This report summarizes the ACF West-Central Hub TANF Financial Management and Reporting Workshop held August 7-9, 2001 in Addison, TX.

This report details the three day Leadership Conference of ACF's West Central Hub. Topics discussed include fatherhood, healthy marriages, faith-based and community initiatives, and positive youth development.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy that took place in Dallas, Texas from February 2-4, 2003 at the Fairmont Hotel-Dallas.

Authored by Jeanette Hercik, Karen Lynn-Dyson, H. Lien Bragg, Courtney Kakuska, and Bradley Myles. This technical assistance packet was developed by Caliber Associates, Inc. as part of the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Initiative. This initiative is sponsored by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA) and Office of Community Services (OCS), and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE).

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy III that took place in St. Louis, Missouri from March 8-11, 2005 to foster collaboration to improve administration and delivery of services to TANF families.

This report provides an overview of the promising practices presented at the joint Peer TA/Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Big Five Roundtable. The California Department of Social Services made a Technical Assistance (TA) request on behalf of their largest urban center (Los Angeles) and on behalf of four very similar urban centers (Chicago, Houston, New York City and Philadelphia.) The five target cities were led through a series of facilitated discussions involving the core subject areas of performance management and contracting, saturation engagement, diversion and immediate employment, and re-engagement and sanctions.

The Urban Partnerships Initiative was designed by the Administration for Children and Families to support the work of TANF stakeholders in urban environments by promoting shared learning, enhancing cities' performance management, and developing strategies to improve services to families so that they may achieve and maintain self-sufficiency. The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Leadership Forum that took place in Baltimore, Maryland.

This presentation was made at the PARIS Conference by Deputy Director of OFA, Mr. Grant E. Collins, II. The PowerPoint describes the importance of the National Directory of New Hires to tracking employment accurately.

The Peer Technical Assistance (TA) Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) coordinated this rural workshop involving select representatives from twelve States from across four ACF Regions. State agency representatives were present from a variety of agencies including TANF, WTW, transportation, economic development, and domestic violence. Private sector speakers included a town mayor, a chief executive officer for a mass transit district, directors of several State coalitions against domestic violence, and key individuals from various private state-wide welfare service organizations. States represented included Arkansas, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, Mississippi, New York, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, and Wisconsin.

The purpose of this one-day workshop was to promote the sharing of ideas and innovative practices designed to assist rural communities to effectively collaborate and utilize community resources to move welfare recipients toward employment and self-sufficiency. During the workshop, participants examined partnership building and the importance of collaboration among and between state, local, and community agencies as a key element in addressing many welfare reform issues. Collaboration among the following agencies was discussed: welfare, transportation, domestic violence, and economic, community, and housing development.

The purpose of this one-day workshop was to identify existing barriers to providing social services to individuals and families in rural areas in Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, and Nebraska and to promote the sharing of ideas, existing State programming efforts, innovative promising practices, and ways to further collaboration efforts to enhance services in these areas. Throughout this workshop, collaboration of effort and services between, State, County, local, community and faith-based entities was emphasized as necessary in order to achieve the desired level of service to rural areas.