MDRC’s new web series entitled “In Practice: Lessons for and from Practitioners” includes tips, tools, and stories based on program collaborations. This first blog post focuses on key questions that program managers should ask as they set benchmarks that provide short-term goals to measure progress towards longer-term goals integral to service delivery.

This Administration for Children and Families brief provides guidance on how financial capability services are integrated into existing programs that are delivered to TANF participants. The brief is divided into four sections: centering the client voice, securing buy-in from line staff for delivering financial capability services, identifying areas for integration of services, and using data for service delivery evaluation. Lessons from the field highlight TANF agencies’ experiences in Delaware, Hawaii, Oregon, and Washington State.

The Food Research and Action Center has developed an interactive data set to analyze the extent of hunger and the use of nutrition programs to stem food insecurity on a state-by-state level. Data in these interactive tables include demographic patterns, participation in state food security programs (including school breakfast and lunch, summer nutrition, SNAP, and Emergency Food Assistance programs and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children), and state economic security policies (including TANF and EITC).

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation practice brief examines the first phase of the Learn, Innovate, Improve process (LI2) model for systems change. The LI2 model is an approach to implement systems change intentionally, to guide change systematically, and to use evidence and research to inform this change. The brief explores the “learn phase,” which identifies the reasons for systems change, the problems to be addressed by the change, and organizational readiness for change.

This Urban Institute research brief offers a set of demographic data and definitions that addresses misconceptions about the reach of U.S. safety net programs. In particular, the analysis distinguishes between “means tested” and universally received benefit programs and those supports that are received monthly compared to those received annually. Programs outlined and reviewed in this report are SNAP; Supplemental Security Income; TANF cash assistance; public or subsidized housing; Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children; and the Child Care and Development Fund.

This Office of Family Assistance-sponsored webinar on February 26, 2019 discussed the complexities of engaging two-parent families in TANF, and featured strategies to improve employment outcomes through relationship education. Representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Insight Policy Research, Public Strategies and the Urban Institute participated.

This policy evaluation from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison assesses the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration project. The report covers 18 implementation sites, where half of the 10,161 demonstration project enrollees received enhanced child support services, employment assistance, parenting education delivered in a peer-supported format, and case management. The other half of enrollees were in a control group and did not receive extra services. Report findings suggest that future programs might invest in strong partnerships and communication systems as well as support customer-oriented approaches for enrollees. There are also recommendations on recruiting staff who can manage large caseloads and designing and delivering services to support sustained engagement among program participants.

This Federal Register notice is an update of the poverty guidelines by income and size of household. This new set of guidelines reflects a 2.4 percent increase in the Consumer Price Index between calendar years 2017 and 2018 and is used as an eligibility criterion by Medicaid and other Federal programs.

This Urban Institute report illustrates the complexity of work requirements that parents encounter, either to comply with program regulations or to increase their work engagement. There is also discussion about how parents can access the supports necessary to comply with requirements and how assistance affects the economic well-being of parents and children as work requirements are implemented or expanded.

This updated and expanded report from the Congressional Research Service provides a summary of TANF block grant information and addresses frequently asked questions. The report covers TANF funding and expenditures, TANF caseload data, level of TANF cash benefits, and TANF work participation standards.