANF and WIA agencies can work together to serve low-income youth and families with ARRA funds. HHS and DOL officials were on hand to answer questions and facilitate peer to peer dialogue.

The Promising Practices Network (PPN) is a group of individuals and organizations who are dedicated to providing quality evidence-based information about what works to improve the lives of children, families, and communities. The Promising Practices Network features descriptions of evaluated programs that improve outcomes for children. PPN programs can be found under a variety of topic areas, including poverty and welfare.

New York City’s Human Resource Administration designed and implemented the WeCARE program to assist the high number of TANF participants on their caseload with clinical barriers to work; the model has since been successful in moving clients with mental health and other needs off of cash assistance. This 2010 webinar provided TANF stakeholders with information on the program’s creation and implementation. Also available on PeerTA are reports from two site exchanges to WeCARE, with Wisconsin and Hawaii.