Maryland’s Lower Eastern Shore job center and its partners have streamlined TANF and WIOA assessment and referral processes, as well as sharing staff, spaces, and resources across programs, to improve service delivery to TANF customers. Job center partners aim to match job seekers with employers through opportunities such as a “reverse job fair,” a job search database, and a regional job developer to specifically work with customers. Maryland also focuses on serving rural populations, with transportation subsidies and a mobile job center that delivers select WIOA services to TANF clients in rural areas.

This brief is organized into sections on joint service delivery, resource sharing, shared learning, and managing collaborative activities. Readers may also access links to the state TANF plan and funding information for more context and resources. This brief is part of the TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series, through which the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative seeks to highlight innovative coordination strategies of TANF and WIOA programs to serve low-income or vulnerable populations.

This Urban Institute study documents the spatial mismatch between where hourly workers live and where the jobs are. In addition to maps that illustrate the issue in Columbus, Ohio and San Francisco, California, this study also presents data to identify the prevalence of the geographical divide throughout the country. Economists suggest that spatial mismatches can lead to higher unemployment rates and prolonged joblessness for those with limited access to transportation across geographical regions. The analysis concludes with successful strategies that some cities and regions have implemented to address spatial mismatch.