As part of the Rural Communities Initiative and the Vermont site’s Individualized Technical Assistance Plan, Vermont decided to alter their TANF case management approach. Through a series of meetings, the team sketched out a new case management structure which included a team approach in place of one- on- one case management. In addition, the team decided that their staff could benefit from additional training in career coaching. To this end, the team requested that Charles Modiano, a youth development and employment initiative trainer, hold a training for all staff around career coaching and team based case management. The training was held March 25-26, 2009, and was attended by three of Vermont’s Economic Services Districts as well as the Vermont Economic Services central office. Due in part to this training, Vermont has developed a new model of service delivery, moving away from traditional case management and toward a community based teaming model of service. This model brings together all community partners working with the TANF participant to provide enhanced support towards reaching self-sufficiency. Also, as a result of the on-site training, the team chose to change the language used in service delivery to convey their philosophy of team oriented service. For example, the initial contact with a participant is now referred to as a “welcoming interview” instead of intake or assessment.

As a strategy to provide asset-based training for caseworkers and serve New Mexico's growing population of individuals with substance abuse barriers, New Mexico Works requested a substance abuse case management training, with a focus on motivational interviewing techniques. The training was designed and delivered by Dr. Alyssa Forcehimes from the University of New Mexico Center on Alcoholism, Substance Abuse and Addictions. The curriculum was delivered over one day in April 2009 and two days in July 2009. The training provided participants with an overview of substance abuse in the TANF population, strategies for building self-efficacy in TANF participants, and ways to motivate participants to make positive behavioral changes. The New Mexico substance abuse case management training was attended by 35 caseworkers and managers. Evaluations from the training indicated that participants acquired a set of tools that can assist their clients in overcoming substance abuse barriers. A section of the training was also dedicated to strategies for conducting train-the-trainer sessions at participants' home sites.

Please be advised that the combination of approved and pending applications for the TANF Emergency Fund now exceeds $5 billion. As a result, OFA has implemented the enhanced procedures for processing Emergency Fund applications. As the PI explains, OFA has established a queue to award remaining emergency funds, with a queue date established for jurisdictions with outstanding applications that were submitted before the tipper (i.e., the application that resulted in our reaching the $5 billion point) came in, and queue dates for those that have come in after the tipper was received. An application’s queue date determines its position in the queue for receiving remaining TANF emergency funds, including de-obligated funds that become available if an award is adjusted downward based on updated data.

The final report is now available! The Administration for Children and Families Regions VI and VIII and the Employment and Training Administration Region IV came together to host the Client Success through Partnership: 2010 TANF and Workforce Meeting in Dallas, Texas from July 25-27, 2010. The meeting contained a series of targeted discussion forums, interactive plenary sessions, and peer-to-peer breakouts coordinated to improve partnership and collaboration among TANF and workforce programs. Over the two and one-half days, attendees were exposed to a variety of sessions presented by more than 20 distinguished experts and peers from the TANF, workforce, social service, and research communities.

The Welfare Peer TA Network held a one day training on July 16, 2010 for the Workforce Solutions Texoma Board in Denison, Texas. The training, Motivational Interviewing: Creating a Culture of Work and Academic Achievement, was designed to help attendees identify strategies that motivate TANF participants to work and/or further their academic achievement. The training included a focus on motivating Texas TANF participants coded as exempt to participate in employment-related activities.

From the Center for Law and Social Policy, Maine’s Parents as Scholars (PaS) program provides services to Maine TANF participants who are pursuing two-year or four-year postsecondary degrees. The program is open to all TANF participants who did not previously have a bachelor’s degree in a field with available jobs or do not make 85 percent of Maine’s median income for their family size in their current field. Participants must remain full-time students, maintain at least a 2.0 grade point average, and must be on track to complete their degree programs in the usual two or four years.

The Urban Institute hosted this Web cast with four experts from across the social policy spectrum. Speakers discussed lessons learned from public policies and programs that they have had experienced in the line of their work. Panelists included Greg Berman, the director of the Center for Court Innovation; Martha R. Burt, an affiliated scholar with the Urban Institute and expert in homelessness, welfare, hunger, and social service delivery; Kevin Finneran, the editor-in-chief of Issues in Science and Technology; Olivia Golden, an Institute fellow at the Urban Institute whose work focuses on service delivery, leadership, and political strategies human services programs, and; Susan J. Popkin, an expert on assisted housing and mobility and a senior fellow at the Urban Institute.

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.