The capstone event for the Rural Communities Initiative was the Rural Leadership Forum that took place in Charleston, South Carolina on September 1-2, 2009. Representatives from the 16 rural TANF sites met to share lessons learned; explore leadership and sustainability plans; and discuss successes garnered and challenges encountered from the implementation of the Rural TANF sites’ TA plans over the past year.

From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, this resource gives an overview of the TANF provisions in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The Act Created an Emergency Contingency Fund under which states can receive 80 percent federal funding for increases (relative to a base year quarter) in certain TANF-related expenditures in federal fiscal years 2009 and 2010.

The Rural Communities Initiative conducted a Site Visit to the White Mountain Apache Tribal TANF Program based on their request for TA. Rural Communities Initiative staff partnered with consultants from the U.C. Davis Extension at the University of California to provide the Tribe with an in-depth needs assessment in order to strategize on developing solutions for programmatic improvement. The consultants, Julie Gondry and Dr. Geni Cowan, are Tribal TANF subject matter experts with program based skills in training, case management, and data reporting. Based upon the assessment results, the White Mountain Apache Tribal TANF Program will receive valuable recommendations to further enhance aspects of their program’s structure and administration to reach the end goal of self-sufficiency for their TANF participants.

Designed to serve as a guide for policymakers and practitioners, from Public/Private Ventures (P/PV), this piece outlines key strategies for replicating social programs. P/PV has had 30 years of experience designing, testing and replicating social programs, and this report outlines key structures that should be in place before replication is considered.

The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation conducted this study to better understand the characteristics and participation of American Indians and Alaska Natives in State and Tribal TANF programs over time. Researchers conducted comparisons between Tribal and non-Tribal caseloads across State TANF programs.

These resources are from the Welfare Peer TA Network workshop and include information specifically on increasing caseloads.

The Rural Communities Academy was the "kick off" event for the 16 selected rural sites and included time for each rural site team (consisting of four/five team members) to participate in information gathering, networking, and action planning. The team members who attended the Academy participated in workshops and plenary sessions, and met with Rural Content Specialists and representatives from other rural communities who shared their insight into strategies being utilized in rural areas with TANF participants.

Authored by Anne Sparks at Ohio University, this National Poverty Center Working Paper outlines the implementation of the ‘Within My Reach’ Curriculum in Oklahoma. The program is included in a week of orientation activities for new TANF participants at the Oklahoma Department of Human Services. This paper provides results from interviews with TANF participants who participated in the program and findings suggest that this program has been successful in promoting relationship skills among this population.

This was a session at the Urban Partnerships Initiative's National Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Atlanta and Kansas City, MO city partners offered strategies on tracking work participation rates through innovative case management.

This was a session at the Urban Partnerships Initiative's National Academy in Atlanta, Georgia. Chicago and Houston city partners shared strategies from their cities on getting to full engagement through integrated case management teams.