The Administration for Children and Families, is accepting nominations (including self-nominations) of state, territory, and county TANF agencies to become TANF agency pilots under the TANF Data Collaborative and receive support in becoming more data-driven in their program delivery. Up to eight pilot sites will be selected for a period of 30 months and will receive direct funding, targeted and hands-on technical assistance and training, individual support from TANF and data analytic experts, and peer learning opportunities on data use in program design and administration. Nominations are due by September 30, 2019.

This Urban Institute report highlights qualitative data to explain the reasons why low-wage workers apply for public assistance initially. The report is drawn from interviews with 40 individuals who recently separated from low-wage work and received or participated in Medicaid, SNAP, the Minnesota Family Investment Program, cash assistance, or unemployment insurance. The focus of the study is to understand why workers lose or leave low-wage work and how these workers get by on low and fluctuating income; these factors can determine worker outcomes for receiving assistance and improved outcomes for self-sufficiency.

MDRC will host a webinar on July 18, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to introduce the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) and launch the TDC Pilot. Presenters will discuss three ways that TDC supports data-driven management and will cover how TANF agencies can access TDC pilot funding and receive a scholarship for attending data analytics training.

This Chapin Hall issue brief reviews: child welfare workers’ perceptions of county-level availability of training and the range of services available for transition-age foster youth; workers’ views about the collaboration between child welfare departments and other service delivery systems; and the correlation between foster youth satisfaction with training and services and outcomes in education, homelessness, employment and health. The analysis relies on longitudinal studies from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) conducted in 2013 and 2015. Report findings point to the need for increased collaboration among child welfare and other systems, as well as connection of foster youths’ satisfaction with offered services to support service delivery.

The June issue of the MDRC operations web series “In Practice: Lessons for and from Practitioners” provides guidance on participant recruitment for community improvement programs. The blogpost outlines eight key steps towards implementing recruitment strategies: know your target audience, market the benefits of your program, establish and train a recruitment team, get the word out, connect with referral partners, set realistic recruitment goals and track your progress, put your recruitment plan in writing, review progress regularly, and reward success.

This Urban Institute report reviews the use of outcomes-based contracts (OBCs), which tie government payments to improvements in service delivery. The report examines the benefit of using OBCs to incentivize performance from external contactors, as well as the challenges and risks in administration and effect on service delivery. Findings are drawn from field interviews and external researchers.

This Administration for Children and Families Information Memorandum presents state Work Participation Rates for FY2018. The dataset includes state-by-state information regarding TANF and SSP-MOE work participation rates and standards, caseload reduction credits, the number of work-eligible individuals, and activities in which individuals participated.

More than half the caseload of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program consists of child-only cases, in which a child receives TANF cash assistance but the parent or caregiver does not. The most common type of child-only case is a nonparent caregiver case, consisting of children being cared for by someone other than their parents, often a grandparent. Research suggests that nonparent caregiver cases are often vulnerable with many unmet needs and that the children in these cases share characteristics with children living in foster care: mental health conditions, school-related problems, and experience with trauma. Kinship navigator programs can be an important tool for supporting these families. Most states are developing or expanding these programs, and the federal government has provided funding in fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to state and eligible tribal child welfare agencies to develop, enhance, or evaluate kinship navigator programs. The Family First Prevention Services Act amended the Social Security Act to allow title IV-E agencies to receive funding for kinship navigator programs that meet certain evidence-based criteria; see ACYF-CB-PI-18-11 for program requirements.

On July 16, 2019, the Office of Family Assistance, in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau, sponsored a webinar that featured kinship navigator programs operating in three states and the services they offer to nonparent caregivers. Arizona Kinship Support Services connects kinship families to government benefits, links them to legal services, and helps them navigate existing community support systems. California’s UWCA-211-iFoster Kinship Navigator Collaborative provides an online, self-service resource portal for kinship families that coordinates public and private resources based on the families’ individual needs and preferences. The New York State Kinship Navigator provides an information and referral network for kinship caregivers statewide. In addition to these three states, the webinar featured a representative from the Children’s Bureau who discussed the federal funding available for kinship navigator programs and a representative from the Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement (ASPIRE) study team who shared information on TANF child-only cases.

This blogpost, authored by the Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), describes the 10 listening sessions that ACF held nationally among key stakeholders to address family homelessness. These stakeholders, who provided input on the latest trends and local innovative programs, included parents with homelessness experience, grantee and non-grantee service providers, faith-based partners, educators, and government leaders. Five of ACF’s program offices either directly focus on homelessness or offer services and resources to move families from homelessness towards self-sufficiency and include: the Office of Head Start, the Family and Youth Services Bureau, the Office of Child Care, the Office of Family Assistance, and the Children’s Bureau.

This set of case management functions is drawn from a chapter entitled, ”The principles of effective case management of mental health services” (pp. 24-51) by researchers Charles A. Rapp and Richard J. Goscha. It is included in a larger volume published in 2004 by the Center for Psychiatric Rehabilitation entitled, Recovery from Severe Mental Health Illnesses: Research Evidence and Implications for Practice, edited by Larry Davidson, Courtenay Harding, and LeRoy J. Spaniol.