The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) held the 2021 Regions IV-VIII Tribal TANF and NEW Program Virtual Meeting entitled Moving Forward: Weaving Stories of Perseverance During COVID-19 on March 16-18, 2021. This virtual event brought together Tribal TANF and Native Employment Works (NEW) program representatives from OFA Regions IV-VIII and focused on how programs can best address the needs of families during the pandemic and beyond. The meeting included sessions on promising practices for innovation from Tribal TANF and NEW programs, ideas for program adaptations, strategies for customer engagement, and discussions on broadband access and technology.

Hosted by the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, this webinar portion of a Tribal Case Management Series focused on strategies for improving employment outcomes for Tribal TANF recipients. During the webinar, participants learned strategies on providing one-on-one coaching to job seekers on effective job search techniques, three categories of interview questions they can use to screen applicants, and four strategies for keeping clients active during the job search activity.

This session from the December 2020 OFA Regions IX and X Virtual Tribal TANF Technical Assistance Meeting examined strategies and tools for assessing employment trends and included presentations on designing employment partnerships adapted to economic realities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Speakers included: Theresa Lujan, the Indian and Native American Employment Rights Program (INAERP); Evette Cullen, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services; Mike Yoder, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services; and Isla Young, Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation (OWINN), State of Nevada.

Coaching is a person-centered, strength-based way of working with others that helps them direct the changes they want to make in their own lives. On March 31, 2021, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a PeerTA webinar introducing a new free resource that OFA is making available to all State and Tribal TANF agencies and Native Employment Works (NEW) programs – a 14-module eLearning Curriculum called “Coaching for Success.” Based on Public Consulting Group’s Human Services Coaching Framework, the curriculum aims at training employment case managers in how to leverage coaching techniques to improve their case management skills. The curriculum includes self-paced learning modules that will cover topics such as active listening, powerful questions, emotional intelligence, praise, and other important techniques that can elevate TANF case management services.

Speakers included: Deborah Joffe, Public Consulting Group and Paul Lefkowitz, Public Consulting Group.

While change can be unexpected, TANF and other human serving programs can build change readiness to weather the unexpected and prepare themselves for proactive changes too. This first episode of the PeerTA Podcast series explores what it means for TANF and other human services programs to be change-ready. Host Bright Sarfo, MEF Associates, talks to Fannie Ashley from the Alabama Department of Human Resources and Maria Wortman-Meshberger from the Nevada Department of Health and Human Services to learn about their experiences leading big changes within their organizations. He is also joined by an expert on the topic, Michon Hicks, who serves as the Strategic Initiatives Program Lead for the D.C. Department of Employment Services’ Office of Information Technology and is a member of the Strategic Doing Institute of the University of North Alabama.

The PeerTA Podcast series facilitates information sharing across state and local agencies implementing TANF and other programs serving low-income families to provide technical assistance, facilitate dialogue, and help programs learn about effective strategies to support families.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a PeerTA webinar on Addressing Intergenerational Trauma among TANF Families on January 26, 2021. Understanding trauma and its transmission among families are critical considerations in human service delivery. Human services programs, including TANF, have a role to play in helping to mitigate and address the negative effects of intergenerational trauma through programming.

During this facilitated webinar, presenters defined intergenerational trauma and explored the ways in which trauma is transferred from parents to their children. Participants learned how TANF programs can minimize the impacts of intergenerational trauma, as well as heard about current research initiatives and from programs that are working to address intergenerational trauma in their communities. Presenters also examined the ways in which COVID-19 exacerbates trauma and strategies for TANF programs to identify and lessen these effects.

Presenters included Dr. Jessica Dym Bartlett and Dr. Dana Thomson, Child Trends; Dr. Mariana Chilton, Drexel University and Center for Hunger-Free Communities; Dr. Marla Conwell and Amber Hoyt, South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency (SPIPA); Alie Huxta, Associate Director of Partnerships and Strategic Planning; and Kevin Thomas, Jr., Associate Director of Operations and Asset Building, Building Wealth & Health Network. Dr. Nicole Bossard from ICF and TGC Consulting, Inc. facilitated the webinar.

Supported by the Office of Family Assistance’s Peer Technical Assistance (PeerTA), the Roadmap Series highlights responsive leadership and management practices to support the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies and their partners in adapting to new ways of work and connection amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faced with myriad COVID-19 challenges, TANF staff may experience secondary traumatic stress or compassion fatigue. This OFA PeerTA resource suggests three fundamentals — listening, trusting, and encouraging staff — to help TANF program managers strengthen their organization’s ability to thrive amid complex change. Examples include listening by being sensitive to the well-being of others; building trust by showing compassion and validating another person’s experience to increase understanding; and encouraging staff to practice professional and emotional self-care to reduce burnout and increase compassion satisfaction.