Engaging employers is key in supporting youth transition in the workforce and foster job retention and advancement. This paper, from the Center for Children at the University of Chicago, provides the findings from interviews with youth program providers, employers, and policy makers. Researchers conclude by identifying disconnects in the service delivery and offer recommendations on how providers can expand employer involvement.

This report describes this Rapid Response Technical Assistance event held in Washington, DC, September 5-6, 2001. The purpose of this conference was to give practitioners an opportunity to exchange information on experiences, learn of promising program strategies, and consider what can be done in to carry out the next phase of welfare reform.

This article offers strategies for education programs to sustain and grow, despite diminishing funding. Authors review challenges for States regarding this issue and supporting worker advancement. Successful strategies include focusing on local economic sectors that will provide the most potential for economic development.

This report, co-authored by the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices and Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) is based largely on a roundtable meeting conducted in April 2000 by both organizations to discuss expanding postsecondary opportunities for low-income working parents and welfare recipients.

Examining federal, state, and institutional programs, the paper presents a framework for understanding challenges to securing comprehensive financial assistance for low-income working students. The paper identifies promising approaches for supplementing student financial aid based on a range of programs implemented in the past and planned for the future. It also raises issues that bear consideration in designing a program that would be both effective in ways that can be measured through random assignment studies and replicable.

The Institute for Women’s Policy Research (IWPR) studied TANF applicants taking part in a post-secondary education program through a local non-profit while on the TANF caseload. By interviewing students, this study explored the challenges and rewards of the program experiences of low-income mothers.

The Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Administration for Children and Families, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), in conjunction with the National Organization of Black County Officials (NOBCO) convened a two day workshop in Jackson, Mississippi, to disseminate information to county officials in a seven state area about the advantages of participating in the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) program.

Since the establishment of TANF, welfare cases declined by 52 percent nationally. However, child-only cases declined by only 25 percent. Half of the child-only are currently residing with a relative. There is little information on these children and if they are receiving benefits. This publication explores this population and gives information on the well-being of these children and their needs.

In July 2005, Louisiana Department of Social Services held a planning meeting to build on the success of the EITC campaign to prepare for the 2005 tax year. However, with the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina, the target population for EITC/CTC outreach relocated outside of the State. Due to the change in target population, this Roundtable was convened to update and amend program strategies in response to Katrina, to assess the capacity of community organizations to provide free tax assistance services, and to determine how to provide critical outreach to displaced families in the 2006 tax season.

This is a November 2003 Newsletter generated by the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network on how TANF and Child Support Enforcement can partner to better serve families.