The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network conducted this workshop in collaboration with the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC). The purpose of the event was to provide and share information on Welfare-to-Work (WTW) transportation and related issues. Furthermore, the workshop provided a forum for discussing the effectiveness of current initiatives, which provide the foundation for solutions to as yet unresolved transportation dilemmas. Specific topics addressed included building upon existing resources; providing affordable, accessible, and reliable transportation to all urban, suburban, and rural areas; coordination between transportation, workforce development, and human service agencies to overcome transportation barriers, and combining resources to achieve these objectives.

The ACF Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this presentation as part of the Arkansas Transitional Employment Assistance (TEA) Coalition Conference in collaboration with the Arkansas Department of Human Services (DHS). TEA is Arkansas’ TANF program. The conference was hosted by the Arkansas DHS and the State TEA Program Advisory Council. The purpose of this three-day conference was to provide a forum for hundreds of community leaders involved in local TEA Coalitions throughout the state to exchange ideas, make announcements, and hold discussions related to developing services and support for families in their service areas. Topics addressed included transportation, childcare, job training and development, health issues, housing, volunteer issues, and funding development issues. This summary highlights the main points from the transportation workshop presentations and subsequent discussions ensuing from them. The focus of these workshops was to discuss coordinating client transportation services at the local level.

The Welfare Peer TA Network hosted a broadcast call titled, “Welfare Reform and Housing—Asset Building and Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)” on August 2, 2000. The purpose of the call was to review the asset building and IDA program concepts, present examples of cooperation between State TANF agencies and asset building programs, and identify issues related to asset building and IDAs that are likely to arise for State TANF agencies.

The Welfare 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 workshop involving select representatives from fourteen States (representing eleven human services offices, and nine community partners), from across five ACF Regions, and three federal agencies. Nationally recognized private sector organizations that contributed to this workshop included representatives from the Center for Social Development (CSD) at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, and the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED) in Washington, DC.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network coordinated this workshop in conjunction with the Department of Labor, Employment and Training Division. The purpose of this two-day workshop was to assemble a collection of varying levels of expertise from all over the nation among the Individual Development Account (IDA) field to promote information sharing and fact finding. This workshop built on the successes of two previous IDA workshops that were hosted by the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network during this past year. The program for this workshop was similar to the other two workshops with the additional component of focusing on the flexibility available in using Welfare to Work funds for IDA programs.

On April 7-8, 2004, the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network provided support resources for two members of the Michigan Family Independence Agency (FIA) to attend the USDA Food and Nutrition Service meeting entitled "Using Technology to Improve Administration of the Food Stamp Program" in Olympia, Washington. Please reference the below link to read the final report.

On March 2, 2004, the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network hosted its first moderated Online Forum as part of the Child-Only Learning Community. Representatives from eight States logged onto this moderated discussion to engage with Federal resource personnel around the value of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in supporting low-income and TANF families.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Baton Rouge, LA, from October 25-26, 2004. Attended by over 80 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Charleston, WV from January 20-21, 2005. Attended by over 60 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.

The Welfare Peer TA Network sponsored this statewide Roundtable event that took place in Charlottesville, VA from July 14-15, 2005. It was attended by over 40 Federal, State, and local representatives, this Roundtable was designed to facilitate statewide discussion to impart the tools and knowledge to implement a statewide Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) awareness and outreach campaign.