The Center for Postsecondary and Economic Success at CLASP released a paper that explores "stackable credentials," which is defined by the Department of Labor as a series of credentials that accumulate to build an individual's qualifications for advancement on a career pathway. The paper discusses some of the barriers to acquiring multiple educational and occupations credentials, pulling from data collected in Kentucky, Oregon, Virginia, and Wisconsin. The paper also outlines the ways in which these states are working to increase credential attainment for their residents.

The Region IV Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA); Region IV U.S. Department of Labor (DOL); and Region IV Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) convened a meeting entitled "Sustainable Employment Strategies: A TANF, Workforce, and Child Support Collaboration" in Atlanta, Georgia, from August 14-16, 2013. The meeting provided TANF, Workforce, and Child Support administrators and staff with an open forum for discussing critical issues impacting the collaboration of their respective entities towards sustainable employment strategies for their TANF and hard-to-serve population, and an opportunity to network both amongst themselves and with Region IV leadership. Region IV staff from each agency--ACF, DOL, and OCSE--shared lessons learned and gathered strategies that can improve their own programs' ability to identify and address multiple barriers, and develop pathways to create sustainable employment and career building opportunities for program participants. In addition, the meeting gave participants an opportunity to meet with their individual State teams to develop action plans that support interagency collaboration.

In response to the technical assistance and program needs of States throughout the Southeast, the United States Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Region IV, and the United States Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Region IIII, hosted a technical assistance meeting from July 24-26, 2012 in Atlanta, Georgia. This meeting allowed member States to work alongside their peers to outline specific challenges faced by TANF and WIA agencies and the families they serve and posit plausible peer-based solutions for moving low-income and working families toward economic self-sufficiency. State TANF and WIA directors and program staff also discussed ways to promote interagency collaboration. Topics included: engaging veterans and military families in the TANF and WIA systems; leveraging partnerships to strengthen subsidized employment and transitional job initiatives; developing demand-driven career pathways for low-income individuals and TANF participants; maximizing WIA youth and TANF funds to support summer youth employment initiatives; and improving skill-building for low-income individuals and TANF participants with barriers to employment.

The Urban Institute recently published an article discussing the Work Support Strategies Initiative. Work Support Strategies (WSS) is a multiyear, multi-State initiative to implement reforms that help eligible low-income families get and keep a full package of work support benefits, including Medicaid, nutrition assistance (SNAP), and child care assistance. This report summarizes the lessons learned from the nine planning grant States (Colorado, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Carolina), just one year into a four-year project. The report includes what the States did, how they overcame challenges, and how the planning year changed their strategies and capacities for the future.

On October 18, 2011, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) convened an orientation meeting in Washington, D.C. for the Promising Pathways Initiative. The three primary meeting goals of the Promising Pathways All-Site Orientation Meeting were to orient site representatives to the Promising Pathways Initiative, provide hands-on, interactive training for site coordinators on how to define and document their practice using logic models, and plan the first intensive full team site visit. Participants included one or two representatives from each of the ten selected Promising Pathways sites, OFA staff, and ICF International site coaches and team staff. This executive summary describes the proceedings of the All-Site Orientation Meeting and includes the meeting agenda, participant list, and materials as appendices.

In 2002, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) instituted the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) evaluation to document operational lessons and assess the effectiveness of community-based approaches to support healthy relationships, marriages, and child well-being. The evaluation is being conducted by RTI International and The Urban Institute. A component of the CHMI study involved an implementation study on initiatives approved by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) under authority of Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.1 The goals of the initiatives were to improve the child support systems through community engagement and healthy marriage and relationship education programs. Operationally, these goals included direct improvements to the child support program, like increasing the number of child support orders established, increasing paternity establishment, and increasing payment toward support obligations. The broader context for these operational goals was improving child well-being and increasing parental responsibility.

This is the final in a series of reports being produced on the implementation of demonstrations in 14 sites receiving grants under the 1115 waivers. Earlier reports covered the implementation of initiatives in Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Jacksonville, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nampa, Idaho; and New Orleans, Louisiana. This report focuses on the initiatives in Marion County, Indiana; Clark County, Ohio; Lakewood, Washington; and Yakima, Washington. The goal of the implementation studies was to describe the nature of the community initiatives, including recruitment and outreach strategies, targeting efforts, and innovative approaches for linking child support with healthy relationship and marriage support activities. This report examines key aspects of the initiatives’ community partnerships, design and implementation of service delivery, and links with child support. It does not present estimates of program impacts or effectiveness. The report is based on site visits conducted in 2010, 3 to 5 years after the initiatives were initially approved as well as information provided over the course of operations by grantees. Because these visits took place when the initiatives were ongoing, this report is not a complete accounting of what the initiatives accomplished or how many people they served over the course of their waivers. (author abstract)

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance Region IV convened the 2011 TANF Priority Update Workshop in Atlanta, Georgia on August 17-19, 2011 to discuss the status of TANF programs and foster peer dialogue among State TANF directors to discuss key issues impacting their programs and share best practices and lessons learned with their peers. The meeting brought together State TANF directors and program staff from across Region IV to strategize ways to guide low-income individuals and families to greater economic self-sufficiency while providing input and feedback on TANF legislation. Specific topics included asset building strategies for domestic violence survivors, service improvement for refugees and immigrants, career pathways and education, innovative solutions for economic recovery, and collaboration improvement strategies.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the Rural Communities Initiative Implementing Strategies for Employer Engagement Workshop in Louisville, Kentucky January 28-29, 2010. Six rural communities, as a component of ongoing technical assistance, attended to discuss promising practices and develop reasonable local action steps on the topics of employer outreach, subsidized employment, job placement and retention, and workforce intermediaries. The rural sites were introduced to the partnership between the City of Louisville and UPS with a presentation on the partnership and tour of the UPS Worldport facility. The sites developed concise action plans that summarized the key points and questions that emerged from their discussions and captured how the sites plan to use this information to develop concrete actions locally. Participants were provided with tools, replicable innovative models, and guidance on designing employer engagement opportunities to improve outcomes for TANF families.