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OFA Peer TA Network
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.
August 16, 2016
Expungement Information Session
City of Elizabeth Hosts Expungement Information Session – August 11

The City of Elizabeth will host an Expungement Information Session on Thursday, August 11 from 6pm to 8pm at the Elizabeth Public Library, 11 South Broad Street. The purpose of the meeting is to explain changes to the expungement of criminal records, based on legislation that took effect in April, 2016, following a two-year effort.

Advocates and attorneys representing such groups as Legal Services of New Jersey, Community Health Law Project and Make the Road New Jersey will be present to answer questions.

The information session coincides with the recent launching of a Facebook page,
City of Elizabeth Reentry Program. The site already provides a number of links on the expungement process. Persons interested in volunteering to assist at the meeting – greeters, registration – may call Deshawn Pierce at 908-820-4052.

Related links on expungement include:
- P.L. 2015, chapter 261 issued by the New Jersey Administrative Office of the Courts
- Clearing Your Record: A Six-Step Guide to Expunging Criminal Records in New Jersey
- LSNJLAW – Expungement
- NJ Community Resources – Prisoner Re-entry
August 3, 2016
Tech Tips: Five Ways To Sidestep Cybercriminals

Password management is an area where just about everyone has room for improvement. Here’s a list of five straightforward ways to make sure your passwords and online accounts stay out of the hands of cybercriminals.

1. Find out if you’ve already been hacked
There’s always a chance that your account information is already in the hands of cybercriminals. Fortunately, there are some tools available that can help you identify and change the passwords on any accounts that have been compromised. For example, the website “Have I Been Pwned” lets you enter your email address and find out if any of your account credentials have shown up in hacker circles. You can search a list of companies that have suffered data breaches at the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. You can also consult the “List of Data Breaches” on Wikipedia, which is searchable using your web browser’s “Find” or “Search” function. Above all, be a bit suspicious and trust your instincts. If you have reason to believe a password might have been exposed, change it.

2. Use strong passwords
It’s important to use complex passwords that will be difficult for hackers to guess. Just remember that adjacent sets of adjacent letters and numbers on your keyboard – like “qwerty” or “123456” – are not complex passwords. The best passwords typically include a combination of uppercase and lowercase letters, numbers and special characters. If using complex passwords seems like too much of a pain, consider a password management tool like DashLane or LastPass. These tools help users create, store and manage complex passwords.

3. Don’t let the bad guys get your passwords
This might seem obvious, but you might be amazed at how many people keep their passwords posted in places where others can read them. You should never share your passwords and always store them in a secure location away from prying eyes. Also, don’t keep your passwords – or any sensitive information for that matter – listed in a computer file that is easily accessed without a password. Any password lists on your computer should be password protected and encrypted.

4. Use secure communications
Never send a password over email. If you want to create an account on website, make sure that the URL of that website begins with ‘https’ because the ‘s’ at the end indicates advanced security measures. Websites that begin with “http” are not as secure. Additionally, do not use public computers or public Wi-Fi to log into online banking and other sensitive accounts.

5. Choose difficult security questions
When registering an account online, you’ll often be asked to choose security questions and answers. These are used to verify your identity if you lose your password or if a security breach of some kind is suspected. The key here is to choose questions that are hard to figure out. Remember, just about anyone can find your mother’s maiden name if they really want to. Avoid using information that someone can easily look up online. For example, you wouldn’t want to rely on information that can be seen easily on a social media profile to inform your password choice – such as name of spouse, hometown, employer.

Hopefully you have found this article helpful and you’ll take a few steps to make your own password use more secure starting today.

Source: The above article is written by Carbonite , a company providing automatic cloud backup for your computer files. If you’re a Carbonite Partner or a small business, I hope you’ll share these tips your co-workers, employees and clients. And if you’re a consumer using a Carbonite Personal Plan, be sure to share these tips with friends and loved ones.

July 31, 2016