Policy and Practice | December 2022

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vision of the workforce section is for parents to seamlessly access employ ment and training across these three programs, and with the support of other agency partners like community colleges and workforce commissions. CSE E&T’s first partner was Goodwill of North Louisiana, chosen for their emphasis on case management, sup portive services, and poverty-informed career pathways. The program also relies on strong collaboration with the child support agency and court staff to support the investment. The types of partnerships that Louisiana DCFS developed, and are currently building, demonstrate the power of aligning programs across departments when the shared goals and common ground are acknowledged and built upon. While the examples shared during these sessions represent only a sample of the work being done across TANF and child support to improve family economic mobility, they illustrate where goals and values are aligned across programs and agencies as well as the ability to coordinate policy, practice, and system design in ways that foster a shared commitment to family social, emotional, and physical well-being. APHSA and its partners will continue to bring these critical conversations to our members to build off of the incred ible work being done and to influence modern policy and practice, build field capacity, and connect agency leaders across programs to maximize impact on the children and families in our communities. To access on-demand content from APHSA’s 2022 conferences and events, including EMWB, please visit https:// events.bizzabo.com/aphsa . Conference attendees can access content using their individual link received through email. Otherwise, on-demand content can be purchased for a nominal fee. Mary Nelson is the Assistant Director of Practice at the American Public Human Services Association.

On this same panel, Kristie Arneson, Economic Security Division Senior Administrator and Wyoming IV-D Director at the Department of Wyoming Family Services (DFS), provided a practical example of how policy changes can meet the real-world needs of families. To ensure agency staff were truly listening to families, Wyoming shifted to a motivational interviewing model. Additionally, DFS created a workgroup that brought together the TANF and child support program staff to rethink the procedure for establishing good cause, a mecha nism to exempt a family receiving TANF from a compulsory child support referral. Through this coordinated review, good-cause determinations were shifted from the TANF program to child support, where there was greater capacity and knowledge of the families’ circumstances allowing for improved decision-making. Additionally, stringent state require ments to meet good cause were relaxed to allow more families access to good cause determinations where it would be beneficial to the family. Another important emerging theme across these sessions is the impact of partnerships at all levels on family economic mobility. Increasing impact on families hinges on partnerships with state, local, and community-based organizations to further common goals. EMWB Conference attendees heard an incredible story of partnering for impact from Louisiana’s Assistant Secretary Shavana Howard and Deputy Assistant Secretary Lorrie Briggs for the Family Support Division at the Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) during Reducing Poverty in Louisiana Through Program lished workforce section, the Child Support Enforcement Employment and Training Program (CSE E&T) was established in August of 2021 to run alongside SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) and Strategies to Empower People Program (STEP)— Louisiana’s TANF work program. The Alignment and TANF Support. Through DCFS’s newly estab

Director of the Division of Child Support Services at the Colorado Department of Human Services, noted that Colorado’s 2017 policy changes coincided with a rule change in TANF to exclude pass-through payments in most circum stances from eligibility determinations at re-certification. These coordinated policy decisions ensure that families have access to meaningful resources that help them achieve economic mobility and support the social, emo tional, and physical well-being of their children. While not all states have the budgetary or statutory means to create or expand child support pass through policies in TANF, this example demonstrates how thoughtful and coor dinated policy shifts across agencies or departments can support a seamless experience for parents and families to achieve the desired outcomes. Emphasizing a shared commitment across child support and TANF to co design programs with and for parents and caregivers, attendees at APHSA’s 2022 Economic Mobility and Well Being (EMWB) Conference session, The Child Support Custodial Parent’s Journey , heard from parent Katie Zelenka, who formerly received TANF in California and currently serves as a Child Support Specialist with Kings County Child Support Services. Zelenka shared her own experiences of being asked to detail information about her past relationship with her child’s parent—an experience many parents find intrusive. Zelenka’s message resonated with TANF administrators and child support directors during a members-only reflective discussion, affirming the need to understand parent and caregiver experiences and integrate feedback into system design to improve experiences and outcomes. Echoing this sentiment, Commissioner Tanguler Gray from the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) at the Administration of Children and Families (ACF), shared her own lived experience with human services and child support and emphasized a com mitment to integrating parent voices into human services policy and practice.

Reference Note 1. https://bit.ly/LegFrameworkTANF

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