Self-regulation skills are the skills needed to finish tasks, stay organized, and control emotions. These skills are important for succeeding in work, school, and other aspects of life. But recent research suggests that the stresses and uncertainty of poverty can be overwhelming, leaving less mental bandwidth for effective development and use of self-regulation skills. For this reason, some TANF and other employment programs that serve adults with low incomes have begun to work on strengthening self-regulation skills by implementing employment coaching. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief shares promising strategies and lessons learned that human services staff might adopt to help program participants use and strengthen self-regulation skills.

Research suggests that the stresses and uncertainty of poverty can be overwhelming, leaving less mental bandwidth for effective development and use of self-regulation skills, including those that are critical in finding and maintaining employment. It also suggests that coaching can promote self-regulation skills and hence may be a way to help adults with low incomes become economically secure. For this reason, some Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and other employment programs that serve adults with low incomes have been implementing employment coaching. These four impact briefs by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation present estimates of impacts of coaching on participants’ self-regulation skills, employment, earnings, self-sufficiency, and other measures of personal and family well-being at 9 or 12 months after study enrollment.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Competency Model Clearinghouse will be hosting a webinar on December 13, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET where they will present new tools and innovations designed to empower the public workforce system, businesses, non-profits, human resources professionals, and career counselors to identify key competencies needed across industries. Attendees will learn how to effectively use the tools to engage industries and strengthen sector strategies.

The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse is a website funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE). The website summarizes decades of research on programs and interventions that aim to improve employment outcomes for people with low incomes. In this Clearinghouse video, OPRE’s Clare DiSalvo talks with former state TANF administrator Ella Gifford-Hawkins about how TANF and other program providers can use the Clearinghouse to make evidence-informed decisions as they design, adapt, and seek to strengthen their programs and improve the odds that the job seekers they serve will succeed in the labor market.

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020-2023 forced TANF programs to rethink service delivery. Programs were forced to find new ways to implement policies and innovate through the use of technology. In response, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) launched the Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience (LASER) TANF Learning Community (TLC). LASER TLC builds on the immediate adaptations to the pandemic. It helps programs design and implement sustainable strategies for the post-pandemic world.

Four of the ten program teams, highlighted here, focused their efforts on modernization projects. These four TANF program teams are: the Scotts Valley Band of Pomo Indians Tribal TANF program; the North Carolina Work First Program; the Kentucky Works Program; and the North Dakota TANF Program.

This brief highlights the small and large ways of approaching TANF modernization. It further offers insight into what can be achieved through small, intentional steps guided by a bold vision for innovation.

Employment coaching is increasingly considered an alternative to traditional case management in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other employment programs. In employment coaching, coaches work collaboratively with participants to set individualized goals. These goals could be directly related to finding, keeping, or advancing in a job, or could be indirectly related to employment, such as completing education or training programs. This Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation brief describes the lessons learned about the coach–participant relationship from talking with coaching program staff and participants as part of the Evaluation of Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations. It discusses the benefits of strong coach–participant relationships, approaches to building them, program features that can affect them, and how program leaders can promote them.

The BOOST initiative connects families with low incomes to critical human services supports and educational and career pathways to advance multigenerational family economic success. In six cities — Baltimore, Green Bay, Hartford, New York City (Queens), Portland, and Syracuse — community colleges and human services nonprofits have partnered to support the economic advancement of families as part of the BOOST initiative. This Jobs for the Future brief explores how these partnerships can advance multigenerational family economic success and how to lean into their unique strengths as they seek to achieve this goal. It looks at how the sites are working to change policies and access funding to support their partnership goals. It also highlights practices and insights learned, with the intent of aiding and accelerating other efforts to follow this collaborative path.

The ACF Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar to summarize the open Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (NPRM): Strengthening TANF as a Safety Net and Work Program and instructed interested parties on how to submit a formal comment.

The NPRM is intended to strengthen TANF's role in supporting family well-being and work, as well as creating additional accountability for states to ensure TANF funds serve their intended purpose, while maintaining state flexibility. 

Review the recording here as you are preparing to submit formal comments on the NPRM for HHS consideration. Comments are due December 1, 2023. HHS welcomes comments from all affected parties and will closely review and consider every comment it receives. We refer you to the NPRM on information on how to submit comments if you wish to do so. 

If you have questions about the webinar, please email TANFquestions@acf.hhs.gov. 

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar to provide an overview of the revisions to instructions for TANF data report (Forms ACF-199 and ACF-209), with a focus on key, substantive changes. The changes made to the TANF Data Report instructions are intended to streamline the data collection and eliminate unnecessary data elements. The instructions were also revised to clarify confusing instructions and improve data quality. OFA hopes this session will help states and territories more efficiently and accurately report data on their TANF caseloads, beginning with the first quarter FY 2024 data, due February 14, 2024.

Please review the recording here.