At the request of the Utah Department of Workforce Services, the OFA Peer TA Network sponsored this event to assist participants in improving systems and resources for providing services to TANF participants residing in rural areas. This Roundtable included participants from the Utah Department of Health and Welfare’s Regional Offices, and representatives from programs in Texas, New Mexico, Virginia, and Vermont. Partner states presented on innovative ways to serve rural families and address barriers to employment in States with large rural areas. Networking sessions afforded participants the opportunity to leverage the Roundtable as a catalyst for action planning efforts across and among regions in the State of Utah.

At the request of the Mississippi Department of Human Services, Peer TA sponsored this event to assist participants in improving job retention among TANF participants who have relocated to new areas. The Roundtable’s intent was to address systems and resources for providing services to TANF participants residing in rural areas. This Roundtable included participants from the Mississippi Department of Human Services Regional Offices, and representatives from partner programs in Mississippi, Nevada, North Dakota, and Ohio. Features of the Roundtable included interactive dialogue among participants to facilitate action planning for Mississippi to strategize about next steps for necessary programmatic and policy changes, and opportunities for participants to learn from one another and share ideas.

The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation authored the Annual Report to Congress for 2007 on Indicators of Welfare Dependence. Welfare dependence is defined as the proportion of individuals that receive more than half of their total income in one year from TANF, food stamps and/or SSI. This report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2004 and offers information on the changes in dependence since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. In 2004, 3.7 percent of the total population was dependent on assistance from these programs, which is significantly lower than the 5.2 percent rate measured in 1996.

This brief from Child Trends reviews characteristics for replicating effective practices for enhancing service delivery. Program replication is often crucial to implementing the most appropriate services for special populations. The key for program reproduction includes learning core intervention components and core implementation components.

This brief from the Urban Institute reviews four key service systems that serve vulnerable families with young children: Early Head Start; the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; the child welfare system; and the Part C Early Intervention Program. Authors review data on the demographics of infants and toddlers served by these programs.

From the Commonwealth Fund, this study provides insights on community health initiatives that seek to serve the uninsured by connecting people to health care services and health insurance. Community health initiatives unite key stakeholders and build on relationships to support the local safety net within the community. Findings from the study show the importance of a state context for community initiatives and challenges in replicating such initiatives.

This newsletter, from the Casey Foundation, provides information on initiatives to promote community engagement. The Plain Talk initiative was designed in the mid-1990s to help educate youth on pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases. Through many Casey Foundation initiatives, resident engagement strategies have been successful by giving residents a voice in shaping solutions to local challenges and in linking residents together.

This Child Trends Research Brief reviews the neighborhood support index in terms of how neighborhoods can affect children and families. Research has shown that recreation centers in disadvantaged neighborhoods are associated with reductions in crime and violence. Additionally, researchers have found that neighborhood characteristics, such as too few play areas, heavy street traffic, or too many abandoned homes, can have a negative impact for children. Utilizing data from the 2003 National Survey of Children’s Health, authors construct a Neighborhood Support Index.

From the Rand Drug Policy Research Center, this study reviews how outcome data can be used in measuring the performance of substance abuse treatment programs for teenagers. Researchers also identified barriers to performance measurement that raise questions about the practicality of using outcome data to assess substance abuse treatment programs.

From the Alliance for Children and Families, this Practice and Policy Focus provides information on family poverty in the United States. This resource offers information on strategies to improve the well-being of families in poverty, which include empowering families with financial management training and other resources available to address barriers to economic self-sufficiency.