In honor of Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on October 28, 2020. A subject matter expert and a TANF program practitioner shared insights and recommendations for leveraging TANF to provide support to intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors during COVID-19 and beyond. In this webinar, speakers highlighted a variety of IPV topics, including the four types of behavior associated with IPV. Speakers answered audience questions to assist other state and tribal programs in developing and improving their own TANF responses to COVID-19 and IPV.

(See also Resources on "domestic violence" in the Resource Library)

The Office of Family Assistance offers technical assistance to support the work readiness of TANF-eligible populations and to guide case managers in the use of assessment tools. This technical assistance includes a set of three Online Work Readiness Assessment (OWRA) participant guides. These guides cover: Level 1 – resume writing, interviewing preparation, building a career portfolio, and understanding what an employer is looking for; Level 2 – identifying one’s skills and interests as well as setting career goals; and Level 3 – learning about labor market information, exploring jobs and occupations, understanding career pathways as well as information about how to find jobs and training opportunities, and how to develop one’s own education and training plan.

There is also a Case Manager Guide which covers assessments to determine literacy and adult basic education needs, evaluating English language learning needs, identifying learning disabilities and needs for soft skills training, and tools to determine abilities for career exploration. The case manager guide also offers an overview of career pathways and career clusters and how to understand and use labor market information, with references on where to access additional resources.

Vicarious trauma can occur when indirectly exposed to another person’s trauma through images or verbal, written stories; it is an occupational challenge for people working in victim services, law enforcement, emergency medical services, and human services. Individuals who experience vicarious trauma may develop a shift in their world view and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder. Organizations with staff experiencing vicarious trauma may face higher instances of staff turnover, absenteeism, and reduced work quality. Developed as a resource for the Online Work Readiness Assessment, this August 2020 training session defined vicarious trauma, identified its common symptoms, and offered strategies for organizations and workers to address vicarious trauma.

Trauma can have significant short and long-term effects on individual functioning and family well-being. Many human services agencies have begun to recognize the profound implications this issue has on how agency staff interact with their customers, and how staff themselves are impacted. The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on September 30, 2020 to help TANF sites interested in moving from trauma awareness to practice transformation using evidence-informed strategies.

Webinar speakers reviewed the trauma-informed paradigm’s foundations in the TANF context, and discussed key considerations in moving TANF programs from trauma-informed awareness to evidence-informed practice transformation. Participants heard from the Vermont Department for Children and Families on their experiences developing a Trauma-Informed Evaluative Toolkit for TANF with OFA PeerTA support and their implementation plans.

The Online Work Readiness Assessment (OWRA) tool will no longer be available for download after September 29, 2020. Funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, OWRA is a web-based tool that offers social service agency caseworkers and staff an innovative approach to creating a plan for participants that summarizes their strengths and barriers and recommends placement into work activities and work supports. OWRA offers services for participants through five modules, including a detailed, comprehensive assessment of participants’ strengths, barriers, and work readiness. The tool has been available to the field at no-cost since 2008 and has been supported through pilot testing, trainings, demonstrations, and technical assistance. If interested in downloading the tool, please do so before September 29. You can use the OWRA Implementation Checklist to find more information about the tool, technical requirements, and download instructions. After September 29, please contact James Butler at OFA with any questions.

This Office of Family Assistance Program Instruction answers questions on how the Tribal TANF Program can assist persons affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This Program Instruction complements TANF-ACF-PI-2020-01, which addressed questions and answers raised by state and tribal grantees on how they might use TANF and TANF’s administrative flexibilities to provide non-recurrent, short-term benefits for those in need due to COVID-19.

Traditional TANF benefits are typically provided every month for up to 60 months to support family economic stability, while fostering workforce participation. However, TANF also allows states and tribes to help families without providing such ongoing assistance. Instead, they can design their TANF programs to provide non-recurrent short-term benefits (NRSTs) for families experiencing individual crises that require one-time or brief, targeted aid. State and tribal TANF programs provide NRSTs without a national crisis but relied on them broadly in responding to the 2008 financial crisis, use them to help in the face of natural disasters such as the Northern California wildfires, and now, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. In March 2020, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) published guidance on flexibilities in the TANF law and regulations that states and tribes might use in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the provision of NRSTs to support economically vulnerable families during the pandemic. State and tribal TANF programs are currently providing NRSTs, which are not subject to the TANF requirements associated with "assistance" such as work requirements, to support families who have experienced specific hardships due to the COVID-19 emergency and to help those families continue progress toward economic independence.

In this facilitated webinar on July 28, 2020, presenters provided an overview of NRST benefits and explained how they can be used in the COVID-19 era. Additionally, state representatives shared how they have used NRST benefits in the field to support individuals and families affected by the pandemic. Panelists answered audience questions to assist other state and tribal programs in developing their own TANF responses to COVID-19. 

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a free webinar on understanding how to assess and build executive functioning skills in TANF participants. Executive function and self-regulation skills are the mental processes that enable us to plan, focus attention, remember instructions, and juggle multiple tasks successfully. Trouble with executive function can make it hard for individuals to navigate life, including obtaining and retaining employment. TANF case managers with an understanding of executive functioning can better support TANF participants on their pathway to self-sufficiency.

A panel of practitioners and researchers outlined the key principles of executive functioning, provided their perspectives on training caseworkers on executive functioning, and discussed how they are building executive functioning skills in TANF participants. Speakers included Dorothy Hall, Utah Department of Workforce Services; Melanie d'Almada Remedios, Washington State Regional WorkFirst Coordinator; Jessie Hancox, Colorado Works Program Administrator; and Kristen Joyce, Mathematica. They were joined by Jessica R. Kendall and Joe Raymond of ICF.
A video recording is available for viewing.

The Online Work Readiness Assessment (OWRA) is a free, web-based tool that offers an innovative approach to assess work readiness. OWRA helps caseworkers facilitate an in-depth assessment which creates a plan for participants that summarizes their strengths and barriers and makes recommendations on placement into work activities and work supports. Included with OWRA is a suite of Work Readiness Resources, a valuable guide for both participants and case managers. For participants, three building block levels are available to provide tips on basics like resume writing and job interviewing to exploring more complex concepts like the local labor market and developing a personal education plan. For case workers, the resources offer an interactive hub of tips and information to help participants become more self-sufficient, be able to provide more options for education and training to participants, and explore labor market and career development resources. To allow for easier access to these critical resources, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has recently published these guides on the OWRA Peer TA website under the Resources tab.