The Administration for Children and Families, along with the U.S. Department of the Treasury, hosted a webinar in April 2022 to highlight contemporary housing challenges impacting families with low incomes. This webinar provided background information on the Emergency Rental Assistance Program (ERA) and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as well as discussed how TANF programs and ERA grantees can build and sustain partnerships to expand housing services. Presenters provided an overview of the ERA funding stream and TANF program, principles for TANF and ERA stakeholders to build partnerships to improve housing stability, and an example of community activities used to build and sustain partnerships.

The Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) project aimed to improve understanding of approaches to coordinating early care and education services at the state or local level. This brief focuses on findings from telephone interviews with leaders of 18 coordinated services approaches. The interviews provided insights about how coordinated services approaches serve children and their families. Topics discussed in the interviews included information about the development of the coordinated services approach, the partners and funding involved in coordination, the services included in the coordinated services approach, and the coordinated services approach’s use of data, while also offering foundational information for future research or programming efforts.

Direct cash transfer programs are increasingly popular as an efficient, equitable way to quickly get cash into the hands of people who need it while giving recipients agency over how they spend their money. Though consensus is growing on the impacts of cash transfer, there are still no agreed-upon mechanisms for how to fund them. This issue is complicated by the fact that where program funds come from can affect a recipient's eligibility for other benefits and can trigger a “benefit cliff.” This blogpost examines funding mechanisms used in cash transfer programs in Washington D.C., Philadelphia, and Los Angeles to understand how their respective funding models affect recipients’ benefits and outcomes.

This brief provides a graphical overview of some TANF policy differences across states. It includes information about initial eligibility, benefit amounts, work and activity requirements, and ongoing eligibility and time limits.

The Welfare Rules Database tracks state TANF policies over time, from 1996 to the present. The database includes hundreds of variables related to initial eligibility, benefit amounts, work and activity requirements, and ongoing eligibility and time limits. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report provides dozens of tables detailing selected state policies for 2020.

The COVID-19 pandemic created sudden and substantial hardships for many families with low incomes and also created unprecedented challenges for the operation of benefit programs. States were able to use the TANF program’s existing flexibility to modify their policies if they felt such changes would better support families. This brief provides a graphical overview of selected TANF policy changes states made in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes information about changes to work and activity requirements, sanctions, time limits, and treatment of unemployment insurance benefits.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) PeerTA hosted a “TANF Next Practices: Lessons from COVID-19 Informing Innovation and Modernization” webinar on March 23, 2022. This webinar provided a discussion platform for TANF programs just starting to think about program innovation and modernization, as well as those deep into the journey. PeerTA and the American Public Human Services Association facilitated discussion with three TANF programs at various stages of innovation and modernization that shared their experiences and how COVID-19 has impacted their journey.

In this webinar, participants:
• Became familiar with the history of TANF modernization approaches
• Considered what state and local human services agencies have developed as TANF Modernization Core Principles and Strategies
• Discussed the experiences of different state and local TANF agencies as they innovate and modernize during the COVID-19 pandemic
• Identified next steps in their own TANF innovation and modernization journey
• Understood how to request PeerTA assistance to assist in these efforts

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Mathematica, and The Adjacent Possible will jointly host a webinar on March 14, 2022 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:15 p.m. ET to highlight innovative strategies used by state and local TANF programs during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic to adapt service delivery and promote staff and client well-being. Speakers will share the findings of two briefs published by Project SPARK (Supporting Partnerships to Advance Research and Knowledge). The webinar will be interactive with two primary purposes for participants: engage in a sense-making exercise with the research themes, and explore ways of applying and experimenting with the innovations.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the Using the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund webinar on March 8 and 9, 2022. Separate sessions were held for states, tribes, and territories that administer PEAF funds. Established by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, PEAF provides funding to states, tribes administering a TANF program, and all five U.S. territories to assist needy families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic to use funds to provide certain non-recurrent, short term benefits.

During these webinars, OFA shared its newly developed brief, Responding to Winter Utility Needs: Using the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund and discussed how PEAF grantees can blend and braid PEAF allocations with other federal funds to help families with high utility costs. Current PEAF grantees also shared their PEAF experiences, and the webinar concluded with a facilitated discussion.

In this webinar, participants:

• Learned different approaches for distributing PEAF-funded cash assistance.
• Explored how COVID-19 impacted energy security for low-income families and how the Pandemic Emergency Assistance Fund can help.
• Heard from PEAF grantees who have allocated resources to help low-income families with utility assistance and other needs.

Each webinar was tailored to states, tribes, and territories administering PEAF resources.

Please note: Webinar recording for territories is unavailable. Please review the PowerPoint slides and/or watch the recording of the state webinar (see link below).

This practice guide, used in partnership with a research or technical assistance support team, can help program leaders make evidence-driven decisions as they manage change. The guide targets individuals thinking about or implementing a program change, including those operating TANF or workforce programs. The guide supports use of Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2), an evidence-driven framework and process to address common practice challenges and improve programs. This practice guide was developed by Mathematica and The Adjacent Possible under the Office of Family Assistance’s Project IMPROVE initiative.