The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration's (DOLETA's) sponsored a one and a half day seminar on the development of strategies to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Welfare to Work (WTW) customers overcome barriers to employment. The purpose of the conference was to give practitioners an opportunity to exchange information on experiences, learn of promising program strategies, and consider what can be done to help customers with multiple barriers to work who are facing time limits get on a pathway to employment. This report provides a summary of the seminar.

This report summarizes a meeting of Region II and III Directors to address challenges to increase work participation rates in TANF programs with the expectation that work participation rates will increase with TANF reauthorization. The stakeholders took this opportunity to learn from well performing States with higher participation rates and States that had overcome barriers to improvement. The meeting provided an opportunity to promote and enhance collaboration and partnerships within the regions.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, coordinated two-day site visits at the request of several Regional and State Department of Health and Human Services Offices. States were invited to participate based on findings resulting from the Network’s national needs assessment regarding the challenges and successes of implementation of State welfare reform initiatives. Ms. Vesta Kimble, Deputy Director of the Anne Arundel County Department of Social Services, led the site visit. Ms. Kimble provided an in-depth description of Anne Arundel County’s Family Investment Program. This technical assistance event afforded participants an opportunity to observe Anne Arundel’s welfare service delivery system first hand.

One of the most prominent roadblocks that Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) clients face to a successful transition to employment is substance abuse. In order to address these issues that TANF families affected by substance abuse face the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network held a conference entitled Effectively Serving Clients with Substance Abuse Problems: Making a Difference on the Frontline in Newark, New Jersey on February 19th and 20th. The purpose of this 2-day seminar was two fold: to provide participants with an opportunity to understand how TANF agencies and treatment providers can work together to better serve clients and to showcase New Jersey’s referral process for families struggling with substance abuse in order to meet work requirements and remain self-sufficient. The report provides a summary of this workshop.

The Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, supported two 1-day workshops. The Department of Labor and the Department of Health and Human services jointly presented a Region III workshop examining job retention strategies, marketing to potential employers of welfare-to-work clients, and marketing services to those clients.