For a number of years both the New Jersey Community Resources website and blog has highlighted a number of resources for social work professionals. The purpose of today’s article is to bring to the attention of social workers and county welfare agency personnel and their partners in community agencies a website operated on behalf of the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the Department of Health and Human Services.
To quote from the OFA Peer Technical Assistance Network website: “The goal of Peer TA is to establish linkages among TANF agencies and their partners serving TANF and low-income families at the state, county, local, and tribal level. The Peer TA website acts as a dissemination and communications vehicle, supporting the Peer TA Network in the provision of technical assistance, facilitating a dialogue among organizations serving TANF and low-income families, and helping organizations learn about innovative programs and the latest research around effective strategies to successfully support TANF and low-income families on a path to self-sufficiency.”
Each week OFA Peer TA distributes a newsletter to its subscribers, informing them of new developments, programs, position papers, etc. on a wide variety of subjects. If you wish to subscribe, visit their newsletter sign up page. You will find it useful to stay up-to-date with federal programs and policies or if a social work student doing research.
Below is a sampling of just a few articles appearing in their newsletter or website within the past few months. They include:
- GetMyFuture.org , a recently launched U.S. Department of Labor website that helps youth plan their careers
- Assessing and Serving TANF Recipients with Disabilities – describes different approaches to disability-related needs assessment used by some TANF programs
- Life After Welfare: Disconnected Leavers Who Reconnect – a “disconnected leaver” is a defined as a TANF client whose case is closed and is not in the workforce
- Poor, Unemployed, and Not on Welfare: The Prevalence of “Disconnected Families” by State – a research brief published by childtrends.org
- Who is Poor in the United States? – a June, 2016 report issued by The Brookings Institution
- Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Final Rule – final federal regulation of the law signed July 22, 2014
- Online Services for Key Low-Income Benefit Programs: What States Provide Online With Respect to SNAP, TANF, Child Care Assistance, Medicaid, CHIP and General Assistance – listing updated July, 2016 and published by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
- TANF Work Participation Rates, Fiscal Year 2014 – indicates fewer states failed the work requirement in FY2014 than in FY2013
OFA Peer TA often hosts webinars on a number of topics. Announcements of future webinars and webcasts appear in their email distributions.
For readers interested in New Jersey welfare statistics, the Division of Family Development still maintains a monthly report titled DFD Current Program Statistics, previously mentioned in a 2010 blog article.
For further information, please email Michael Swayze at michael.swayze@njcommunityresources.info.
Michael Swayze's Community Resources 