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;May 31, 2012 

NACHSA e-Alert

 

Greetings NACHSA Members:

Summer is around the corner, with Congress facing a full agenda. Action is pending on all 12 federal fiscal year 2013 spending bills and a list of reauthorization must-do's remain, including action on the farm bill and nutrition programs and another short-term renewal before September 30 of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. While the Senate Appropriations Committee may consider the Labor-HHS spending bill in mid-June, the differences in what the Senate and House have allocated for HHS programs make it all but certain that HHS will not receive a full-year appropriation until after the elections.

 

Senate floor action on the farm bill (S. 3240) is slated for June. A one-page summary of the nutrition provisions, including SNAP, may be found here. Of most concern are the new limitations placed on linking SNAP eligibility to receipt of small Low-Income Energy Assistance Program benefits -- the "Heat and Eat" option provided in 14 states currently. The House recently finished its hearings and has not drafted its version of a farm bill.

 

A full TANF reauthorization remains unlikely. In mid-May, the House Ways & Means Human Resources Subcommittee held a hearing on how states are using excess maintenance of effort funding to meet their work participation requirements. Republicans argue that the use of excess MOE is a loophole, albeit legal under the law, that states are using to avoid engaging families in work activities. Click here to read the testimony presented at the hearing.

 

Below are a number of new human services resources, including a series of recent funding opportunities announced by HHS.

 
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Human Services Resources
Grant Opportunities
NACHSA News
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Human Services Resources

Kinship Care Report Released: The Annie E. Casey Foundation's KIDS COUNT project has released a policy report exploring the increased number of children living in kinship care. "Stepping Up for Kids: What Government and Communities Should Do to Support Kinship Families" includes the latest data for states and the nation, as well as a set of recommendations on how to support kinship families. (20 pp.)


Connecting Housing & Human Services to Combat Homelessness: This HHS report examines lessons learned from 14 local programs that integrate federally-funded housing supports and comprehensive services to prevent and end family homelessness. Linking Human Services and Housing Assistance for Homeless Families and Families at Risk of Homelessness highlights promising practices that may have led to improved outcomes for the families. Practices include forging relationships between program staff and local landlords to increase quality and affordable housing options. (186 pp.)

Public Perceptions of Poverty: A Salvation Army survey suggests that while the American public is sympathetic toward the challenges faced by those living in poverty, they lack an accurate picture of what poverty looks like. For instance, a significant percentage (43%) of Americans believe that if poor people really wanted a job that they could get one. On the other hand, 60% believe that giving the poor more assistance can help them escape poverty. Click here to read the other findings. (8 pp.)

 

State Proposals to Drug Test TANF Applicants: As of mid-May, at least 28 states put forth proposals this year to require drug testing or screening for public assistance applicants or recipients. Click here to view a chart prepared by the National Conference of State Legislatures.

 

'Lessons Learned' TANF Briefs: The Urban Institute and MDRC have prepare a series of nine short research briefs on the TANF program. They include findings on Improving Employment and Earnings for TANF Recipients and a paper on State Strategies to Meet TANF Work Requirements. Other topics include: recipients with employment barriers, child-only cases, and facilitating post-secondary education and training. Click here to view links to all nine briefs.  

 

TANF Financial Data: HHS has posted FY 2011 TANF Financial Data. State charts are available. Click here to view them.

 

Making It Happen: Overcoming Barriers to Providing Infant-Early Childhood Mental Health: This article from ZERO TO THREE is summarizes scientific evidence for I-ECMH policies and examines issues faced by national, state, and local program directors in providing I-ECMH services. View the report here. (20 pp.)

 

Evaluation of IV-E Youth Transitioning to Independent Living: This MDRC brief provides an overview of the Youth Villages Transitional Living Evaluation (12 pp.), one of the largest and most rigorous evaluations of services for youth who are leaving the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Youth Villages, a nonprofit service organization for troubled children and their families, operates the Transitional Living program in seven states, including Tennessee, where the evaluation is taking place. The program, provides intensive case management, support, and cognitive-behavioral therapy services to young people who are making the transition to independent living. A summary may also be found here.

 

Do You Know Who is Uninsured?: With record numbers of Americans lacking health coverage, the Kaiser Family Foundation has created an Uninsured Quiz to help people gauge how much they know about the uninsured population and the consequences of not having health coverage. Click here to take the quiz.

 

One in 10 Kids Live with an Unemployed Parent: In 2011, one out of 10 children had at least one parent who was unemployed. This conservative estimate includes only those children under age 18 living in families where at least one parent does not have a job, has been actively looking for work in the past four weeks, and currently is available for work. The rate of children with unemployed parents varies dramatically across states, from a high of 15 percent in Nevada to a low of 4 percent in North Dakota. Click here to view your state. For other data on economic well-being in your state, click here.

 

Grant Opportunties

ACF Guide to Federal Funds: The HHS Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has released an updated funding guide providing basic information about finding and applying for federal funds, specific information about ACF's grant opportunities, and numerous resources and toolkits available. While it is targeted to community and faith based groups, the information is relevant to county agencies as well. Beginning on page 10, the guide lists the types of grants that are typically available in any given year and provides links to national resource centers.

 

Child Welfare/TANF Collaboration in Kinship Navigation Programs Grant: Counties are eligible to apply to ACF for a project that will develop and implement Kinship Navigator programs to: 1. Assist kinship caregivers, through information and referral systems and other means, to learn about, find, and use existing programs and services; and 2. Promote effective partnerships between public and private, community and faith-based agencies to better serve the needs of kinship caregiver families. Grant projects will be implemented through strong collaboration between the grantee; the public Child Welfare agency (if the primary applicant is not the public Child Welfare agency); and the agency administering TANF. These Kinship Navigator programs will be designed to promote protective factors as a means to support social and emotional well-being and healthy, positive functioning in kinship caregiver families served or potentially served by the Child Welfare and TANF systems. Applications are due July 16, 2012.

 

Family Connection Grants: Counties are eligible to apply for project funding that will expand the availability of comprehensive, residential treatment services for parents and their minor children, including services for non-residential family members. This family-centered service approach will address the complex, multiple needs of the target population of families with children at risk of entering or re-entering foster care. The target population will include women, their minor children, fathers of the children, partners of the women, and the extended family members of the women and children, as appropriate. Projects will provide services to stabilize, strengthen, preserve and reunite families. Projects may initiate comprehensive residential family treatment programs with the target population or may expand or integrate existing programs. Services provided should be trauma-informed and should be driven by a comprehensive trauma-informed assessment. Applications are due July 16, 2012.

 

Regional Partnership Grants: Counties are eligible to apply for targeted grants for regional partnerships that provide, through interagency collaboration and integration of programs and services, activities and services that are designed to increase the well-being of, improve permanency outcomes for, and enhance the safety of children who are in out-of-home placements or are at risk of being placed in out-of-home placements as a result of a parent's or caretaker's substance abuse.  

 

The State child welfare agency that is responsible for the State plan under title IV-B or title IV-E of the Social Security Act must be included in the regional partnership. If your regional partnership consists of a county that is located in a State that is State-supervised, county-administered, the county child welfare agency satisfies the "administration of the State plan" requirement. In such a partnership, the State agency that is ultimately responsible for State Plan compliance under title IV-B or title IV-E is not required to be a partner in the regional partnership, but also is not precluded from participating as a member of the regional partnership. In a State-administered system, a local office of the State child welfare agency can participate in the partnership and satisfy this statutory requirement. Applications are due July 16, 2012.

 

Family Connection Grants: Counties are eligible to apply for grants that will demonstrate: The effectiveness of integrated programs of intensive Family-finding activities and Family Group Decision-making (FGDM) meetings in supporting connections with family members for the target population of children/youth; and how family members will be engaged in building their capacity to meet the needs of children/youth in their care. Grant programs will conduct: Intensive Family-Finding activities, which utilize search technology, effective family engagement, and other means to locate biological family members for children/youth in the Child Welfare system, and once identified, work to establish/re-establish relationships and explore ways to establish a permanent family placement for them; and FGDM meetings, which enable families to make decisions and develop plans that nurture children and protect them from abuse and neglect, and when appropriate, address domestic violence issues in a safe manner. Applications are due July 20, 2012.

 

Mental and Behavioral Health Services in Child Welfare: This funding opportunity is soliciting proposals for projects that will improve the social and emotional well-being of children and youth in child welfare systems that have mental and behavioral health needs. These grants, in the form of cooperative agreements, are designed to: Assist public child welfare agencies, through interagency collaboration, in improving adoption outcomes by creating a flexible service array that provides early access to effective mental and behavioral health services that match the needs of children, youth, and families in the service population; Support the implementation of evidence-based or evidence-informed screening, assessment, case planning, and services  in child welfare systems while simultaneously targeting and de-scaling practices and services that: 1) are not effective; and/or 2) do not meet the assessed needs of the target population. To fully meet the intent of grant, grantees must adopt and implement a combination of specific, clearly-defined screening, assessment, case planning and service array reconfiguration activities. Applications are due July 20, 2012. 

 

NACHSA News

NACHSA to Meet in Pittsburgh: As part of the NACo Annual Conference, NACHSA members will meet in Allegheny County (Pittsburgh), Pennsylvania on Friday July 13 at 1:30 pm in the Pittsburgh Convention Center. All NACHSA members are welcome to attend. Click here to learn more about the conference.   

Tom Joseph
National Association of County Human Services Administrators