This is an updated brief from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) 2018 TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series that described collaboration strategies between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to serve populations with low incomes. These updated briefs were developed through follow-up outreach and interviews to explore how TANF/WIOA collaborations have been sustained over time and have evolved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each brief features a success story and includes snapshot infographics depicting TANF and WIOA data.

Integration of TANF and WIOA services has become second nature in Lehigh Valley since 2018; by streamlining eligibility, customers are immediately made aware of programs where they are qualified and can begin receiving services. The co-location of TANF and WIOA staff with an intentional office layout facilitates a full-service experience for customers as well as lends itself naturally to partner collaboration. The brief discusses how merging TANF and WIOA creates a “familial environment” where caseworkers and other employer partners benefit from this collaboration.

This is an updated brief from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) 2018 TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series that described collaboration strategies between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to serve populations with low incomes. These updated briefs were developed through follow-up outreach and interviews to explore how TANF/WIOA collaborations have been sustained over time and have evolved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each brief features a success story and includes snapshot infographics depicting TANF and WIOA data.

Communication between the Tulare County Health & Human Services Agency (HHSA) and the Workforce Investment Board of Tulare County (WIB) was the primary reason for this collaboration’s success. The seamless transition to a virtual work environment and virtual service delivery by both agencies continued to meet their customer needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief notes how the pandemic inspired the County’s successful Reverse Referral Process, while implementing a “no wrong door approach.”

This is an updated brief from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) 2018 TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series that described collaboration strategies between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to serve populations with low incomes. These updated briefs were developed through follow-up outreach and interviews to explore how TANF/WIOA collaborations have been sustained over time and have evolved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each brief features a success story and includes snapshot infographics depicting TANF and WIOA data.

The Missouri Workforce Centers (WFC) in Kansas City and vicinity and the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan regions provide TANF/WIOA customers with an array of services through Missouri Work Assistance (MWA). The customer flow from TANF to WIOA differs between Kansas City and the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan regions. However, both sites have a similar process where each MWA contractor and its partners assist TANF/WIOA customers at the WFC to support job entry, skills gain, and work experience. The brief highlights key elements that made the collaboration successful, including strengthening community connections, rapidly responding to changes in the labor market, sharing resources, prioritizing team sharing, and implementing a two-generation approach.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA)-sponsored Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community (LASER TLC) initiative provided technical assistance (TA) and support to state, county, and tribal TANF programs in addressing the challenge of human services delivery in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Along with Mathematica, BLH Technologies, Inc. managed the LASER TLC and developed a series of collective TA events, including a Tribal Affinity Group. These events featured national thought leaders and various program and practice models. The events also included opportunities for the 10 participating state, county and tribal LASER TLC sites to meet, discuss challenges, and ask questions of presenters. The LASER TLC produced the comprehensive Digital Resource Portfolio (Portfolio), which presents the information shared at the collective TA events.

OFA will host two “Office Hours” sessions for State, county, and Tribal TANF programs on May 2 and May 9, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET. The Office Hours sessions will:

• Provide background information on the Digital Resource Portfolio's development.
• Describe the Portfolio’s structure and organization and the core topics covered in support of TANF program improvement.
• Describe how to access, efficiently navigate, and effectively use the Portfolio.

Session presenters will include OFA leadership; Casey Grey Applegate, LASER TLC Project Coordinator, BLH Technologies, Inc.; Dr. Marc Mannes, LASER TLC Training and Technical Assistance Manager, BLH Technologies, Inc.; and Jonathan McCay, LASER TLC Subcontract Manager, Mathematica. Dr. Jeanette Hercik, LASER TLC Project Director, BLH Technologies, Inc. will facilitate the sessions. Office Hours participants will be able to ask questions and explore topics of interest in greater detail with the session presenters.

The American Public Human Services Association’s Advancing Family Economic Mobility initiative is exploring innovative ways for agencies to dismantle systemic barriers and enable families and the communities they live in to thrive. While families receiving TANF work towards economic mobility, they can encounter employment barriers. One barrier—lack of reliable, affordable transportation—can impede access to services, education, training, and quality jobs, especially for those living in remote or rural areas with limited or no public transit. This webpage provides an overview of the transportation services landscape and highlights practical and promising applications that can alleviate the transportation burdens families face on their path to economic mobility.

States have broad flexibility over the use of state and federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds. Many have used that flexibility to divert funds away from income support for families and toward other state budget areas often unrelated to TANF’s goals. In 2021, states spent only about a fifth of the funds on basic assistance to meet essential needs of families with children. As there is great variation in spending patterns, these downloadable fact sheets detail how each state spends its state and federal TANF funds.

Research shows that families living in poverty have a significantly higher likelihood of experiencing crises, and that poverty is the greatest threat to child well-being and the best predictor of abuse and neglect. Further, research suggests poverty is a key driver of child welfare system involvement and preliminary evidence suggests even modest economic supports can stabilize families and alleviate the need for more intensive intervention. Although the relationship between poverty and child neglect is supported by research, there is not yet a clear national policy and systems approach to intervening on behalf of families in ways that preserve the family unit while resolving safety issues compromised by poverty. Scattered across the country, however, are innovative policies, system reform efforts, program models, and practice strategies for bridging this gap.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA), in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, hosted a webinar on April 18, 2023, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET which examined research conducted and presented by researchers from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago.

The webinar

• Highlighted research findings contributing to the current knowledge base on the interrelationships among family economic insecurity and stability, income and concrete material supports, family well-being, and preventing child welfare system involvement.
• Described innovations introduced by states to bolster family economic security and protect children.
• Identified pain points and key challenges to collaboration and coordination derived from research and practice.

OFA Director Ann Flagg gave opening remarks. Webinar participants were able to ask questions and explore topics of interest in additional detail with the Chapin Hall researchers.

There are estimates that between 20 and 50 percent of people eligible for social safety net programs do not access them. While there may be many factors contributing to that gap, recent research has focused on the role that stigma plays. Stigma can be direct or anticipated from the wider society, including from agency workers with whom people would need to interact to access services. This Institute for Research on Poverty podcast episode examines how reducing stigma can increase participation in safety net programs.

TANF cash assistance and child support programs, with their restrictive policy environments and historically compliance-focused cultures, have opportunities for growth in how they engage families during continuous quality improvement efforts. To understand how TANF, child support, and other human services programs gather and use family input for program improvement, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has funded the TANF and Child Support Moving Forward: Further Incorporating Family Input Study. The study team collected and developed resources for a variety of audiences in TANF and child support programs, including program staff, program administrators, and families whom TANF and child support programs have served, currently serve, and aim to serve. This expansive toolkit provides guidance, real world examples, and resources to help TANF and child support programs engage the families they serve in improving service delivery, policy, and program operations.

Goal4 It!™ is a participant-centered framework for working with TANF participants to set goals, break their goals down into manageable steps, develop specific plans to achieve the steps, and regularly review their goal progress. This report summarizes the design and implementation of Goal4 It!™ at the Jefferson County, Colorado, Department of Human Services. The agency implemented Goal4 It!™ as an alternative to the traditional case management provided by Colorado Works, its TANF program.