Employment coaching involves trained staff working collaboratively with participants to help them set individualized goals related to employment and providing motivation, support, and feedback as participants work toward those goals. Recently, there has been growing interest among policymakers, practitioners, and researchers in using employment coaching to assist Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other adults with low incomes become economically mobile. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report highlights the evaluation that was designed to assess the implementation and effectiveness of the four programs participating in the Employment Coaching for TANF and Related Populations study. The report answers the following research questions: In what contexts were programs implemented? How did the designs of the programs vary and differ? How was coaching implemented across programs? The programs highlighted in this evaluation are: • Family Development and Self-Sufficiency, which serves TANF recipients and their family members in Iowa. • Goal4 It!TM, which provides employment coaching to TANF recipients in Jefferson County, Colorado in lieu of traditional case management. • LIFT, which is a voluntary coaching program operated in four U.S. cities. • MyGoals for Employment Success, which serves recipients of housing assistance in Baltimore, Maryland, and Houston, Texas.

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Over the past few years, Vermont’s Reach Up program has increasingly moved to a family-centered coaching model of supporting TANF participants and their families. This video provides a contextual overview of the merits of transitioning to a coaching model, highlights how this model works in Vermont, and provides an insider look into the various ways case managers can coach participants to achieve their own goals.

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.

The Office of Family Assistance’s (OFA) Policy Academy for Innovative Employment Strategies (PAIES) was an intensive technical assistance (TA) initiative in 2019-2020 for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs interested in improving coaching and career pathways approaches. During the initiative, participating teams received dedicated coaches, strategic planning, access to expert consultants, and tailored written resources. Additionally, they participated in several convenings, peer exchanges, and virtual trainings. These state profiles detail the journey and lessons learned of the four teams that participated in the Policy Academy: District of Columbia Department of Human Services, Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services, and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services.

The 2019-2020 Policy Academy for Innovative Employment Strategies (PAIES) was an intensive technical assistance experience. Sponsored by the Office of Family Assistance (OFA), the Academy helped participating sites improve coaching and career pathways approaches. This PAIES brief entitled "TANF Coaching to Scale" shares key insights from three OFA PAIES TANF programs that piloted, refined, and prepared to scale coaching case management strategies: District of Columbia Department of Human Services, Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, and Ohio Department of Job and Family Services. A companion PAIES brief highlighting staff engagement strategies to support systems change is available here: https://peerta.acf.hhs.gov/content/ofa-paies-brief-series-building-syst….

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report assesses and compares the impact of two models offering cash assistance to Michigan’s TANF recipients to find and keep employment: the Michigan Goal Progress Success (MI-GPS) program (enhancement to Michigan’s TANF program) and the two-step program, the Application Eligibility Period (AEP) followed by the “Partnership. Accountability. Training. Hope.” (PATH) program (Michigan’s existing TANF program). The MI-GPS provides goal-oriented coaching as an enhancement, and AEP/PATH focuses on participation in required work activities. The report reviews the two programs’ implementation as well as the differences in the types of services and assistance delivered, and in employment and earnings outcomes.

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.

This issue brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers guidance on how to implement virtual case management in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic guidelines for social distancing. These considerations include how to identify appropriate technology, how to provide training to caseworkers and clients on the use of the identified technology, and how to incorporate privacy concerns and information sharing among systems in a virtual environment.

This TANF Program Instruction (PI) provides program guidance on TANF administration in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This PI offers questions and answers about the use of TANF funds, work participation rates, flexibility in case management regarding TANF participant requirements, and overall TANF administration.