The Region IX Administration for Children and Families convened a meeting for the Region IX Tribal TANF grantees in California and Nevada in July of 2011. The meeting, the first of two, provided TANF directors and administrators with an open forum for discussing critical issues impacting their TANF participants and to network both amongst themselves and with Region IX leadership. The meeting brought together TANF programs to discuss and share information on detecting and investigating fraud and supporting victims of domestic violence on their path to achieving self-sufficiency. The meeting was held July 27-28, 2011, in San Francisco, California.

This report from the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation summarizes findings from a process and impact study of a Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs. Specifically focused on the Kern County site, impact findings are based on a two-year follow-up of youth who participated in a random assignment evaluation of the Independent Living—Employment Services Program (IL-ES). Results show few statistically significant findings between the control and the treatment group, suggesting that youth should be actively engaged in employment-based activities beyond the IL-ES program.

Abstract: Using Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data in an input-output (IO) model, this paper assesses the economic impact and foregone economic impact of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) in the 58 counties in California in 2006, the most recent year for which data are available. Findings show EITC payments received by California residents contributed over $5 billion in output and nearly 30,000 jobs to the state economy in 2007. The foregone economic impact of unclaimed payments is substantial as well. Foregone claims are estimated to total $1.1 billion in 2007. If claimed, the payments would have contributed $1.2 billion in output and 7,500 jobs to the state economy. This foregone impact was likely 20% to 25% higher during the year 2010, due to the recession and accompanying legislation. The foregone economic impact is not spread uniformly across counties, but is more acute in counties where the presence of likely nonclaimants is higher. Revamping and increasing efforts to increase the participation rate in the federal EITC program is probably a cost effective policy approach in terms of labor force participation and poverty reduction per state tax dollar spent. Please note that in order to download and access this paper, there is a financial cost to the requestor.

During Phase 3 of the project (2009-2010), in close partnership with the OFA Federal Project Officer, the project team conducted two-day site visits with each leading organization, which included faith-based organizations, community-based organizations, and intermediary partners. The case studies were drafted to isolate key insights about local collaboration and help identify strategic on-the-ground practices for FBCO leaders or TANF practitioners.

A number of states have created free Reality Check Calculators to help youth, students, and adults understand how salary, wages, careers, education, training, and budgets all interrelate. Reality Check Calculators can be used to estimate the cost of living in a particular state or community. There are several examples of these in California, Minnesota, and Texas. These tools help the users think about what the cost of living is, and how education and training correlate to salary and careers. The Calculators allow users to think about:

• Type of housing they would like (apartment, condo, house);
• Utility Costs (phone, electricity, cable, etc.);
• Food (eating out, cooking at home, combination);
• Transportation needs (public transportation, used or new car);
• Entertainment and other miscellaneous charges; and
• Savings.

Once the user has established their “ideal” cost of living and budget they are linked to state salary, occupation, and labor market information sites.

For many Tribal communities throughout the Pacific West the challenges of meeting the self-sufficiency needs of Tribal members have increased during the economic downturn. Improving the responsiveness and applicability of Tribal TANF programs requires strategic thinking and broad visioning and as a result the US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Region IX organized a two-part training and technical assistance meeting for Tribes in California and Nevada. The meetings—hosted in San Francisco, California—were held August 16-17, 2010 and October 18-19, 2010 and were targeted to the specific program needs of Tribal TANF programs throughout the region. Specific topics included organizational assessment and strategic planning, capacity building, program assessments, data management and usage, and client assessment. As requested by the participants of the 2009 Tribal TANF meetings in ACF Region IX all care was used to develop a more interactive session between presenters and participants. As a result, the 2010 ACF Region IX Tribal TANF meetings were developed as discussion forums and there are no additional printed resources available at this time. For any additional information on these meetings, please contact ACF Region IX.

The Native American Communities Justice Project, an initiative through the Center for Families, Children, and the Courts, authored this policy brief on the court system and issues of family violence. In 2009, over 500 Native Americans and California court personnel gathered together to learn from Native American family violence victims and those who help them in order to consider how California’s courts can better serve these families. This brief outlines key findings from this series of meetings and lessons learned from this important collaboration.

The following report describes the Urban Partnerships for Welfare Reform Academy II that took place in Minneapolis, Minnesota from October, 26-29 2003 to continue partnerships and foster collaboration to improve service delivery and TANF implementation for families residing in urban areas.

This report provides an overview of the likely effects of increasing the severity of sanction and time-limit policies in California on the welfare caseload, the state’s work participation rate, and the economic circumstances of vulnerable families. Researchers from the Public Policy Institute of California find that, as a result of such policies, the state’s caseload would be lower and the work participation rate higher, if the state adopted stricter sanction policies for adults who fail to meet work requirements.

The capstone event for the Rural Communities Initiative was the Rural Leadership Forum that took place in Charleston, South Carolina on September 1-2, 2009. Representatives from the 16 rural TANF sites met to share lessons learned; explore leadership and sustainability plans; and discuss successes garnered and challenges encountered from the implementation of the Rural TANF sites’ TA plans over the past year.