APHSA Annual Report 2018

Gainful Employment and Mobility

APHSA worked with MDRC; a nonprofit organization focused on improving the lives of low-income individuals, families and children, on a project called Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families (BEES). MDRC is the lead contractor in the project, which is funded by the Office for Program Research and Evaluation (OPRE) within ACF. APHSA’s role in the first year of this six-year, random assignment research project, is to work with our affinity groups, particularly the National Association of State TANF Administrators (NASTA), the American Association of SNAP Directors (AASD) and the National Association of State Child Care Administrators (NASCCA). Together we identified sites where promising efforts are underway that can be studied in depth, evaluated as to their effectiveness in assisting work-ready adults to find and retain employment, and could be brought to a larger scale and replicated in other areas. APHSA is also a subcontractor to BLH Technologies in a second project funded by ACF. APHSA is working with our affinity groups to identify and feature six to seven states or localities where there is strong and effective coordination in service delivery to low income, work-ready clients between the TANF agency and the American Job Centers under the Department of Labor Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Through the insights of these sites, APHSA is developing a virtual online TANF-WIOA toolkit featuring best practices and concrete ideas to better align how state and local agencies can integrate service delivery to clients among different state and local workforce agencies. This new product will launch in 2019.

FEDERAL PARTNER ENGAGEMENT In April, the President issued Executive Order (EO) 13828: “Reducing Poverty in America by Promoting Opportunity and Economic Mobility,” which required federal agencies to submit a report to the administration detailing specific policy changes that would be implemented as a result of the EO provisions. Working with the APHSA Leadership Council and building from APHSA’s guiding principles and priorities laid out in the Strategic Playbook, APHSA submitted comments and recommendations for implementation to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in response to the EO. Also, an appendix highlighting APHSA members’ successful programs, which support and promote opportunity and economic mobility was submitted to ACF. APHSA’s members also shared on-the-ground experiences and insights with federal partners from ACF during listening sessions at the APHSA National Health and Human Services Summit and the Local Council Retreat. PARTNERING FOR IMPACT APHSA has partnered with national public policy and research organizations on federally-funded projects to feature state best practices impacting gainful employment and mobility. APHSA is working with and through our members to identify and lift promising employment and training programs and organizational and programmatic collaboration between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Department of Labor Workforce programs.

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