Podcasts about temporary assistance

The Floresville Independent School District invites applications from eligible households for free and reduced priced meals for students. Starting in mid-July, the district will distribute letters to households of the children in the district regarding eligibility benefits. Applications are available at www.linqconnect.com. Children in households receiving benefits from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) are eligible. Additionally, foster children, migrant children, children who are enrolled in Head Start or Even Start, and those who meet the income guidelines of the program based on the Federal Income Chart, are eligible. Families may apply any... Article Link

When Baton Rouge voters head to the polls later this month, they'll have the opportunity to decide on the fate of the East Baton Rouge Parish Library's funding. The library is asking voters to approve its dedicated property tax. Report for America corps member Alex Cox joins us for more on this story, and why the fate of the library is continually on the Baton Rouge ballot.Louisiana is among at least eight states that give federal funds to anti-abortion crisis pregnancy centers.The Department of Children and Family Services spent over $2 million in federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funding or on centers that discourage its patients from seeking abortions.Stateline reporter Kelcie Moseley-Morris joins us with the details. The Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities recently released a landmark study demonstrating the measurable impact its Prime Time Preschool Literacy program has on learning and school-readiness.LEH spearheaded the program a little over three decades ago, and since then, the program has been used as a model that has been repeated in states nationwide.Sarah Withers, vice president of education programs for the LEH, joins us for more. Today's episode of Louisiana Considered was hosted by Adam Vos. Our managing producer is Alana Schreiber. We get production support from Garrett Pittman and our assistant producer, Aubry Procell.You can listen to Louisiana Considered Monday through Friday at noon and 7 p.m. It's available on Spotify, the NPR App and wherever you get your podcasts. Louisiana Considered wants to hear from you!Please fill out our pitch line to let us know what kinds of story ideas you have for our show. And while you're at it, fill out our listener survey! We want to keep bringing you the kinds of conversations you'd like to listen to.Louisiana Considered is made possible with support from our listeners. Thank you!

Employment program provides work experience Beginning in July, as many as eight Beacon teenagers will have a chance to work at jobs that could pay dividends. The city's youth employment program, managed by the Recreation Department, will hire residents aged 16 to 18 for summer work. In its second year, the project is funded by county grants. Applicants' families must be eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a state program, to qualify. The program was created by Samantha Brittain, a supervisor in the Recreation Department. She was encouraged to apply for funding by Louise McLoughlin, the executive director of the Dutchess Workforce Investment Board, who knew Brittain from her time working for Green Teen Beacon, a program of Cornell Cooperative Extension Dutchess County. "We struggle with getting someone in Beacon to run a youth employment program," McLoughlin said. "I knew that Sam would know what I was talking about, so I called her." Days after receiving the first grant, in May 2025, Brittain hired three teens for the department's after-school program. The idea was to provide participants with work experience while hiring for positions the department has had trouble filling. Last summer, six teens were hired to help the Department of Public Works clean city parks and Main Street. Another group joined the after-school program in the fall. One of those employees is Zion Segarra, 17, a senior at Beacon High School who has been part of the project since its beginning. He hopes to study HVAC at Dutchess Community College, but his 15 hours per week with the after-school program also qualify him for employment at any state-certified childcare facility. At South Avenue Elementary, Segarra and the other teens supervise activities to keep the K-5 students safe. Many are working their first jobs. "They lead by example," said Kyra Cimino, who manages the after-school program. "It's cool to do what the older kids are doing." In addition, "a lot of what they do is one-on-one conversations," Brittain said. "That's where the love grows." Segarra recalled connecting with a student earlier this year who said he felt out of place. "I make sure everybody feels welcome," he said. "If they need to talk to somebody, they don't need to be scared." This year's summer program begins in July and, noting that "it's challenging to encourage 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds to do manual labor in the heat of summer," Brittain plans a more diverse curriculum. The teens will work with the DPW for two hours each day, but they'll also visit city departments to observe how a municipality operates day-to-day. Students will learn financial literacy, resume-writing and interviewing skills. In August, they'll help for two weeks at the Recreation Department's Park Days summer camp at Memorial Park. "The kids start to realize that these are all important skills, even as simple as they are," said Mark Price, the recreation director. "Longer-term, maybe one of them goes, 'I want to be a teacher.' They may be good at it." There's a bonus: Summer employees are eligible to enter New York's State and Local Retirement System. There is no deadline to apply; Beacon teens can email Brittain at sbrittain@beaconny.gov.

Data limitations and federal laws prevented us from evaluating the accuracy of TANF benefit payments. The federal government does not require states to assess the accuracy of their TANF benefit payments. DCF has an employee performance review process that includes reviewing TANF payments for process and accuracy errors. However, the data DCF provided to us from that process is not sufficient or reliable for determining the department's accuracy in making TANF benefit payments. Federal law prohibits us from looking at the application data that would allow us to assess the accuracy of TANF benefit payments.

Temporary assistance for needy families (TANF) is a federal program that provides states with funding to serve low-income families. TANF cash assistance provides monthly funds to low-income families to pay for a variety of needs. To be eligible for TANF cash assistance applicants must meet several criteria. TANF applicants must complete multiple forms that include over 250 pieces of information. DCF staff process each application by taking several steeps including verifying certain information and conducting and interview. It took DCF an average of 22 days to approve or deny TANF applications in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, but staff reported only spending about 1 hour actively verifying applications. On average, we estimated it took applicants who completed an online application in one sitting about 1 hour to complete a TANF application in fiscal year 2025. Stakeholders we talked to estimated it takes 15 minutes to 2 hours for individuals to complete the application. Federal and state law require DCF to take several steps to identify and prevent fraud and other misuse in the TANF program. Generally, DCF appeared to comply with the requirements we reviewed but we identified 1 state law DCF has not implemented. Last, we identified transactions at impermissible locations totaling about $23,000 in fiscal years 2023 and 2024, but this number is likely understated.

What happens when workforce innovation stops focusing on individuals alone—and starts supporting entire families? In this episode of Manager Minute, Carol Pankow sits down with Lucas Halverson and Kathy Davis of ServiceSource to explore Families Achieving Self-Sufficiency Together (FASST)—a Disability Innovation Fund initiative that's connecting VR, TANF, employers, and community partners in a powerful new way. You'll hear how FASST: ·       Tackles generational poverty through a family-centered employment model ·       Supports disconnected youth and adults with disabilities across multiple states ·       Complements VR services without duplicating them ·       Uses AI-powered job matching and strong employer partnerships ·       Creates real solutions during Order of Selection and funding constraints This conversation is a must-listen for VR leaders, program managers, and partners looking for scalable, practical models that expand impact without expanding cost.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} Lucas: The big goal is to break the cycle of poverty. We want to create lasting self-sufficiency, reduce the need for benefits and things of that nature.   Kathy: The beauty of this project is that it was originally designed for six sites across multiple states.   Lucas: We don't intend as a program to supplant programs that already exist, but we do intend to supplement or fill the gaps that exist.   Kathy: We are one as part of this project, and you would not have to pay fee for service or contract us. We're already being paid through the grant.   Intro Voice: Manager Minute, brought to you by the Vocational Rehabilitation Technical Assistance Center. Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host, Carol Pankow.   Carol: Welcome to the manager minute. In today's episode, we're diving into one of the exciting initiatives funded through the Rehab Services Administration's Disability Innovation Fund 21st Century Workforce Grants. And these grants were designed to spark new ideas and scalable strategies that help youth and adults with disabilities prepare for and succeed in today's rapidly changing world of work. From artificial intelligence and virtual reality to cross-system partnerships and new ways of engaging employers. These projects are testing innovative models that could reshape how we think about disability employment for the 21st century. And one of those projects, launched just this past year, is led by ServiceSource, and it's taking a unique approach to helping families move toward self-sufficiency and employment. And joining me today to talk about it are Lucas Halverson, project director, and Kathy Davis, one of the key leaders behind this groundbreaking effort. So how goes it, Lucas?   Lucas: Hey, good morning Carol. Everything's going very well. Thank you so much for inviting us to talk about our project today. We're extremely excited to be here to talk about our project Families Achieving Self-sufficiency Together. We also call it fasst with two S's. So thanks again for having us.   Carol: You bet. How about you, Kathy? How are you doing?   Kathy: I'm doing great, Carol, thanks so much for having us. We are definitely excited to speak with you about our grant, which is short for that Disability Innovation Fund.   Carol: Excellent. Yeah, I've had a lot of experience talking with other DIF grantees in like the C.D.E.F. We always give them the little alphabet soup label, but there have been different focuses each year that RSA had released the Disability Innovation Fund grant. So it's been really fun to catch up and see what things are happening. So let's dig in. So before we get into the details of your project, Lucas, could you tell us a little bit about your background and how you came to be involved in this work?   Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. So my entire professional career is related to helping others. That started as an employment development specialist right after my bachelor's degree, focusing on all things employment placement, support services, community based, competitive, integrated employment. I transitioned from that into helping individuals with more significant disabilities prepare for employment. I've done a little bit of group and individual substance abuse counseling, but largely the last 15 years or so, I've been in the world of vocational rehabilitation in a variety of roles, both on the public side and the private sector side, and was happy through those wonderful years to get my master's degree in rehab counseling and my certified rehabilitation counselor credential. So to present day, I've been with ServiceSorce for over ten years, and when the grant was awarded, I looked at it as an opportunity to still stay in the world that I love of helping people, but knew it would expand my skills and really looked at it as an opportunity to bring a pretty large proposal to life. And so here we are, fresh into the second year of our project and seeing all of that happen. So very exciting.   Carol: It's very cool. I love finding people's stories, like how you found your way into this world of work, because we all came in a long and winding road different ways, but make it in. And then once you're in, you're kind of hooked. It's hard to leave. So, Kathy, how about you? How did you come to be involved in this work?   Kathy: Well, same. I love people's stories about how they find their vocation. And I have also been serving individuals with disabilities for a very long time, well over 20 years. I started as a volunteer in high school with Easter Seals, and from there, I did volunteer work with therapeutic horseback riding. I eventually also went back to school and got my master's in rehab counseling and became a nonprofit community mental health counselor and a traumatic brain injury program manager. And because of my background in counseling and also a previous master's degree in economics, when the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act was being discussed,  and the emphasis changed to or included employers. My econ background and my master's rehab counseling background made me a little bit of a unicorn, and I was hired by a Blind services agency around 2012. And then I also did business relations for them. And then I was hired to start the first business relations program at one of the VR agencies. And really, my golden thread throughout all of my career has been starting new programs. No matter what role I've been in. I love new things, I love innovation, and so DIF has been a perfect fit for me. I'm also working on my doctorate degree, almost finished with that and doing a Pre-ETS dissertation. So I have a really strong interest in evaluation. And so evaluation actually brought me to this project. And I serve as an internal evaluator for it.   Carol: Wow, you are a unicorn. Let me say that is exciting. Very fun. Thanks for sharing that. So when you two first saw the grant announcement, what caught your attention and made you want to apply?   Lucas: Yeah. So this DIF grant cycle the F grant cycle was the first time nonprofit organizations were eligible to apply. So it was a unique opportunity for ServiceSource. And so our program development team recognized that our agency had the capacity to try to take this on, and also the expertise to successfully apply with a strong proposal, but then also administer and monitor the program successfully. So our organization, ServiceSource, is a leading service provider and employer for individuals with disabilities. So it made us well positioned to deliver impactful outcomes under this project. The DIF grant in general definitely aligns very closely with our mission and our vision and our values. And we have affiliated organizational model that we felt would provide a strategic advantage with this project. So it's allowing us to have a fairly large geographic reach. We have several teams across the country all working together on this project, and it also allows us to leverage partnerships and resources that have already been in existence across these teams and these affiliates to have the greatest impact that we can. And so really, the alignment and the capacity gave us confidence that we could do what this grant needed us to do. And so we're in that second year and really getting rocking and rolling now.   Carol: Yeah, I hadn't realized that ServiceSource had such a big footprint because I was familiar with the work ServiceSource did in Florida, and Tina down in Florida and working with the Florida General Agency. In fact, we did a podcast about that and that particular model, and I knew there were little fingers of that kind of had spread out, I believe, into a few different states, but I hadn't realized, like, really how expansive ServiceSource was. So that is an excellent point that it really positioned you well for this. Now your project family is achieving self-sufficiency together. As you said FASST with the two S's. So no, we don't have a typo. If they read the transcript later, we didn't have a spelling error. It is the FASST you really launched at the end of June. I know that first year is always a very big planning year and getting things ready. Can you give us a quick overview of what the initiative is about, and really what motivated your focus on families?   Lucas: Yeah, absolutely. Really the high level focus aims to help disconnected youth and disconnected adults with disabilities achieve competitive, integrated employment. In addition, you know, using early intervention workforce reintegration strategies to support long term success. That's where the whole self-sufficiency piece comes in, uniquely for our project. But overall, FASST is, as I mentioned, a multi-state initiative, and we want to empower disconnected adults and youth with disabilities. Our core focus is individuals that are eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or TANF. So that's part of our eligibility requirement. And the ultimate focus is to remove barriers to employment and to independence. And so we do that by connecting families to community partners such as vocational rehabilitation, training providers, employers. But we also have staff that assist the individuals we're serving, build those critical skills such as job readiness, financial capability. And we have a case manager component to the team. Each team has a case manager to help with that kind of wraparound, holistic approach, to try to knock down as many barriers as possible. The big goal is to break the cycle of poverty, looking at kind of that two generational approach. We want to create lasting self-sufficiency, reduce the need for benefits and things of that nature. So pretty big goals. But we have a solid team that I'm confident can hit those goals with us.   Kathy: So and related to goals, we really our project has three overall goals. And as Lucas mentioned, it is to connect disconnected adults to find and retain that competitive integrated employment. But I'll also add that we want to have at least one high quality indicator as part of that employment, and we're helping to support them to retain their employment for at least 90 days. But we're also tracking beyond 90 days. And that's one of the really exciting and fun parts of this project. Unlike vocational rehabilitation, where you'd see a closure at 90 days, we're able to support individuals for the remainder of the project if that's what it takes to help them maintain their employment. The second overarching goal that we have is for the youth, disconnected youth ages 14 to 24. Our goal is to help them gain work skills and then either enter employment or enter education and or complete education. And then finally, the third goal would be to build the system's capacity with all of our partners to sustain our model and be able to serve more TANF recipients.   Carol: I like your holistic approach that you guys have brought up. I know back in the day, as customers would come in the door, and I was working at State Services for the Blind in Minnesota. You're looking at employment, but it's hard to just talk employment right off the get go. If people don't have food or your housing is unstable or you have all the other issues, so you've got to kind of connect all the pieces together. Employment obviously is a very important piece of this, but it isn't the only piece. You got to have it all work together.   Lucas: You make a great point, because I realized I didn't touch on the motivation to focus on families as part of this, and it's largely what you just described. You know, we recognize that families are key support systems for the individuals that we're serving. Families strongly influence decisions about anything but including employment and training, career paths. And so our whole focus is trying to have an alignment to that. And again, with our case management, part of our staffing, looking at the barriers, making sure they're addressed to increase those chances of success, because just as you said, there's not transportation, there's not a job. If there's not a house over your head, there's not a job if you don't have food. So all caregiver responsibilities and so the family tie in is really looking at barriers that affect the family. So could be the parent could be a child. But we know how it impacts the household. It creates kind of that ripple effect. And so not addressing it holistically could be a key piece missing. And so kind of the core motivation I guess to capitalize on that is to increase skills, of course, relating to employment, but also to again try to reduce the reliance on benefits as part of that. So knocking down barriers, helping go to work, reducing that need. And one of the key points with our project is as things are evolving, it does align with some of the current different federal agency initiatives. So, for example, children and families is emphasizing employment as a pathway to self-sufficiency. So that's very close to what we're looking at. And another example is Health and Human Services. They're looking at employment and family as the foundation of economic and social well-being. So our project really kind of just fits and plugs into that, because that is what our goal is with the larger focus. But I do think the holistic piece is extremely valuable for this project and will continue to be.   Carol: Yeah, you guys are definitely ahead of the curve because when I saw that that you guys had picked TANF, you know, at first I'm like, well that's interesting. Like how did you come to that? You know, to decide you were going to focus on those folks eligible for TANF and kind of make that the centerpiece?   Lucas: Yeah. So the program development folks that really dug into the proposal, part of the application process did a lot of research and found that largely there was a disconnect. There are a lot of folks that are eligible for TANF or receiving TANF that were appropriate for other agencies, such as vocational rehab, just as one example. But the tie in often wasn't there. It wasn't happening. And so, as Kathy mentioned, one of our goals is to hopefully have some better pipelines for that. So for folks and entities that are naturally working with individuals with TANF to understanding no important programs such as vocational rehab exist and what that looks like and what the scope is and what they can help with. So it just kind of was a noticed need and kind of became one of the key parts of, of this proposal when it was getting all put together.   Carol: I think that's brilliant because you always look at kind of VR can be the best kept secret. People say that all the time, and even though it seems like it would be apparent, like, why wouldn't you, you know, get connected with VR and you're in this program. People don't know that. And it's not necessary that the staff may be working in TANF, even know about VR or what's going on. We don't always do the best job at connecting with all the different partners and other folk out there.   Lucas: Another part of that decision to again, ServiceSource operating many programs across the country. There are a couple TANF specific programs that ServiceSource operated for many years, one being in Virginia that partners with the Virginia Department of Social Services, and then another unrelated program in Denver in Colorado. So there's already some knowledge base of that in addition to the research they all did. So it helped us kind of align with one of our corporate strategic goals of expansion and wanting to increase our support to individuals that are eligible for TANF. And so it kind of checked a, checked a lot of mini boxes, both there being a need and interest from our company with our goal of expanding and serving, you know, additional individuals. So it kind of presented just almost a natural opportunity, I guess, as it was all coming together. And I think it gives, you know, a pretty solid opportunity to try to interrupt the generational poverty that exists within families.   Carol: Well, that's where the magic happens. There's nothing better than having a project that fits with your own corporate mission. You know, the stars are aligned, things all sync up. It's not like you're having to kind of fit round, peg in a square hole or whatever, the square peg in a round hole, because it's all aligned really well. Now, I understand you recently received approval to expand your focus to include disconnected youth such as those in foster care, the justice system. How does that change the picture of your work going forward?   Lucas: Yeah, so kind of a really cool example. So with the DIF grants, one of the key focuses on being innovative and being flexible in changing with what you're finding during your project. And so very early on, not long after we launched the project and began some large increased efforts with outreach almost immediately, there were a handful of situations that involve youth that met the larger definition of disconnected, but didn't quite meet our project eligibility of being in a household that had a parent or guardian eligible for TANF benefits. And so we originally had intended to focus on those youth later in the project. But we talked about it and we did not want to exclude individuals. We knew we had the expertise and interest to serve, and we certainly did not want to risk coming back in the months or years ahead trying to find them. You know, it's kind of like the hot potato. If you have youth that are interested, now is the time. And so we worked with our project officer from RSA and they were very supportive of us expanding our focus to the broader definition of disconnected youth a little bit sooner than we originally planned, of course, but so that expansion includes youth now that are in foster care, the justice system that are low income or don't have stable housing. And so they don't have to have that TANF tie in for, for that kind of subgroup, but still relates very directly to our mission of serving the disconnected youth and adults within the project.   Carol: Yeah, I like that. You recognize that, you know, and take advantage of that as you're seeing that. And that's kind of the beauty of these projects, because they do ebb and flow based on how things are rolling and what you write in a proposal. As everything comes to fruition, you realize different things and you're like, oh, you know, maybe we get to pivot or do something a little differently or whatever that may be, or make this addition and it just makes the project better. I love the flexibility that RSA has with the projects to allow that kind of expansion and changes as you're going along. So I understand you've got six teams working across six states under this shared framework. How does that structure work, and what have you learned so far about coordinating across all these different regions?   Lucas: Yeah, I'm proud and very happy to report that it's been working incredibly well so far. It's kind of a new experience for our organization as well because it's bringing together multiple affiliated teams, but working collectively on the same project at the same time with shared goals. So from the start, when Kathy and I were putting this all together, one of the elements that really wasn't negotiable was building a sense of community within our team. Since we're all working on the same grant, have the same expectations. We knew if everybody was working in their own silo, it would be, you know, highly unnecessary and really counterproductive to what we're wanting to do. So we spent a lot of time in the earlier stages and continue to with emphasizing cross team collaboration. It's really kind of the key driver to our success and our continued success. And so some of the efforts to make this team that's spread across the country feel like we're all sitting in the same office space together, is having weekly meetings. So Kathy and I lead a weekly meeting with all the grant funded staff, their supervisors, the executive directors for the different affiliates, other subject matter experts from our organization, and then different contractors as necessary that are on the project. And we focus on anything and everything relating to the project, so it could be updates, progress, best practices, things that seem to be going well, maybe things that we need to work a little better on any process reviews we need to do. So we go through just anything that's relevant each week, keeps that engagement there, keeps everybody, you know, interacting. And beyond that, we also knew that with having some external contractors on the project that we really needed that to be bought in from the staff as well. And so we had kick off meetings with each contractor, both with our large group and then with each individual team, really just to build rapport, clarify roles, responsibilities, expectations, how it was going to work, what the goals were, and just start those relationships strong as well. You know, there's so much going on when you launch a project that we didn't want our external folks not to feel a partner like our internal folks. And so that's been going remarkably well. And then lastly, the last comment I'll make on this is that we also recognize that because we have really three position types that are working directly with the individuals we're serving, again, spread out across the country. We really wanted them to feel together and not, again, not separate. And so each position has its own community of practice. They meet monthly, they share best practices. They discuss challenges, Brainstorm ideas. For example, case manager in Florida found a gem of a resource that's national. There's no reason our case manager in Utah should have to spend time finding that as well. They talk about it. They you know, hey, I found this. This is great. It might help each other. And so those meetings we've had a lot of positive response on and Kathy and I hop on, if they have a topic they want us to discuss or, you know, problem solve with them. And so we've really felt that's helped bridge that large geographic distance across the teams. And we're hoping that, you know, turns into high quality and impactful services for the folks we're serving efficiently, serving our individuals and not having multiple people having to spend the same time on the same need.   Kathy: Yeah, I'll add something here, too, from an evaluation perspective. You might be familiar that when you start a new program and it develops into a fully developed, successful project and program, and then you start sharing it nationally. Inevitably, someone will, from another state or another agency outside of your region will say, well, that could never work for us because we're, you know, we have these resources or we're serving this population. The beauty of this project is that it was originally designed for six sites across multiple states. And so our implementation really is across varying populations and community resources. And so this project has such strong potential for successful implementation across multiple states and contexts. So we're very excited that we're really documenting everything that we're doing. We'll have a toolkit when we complete the project, and we're really looking forward to sharing what we're doing and how to do it with others.   Carol: And that's a really important piece to RSA. It's one of the things you write to in the project, like how is this going to be sustained past the project ending? Like how can you then, you know, transfer this information to other folks and they can implement it. So I can see where that was very appealing to them as they're looking at evaluating the different proposals that shoot. Here's a group looking at six states. So you mentioned, Lucas, Utah and Florida. What are the other four states that you're in?   Lucas: Yeah. So we're  in Delaware, North Carolina and Virginia. And we're right now in the process of bringing on a team in Colorado. We have the approval. We're just doing the logistics of what it takes to bring them on. That's one of the ServiceSource teams that has an experienced TANF program. And so we looked at that as another opportunity to be able to already leverage existing relationships and expertise to just tie right into what we were already planning to do in the Colorado team was just a little bit newer to ServiceSource, so they weren't part of the original proposal because they weren't here quite yet, but they now are. So we're extremely excited to have some additional folks joining the team and fitting right into what we're doing.   Carol: That's very cool. I know one of your partners. Our Ability, brings some cutting edge tech into the mix with AI powered job matching and training. How is that partnership helping you engage employers and job seekers in new ways?   Lucas: Yeah, so I think as we all know, the workforce development is just kind of an ever evolving landscape. So bringing Our Ability in, I'm extremely excited. John Robinson, the CEO from Our Ability, is part of our project. And at the core of our partnership is the innovative use of technology. They have a portal that's called Jobs Ability, that uses generative AI to connect job seekers to employment based on their interests, their skills, their expertise. So the system helps focus on the challenge of both unemployment but also underemployment among folks with disabilities. And their platform reaches 15,000 people with disabilities each month, which to me is pretty remarkable. That's a lot of folks consistently visiting and using their resources. And so the job matching will assist with better connections between the individuals were serving and getting into the work world, or trying to help upgrade or increase their employment in a system that's already proven, which, you know, helps with efficiency. They already know it works. And so by us leveraging their extensive employer network within the system, you know, we're really focused on fostering the employment opportunities that encourage and again, increase self-sufficiency.   Kathy: Just kind of expanding on what the Jobs Ability portal will mean for our customers. We'll be able to assist our job seekers with creating quality resumes that are keyed in on skills and experience, and there is an AI matching protocol that really matches their preferences and experiences and skills with job descriptions. It's a proprietary AI system, and so we're really excited about how participants are going to be able to be matched with jobs that actually match their skills. These are real jobs, competitive wages. As we said, we have high quality indicators for our outcomes, including wages. And if you think about it, this is a win for our participants as well as our employers, because they are going to be able to actually tap into qualified individuals with disabilities who meet the skills and experience that they are seeking.   Carol: I love AI. I know there's people I've done different podcasts around, different AI initiatives, and some people have different feelings about AI. I know there's kind of the you have the dark side of it, but this sounds super cool. I had not heard of this company. And about this proprietary software. I think that's very interesting and super smart of you to leverage something already out there, proven tested, can be used right away. Instead of you trying to like, go down the road of creating something and doing all of that, you don't need to waste, you know, time and energy in that when you've got something already done. Now, I know no large project like this starts without a few hurdles. What have been some of your biggest challenges so far, and how are you navigating maybe any kind of overlap with other services or agencies?   Kathy: As you said, VR is a well-kept secret. Many times that's what we hear. And so being experienced with that, when we started the project, we knew the outreach was going to be key. And so we did not wait to start our outreach. And Lucas and I developed a very thorough support system and toolkit for our staff to help them really be purposeful about their outreach. And as soon as people were hired, one of the first things they were told to do after they were up and running with knowledge about the project was to start outreach. And honestly, I think we've become an outreach machine and we're really keeping track of hundreds, hundreds of contacts across our six locations that we've made and also just really analyzing which of those resources are turning into pipelines of referrals. And so I think we're going to be learning a lot about that. One of the things that we also knew from the beginning is that we needed to tailor our outreach to the audience. So we have a library of outreach materials for students, for VR, for employers, for schools and parents. So there's many ways that we have. We also are created outreach in other languages. So we're definitely doing our best to reach as many people as we can about this project, and also equipping our staff to be able to speak about it, to really understand it and to be able to keep track of what we're doing to reach the populations that and stakeholders that we're going to serve.   Carol: Very cool.   Lucas: I was going to talk about the overlap with other agencies. It's been a very real discussion with our teams because, you know, how does FASST fit in with other programs that might do similar types of work. And so, you know, it's an ongoing discussion, teaching staff the significance of a comparable benefit, a very familiar term for our friends that have been in the VR world before. We don't intend as a program to supplant programs that already exist, but we do intend to supplement or fill the gaps that exist. Maybe we can move faster within a process to help somebody now that while they'll go through a process that takes a little bit longer, or maybe we can support someone a little bit longer, like Kathy said before, you know, if someone has a VR counselor and at 90 days, VR is comfortable with closing them, but maybe they might need a little bit more support. That might be a gap we can fill or a little bit more job coaching or financial literacy or something like that. And so we really focused on the design of our project to try to rapidly engage individuals as much as we can. We can serve someone start to finish on our own as a project. We don't have to have a built in external component, but we recognize the significance of resource connection, obviously. So both now and down the road for folks, if they're not receiving our support, knowing what resources exist, who can help with different things. And so it's still an ongoing process. So part of that outreach, Kathy mentioned hundreds and hundreds of outreach. We have to hit folks with the right info that makes sense to them. And so for as long as this project's going, I think it will always be a focal point for us to make sure that, you know, it's just clear what we do and what we don't do and what we can do to just try to support agencies and programs that do exist already, but then also knowing we can do a pretty good job on our own if we had to, so.   Carol: So let's hone in a little bit. You've talked a lot about outreach and have mentioned VR, but let's talk about those VR partnerships. How are your teams building relationships at the state and local level, and what can VR agencies gain from working with your project?   Lucas: Yeah, so the teams have done a really good job focusing on building relationships with vocational rehab. Again, trying to listen to what the needs are, what they're seeing as needs, and then versus, you know, collaboration of what we can offer teams that are working on having regular check ins set up. As with any agency, you know, some relationships have been a little more natural than others. But continuing to work together to try to establish those pipelines and that knowledge base of our existence, and then also that need for the individuals that are eligible for TANF. And so I always kind of say, you know, what's in it for VR agencies? And from my perspective, at least, our project can increase access to services and resources that could make service delivery easier or more efficient or more effective, which should then lead to increase or better outcomes. That's the goal. One of our objectives, as Kathy touched on, is to establish a system that connects. Connects the folks eligible for TANF and other entities such as vocational rehab. And so we're really continuing to focus on that and going to continue to ramp that up throughout the project. As the more, you know, line level relationships exist with the different offices and the different staff. And we've learned that adults with disabilities receiving TANF benefits are often best served by VR. As I mentioned, you know, programs can be complex sometimes, and so trying to smooth that out a little bit might be helpful for them. So we kind of see an additional potential to have connect VR teams with employers. We just talked about our ability and John and his team. They have very robust employer connections across the country. And so that'll be a regular interaction. So we might be able to connect some employers. Some of our interest is connecting educational partners as well. So looking at programs that can help foster people to get into good jobs and, you know, and other stakeholders of course, as well. So we kind of see it as a very big collaboration opportunity for our teams. And I really think at the end of the day, it really just to me looks at shared impact. So we work together. How can we all show that the good work everybody's doing is impactful and supporting the individuals that are coming to us that are needing that support?   Carol: It takes a village. It really does.   Lucas: It does. It takes a village. And we have one team, the state they're in recently. Just last month went on order of selection. And so we're using that as another opportunity to be a support because at least I know us in this podcast know when going on Order of Selection, the most significant disabilities have to be focused first. And so those individuals with less significant disabilities are typically the ones that have to wait. And we can serve them. So that team is working with their VR agency to make sure that's known, so that if they have folks going on the waiting list, that it might be a great opportunity to shift them to us and we can support them while they're on the waiting list. And whenever the time would come for that release, we can just catch up together and see where we're at.   Carol: That's a perfect example of really great collaboration, I love that. That I'm glad you mentioned that.   Kathy: Yeah, I just want to mention too, it's kind of tied into that. The reason we're seeing agencies start to use Order of Selection is because of increasing costs. This project would not cost BR to use our services because we're funded through the grant. So if you need an employment service provider, we are one as part of this project and you would not have to pay fee for service or contract us. We're already being paid through the grant, so it really helps with cost.   Carol: Yeah that's perfect. So as you guys look at the year ahead, what are your priorities and what does success look like for FASST as you continue to grow and refine your model?   Lucas: Many things, but I think largely continuing to strengthen the project. You know, we're still relatively new in implementation. And so we've learned a lot and will continue to learn a lot. And so we just really want to make sure we're maximizing the positive impact of the individuals we're serving. First of all, strengthen develop clear pathways. The end goal would be for this to be replicable at the end to scale our model effectively. And so I really think this second year, now that the team's together, everybody's getting comfortable with our process. This year is really where the car starts driving full speed, is how I feel. And I know Kathy, you have some ideas on quality and partnerships too, right?   Kathy: Definitely. As an internal evaluator, I'm looking at quality of this project. I want to make sure that we're ensuring fidelity to our model and the key components of our model and project, and we're going to be making adjustments throughout the next year, especially based on the needs of our participants and even our staff. And we're going to be capitalizing on our successes and sharing best practices across our teams through those communities of practice that Lucas talked about. We want to be consistent in implementing our project across the teams and our locations. So again, we have process documents and we're making sure that we're doing things similarly across our locations. And then we're definitely going to be collecting data. We've already started that process, and we want to make sure that we can demonstrate our outcomes so that we can inform our improvements and just really develop that replicable model in the end. And then as far as collaborations and partnerships go, we're working with our local partners to strengthen our connections and expand resources for our disconnected youth and adults with disabilities. So really looking forward to the next year being strengthening of our program and proving our model.   Carol: Well spoken like a true evaluator indeed, I love that. Oh, that is good stuff. So how could our listeners learn more about your work or connect with the FASST team? Do you have a website or something you could share with us.   Lucas: Yeah, so there's a few ways. So if someone's wanting to get connected to Kathy and I quick, we have an email. It's FASST, which is FASST@ServiceSource.org. Comes directly to Kathy and I, and we can answer questions if it's specific to a team, a referral, something like that. We get it out to the appropriate folks across the different teams. We do have a website. There's a lot of hyphens in it, but so largely it's ServiceSource.org/families-achieving-sufficiency-together. The hyphens had to be in there. So it's a little much if someone's trying to write it down. So I don't know if there's a way to have that posted somehow.   Carol: Yeah, we'll definitely put that in when we post the podcast. We can put that in the transcript too, to have the website linked right there.   Lucas: And then, also always like to put a plug in for the National Clearinghouse of Rehabilitation Training Materials, or NCRTM. They have a website for all DIF grantees that provides information about the project so you can see any of the grant cycles, what they're doing, where they're located, and of course, ours being one of them. So it has information and also ties folks back to our project site as well.   Carol: Well, Heather Servais will sure appreciate that shout out to them. They have great stuff. I sure appreciate you both very much. This is interesting. It'll be fun to catch up with you in a year or so and see, like now that you said you're kind of going full speed ahead to see where things land, I appreciate you.   Kathy: Thank you.   Lucas: Thank you so much.   {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.   Lucas: The contents of this discussion were developed under Grant H421F240144 from the US Department of Education Department. The Department does not mandate or prescribe practices, models or other activities described or discussed in this discussion. The contents of this discussion may contain examples of adaptations of, and links to, resources created and maintained by another public or private organization. The. The department does not control or guarantee the accuracy, relevance, timeliness or completeness of this outside information. The content of this discussion does not necessarily represent the policy of the department. This publication is not intended to represent the views or policy, or be an endorsement of any views expressed or materials provided by any federal agency. Edgar. 75.620.   Carol: Well, thank you both. I really appreciate you. Good job.   Kathy: Thanks Carol.   Lucas: Thank you so much.   Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR. One manager at a time. One minute at a time. Brought to you by the VRTAC. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening.

On Monday, the Trump administration said it would partially restore funding for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program in response to two federal judicial rulings last Friday that ordered it to use contingency funds to pay for the federal food assistance program. Oregon and Washington were part of a coalition of 25 states and the District of Columbia that had sued to prevent the loss of monthly SNAP benefits on Nov. 1. The 42 million people across the nation who rely on SNAP will now only get half the amount they would normally get for the month and will likely face delays to access their partial benefits.    About 1 in 6 people, or roughly 757,000 households, receive SNAP benefits in Oregon. Last week, Gov. Tina Kotek announced sending $5 million in unspent state funds from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families to help Oregon food banks. Her executive order also declared a 60-day food emergency and called on Oregonians to donate or volunteer in their communities “to help neighbors from going hungry.”  Gov. Kotek joins us to discuss this situation along with the impact of other actions by the Trump administration, including the possible deployment of the National Guard to Portland, which has been blocked until Friday, when a final ruling by a federal judge is expected.

This Day in Legal History: Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation ActOn August 22, 1996, President Bill Clinton signed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act into law, reshaping the American welfare system in ways that continue to spark debate. Billed as a way to "end welfare as we know it," the law imposed strict work requirements on recipients and introduced a five-year lifetime limit on federal benefits, regardless of economic conditions. The legislation replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), transforming a federal entitlement into a state-administered block grant system.Supporters of the reform hailed it as a bipartisan success, encouraging employment and reducing long-term dependency. But critics argue that the law eroded the social safety net and punished the poor, particularly single mothers and children, by prioritizing ideological goals over economic realities. States were given broad discretion in how to allocate funds, leading to uneven access and accountability. Many used their new flexibility not to expand support systems but to restrict eligibility and reduce caseloads, often with little evidence of improved outcomes.The law also failed to account for structural barriers to employment—such as childcare shortages, low wages, and racial discrimination—leaving many without support when they failed to meet work requirements. Moreover, the block grant's fixed funding has not kept pace with inflation or need, effectively shrinking welfare over time. While welfare rolls dropped sharply in the years following the reform, poverty did not—suggesting that many were simply pushed out of the system rather than lifted out of hardship. The 1996 law codified a narrative of moral failing over structural inequality, framing poverty as a matter of personal irresponsibility rather than systemic dysfunction.A federal judge ordered an immediate halt to new construction at the controversial "Alligator Alcatraz" migrant detention center in Florida's Everglades. The facility, championed by Donald Trump and Ron DeSantis, was barred from accepting new detainees and required to dismantle supporting infrastructure—including generators, waste systems, fencing, and lighting—within 60 days. The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams, sided with environmental groups who argued the project violated federal, state, and local environmental laws.The detention center, estimated to cost $450 million annually and house up to 5,000 detainees, had drawn backlash for its location in a fragile wetland ecosystem populated by endangered species. Environmental advocates and some local leaders had long criticized the plan, noting it conflicted with decades of political pledges to protect and restore the Everglades. The Department of Homeland Security had tapped FEMA funds to support the project, raising additional controversy over funding priorities.In her ruling, Judge Williams emphasized that the project ran counter to longstanding legislative commitments to environmental protection. Florida has already filed an appeal, but environmental groups hailed the decision as a critical victory. Despite mounting opposition, Trump dismissed ecological concerns and reaffirmed his intent to replicate the model nationally as part of his broader immigration crackdown.Judge orders halt to new construction at 'Alligator Alcatraz' detention center | ReutersAlligator Alcatraz Expansion Blocked for Harm to Environment (1)California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a pair of redistricting bills designed to redraw congressional districts in favor of Democrats—part of an aggressive political response to a newly passed gerrymandered map in Texas. Both states are now embroiled in legal and constitutional battles, as Republicans and Democrats seek to lock in partisan advantages ahead of the 2026 midterm elections. Newsom also set a special statewide election for November 4, asking voters to approve the new map. If passed, it could flip up to five Republican-held House seats and secure four Democratic-leaning swing districts.California's strategy sidesteps its voter-created independent redistricting commission, which has been enshrined in the state constitution since 2010 to prevent political interference. Because of that, lawmakers are now required to get voter approval to implement their plan—creating a high-stakes ballot measure, Proposition 50. Republicans and good-government advocates, including Arnold Schwarzenegger and Charles Munger Jr., have vowed to fight the plan in court and on the ballot. A pending GOP lawsuit argues the legislature violated the state's 30-day waiting period for new bills, pushing through the redistricting effort without proper transparency.In Texas, the Republican-controlled legislature approved a new congressional map at the urging of President Trump, hoping to maintain a narrow House majority. Voting rights groups immediately challenged the plan, claiming it violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by racially diluting Black and Latino voting power. The case will be heard by a federal three-judge panel in El Paso, with a likely fast track to the U.S. Supreme Court. Texas Republicans, including Governor Greg Abbott, deny any racial bias and argue the map reflects demographic shifts and Republican gains among minority voters.This escalating redistricting clash highlights the legal vulnerability of U.S. voting systems when partisan manipulation goes unchecked. Though the Supreme Court ruled in 2019 that federal courts cannot weigh in on partisan gerrymandering, racial gerrymandering remains justiciable under the Voting Rights Act. Meanwhile, California Democrats are relying on voter sentiment—and Trump's unpopularity in the state—to justify a temporary abandonment of anti-gerrymandering principles.Explainer: The legal battles over redistricting in Texas and California | ReutersNewsom Signs California Redistricting Plan to Counter Texas Republicans - The New York TimesA federal judge ruled that Alina Habba, President Trump's controversial appointee as interim U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey, had no legal authority to hold the office after her temporary term expired. U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann found that the Trump administration violated federal law by firing Habba's court-selected successor, Desiree Grace, and then using a series of procedural maneuvers to reinstall Habba. These included appointing her as “special attorney,” then naming her first assistant U.S. attorney to invoke the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.Brann concluded that Habba was unlawfully performing the duties of U.S. Attorney as of July 1 and that her actions from that point forward “may be declared void.” The ruling blocks her from overseeing or participating in criminal cases, and it extends to prosecutors operating under her supervision. The judge criticized the administration's strategy as an attempt to bypass Senate confirmation entirely by exploiting loopholes in temporary appointment rules, warning that this interpretation could let the executive branch install preferred prosecutors indefinitely.The Trump-appointed Attorney General, Pam Bondi, vowed to appeal, and Brann stayed his ruling pending the outcome. Still, the decision casts a shadow over prosecutions under Habba's leadership, and some courts in New Jersey have already paused proceedings. Brann also rejected the idea that firing interim appointees before their terms expire could justify continual reappointments without oversight.Defense attorneys in the case that triggered the ruling argued that the executive branch cannot sidestep a process designed to check prosecutorial power through judicial or Senate involvement. Though the judge refused to throw out defendant Cesar Pina's indictment—since the investigation began before Habba's unlawful tenure—the ruling reinforces that prosecutorial authority must be rooted in lawful appointment.Alina Habba Blocked From Handling Cases in Rebuke to Trump (3)This week's closing theme is by Claude Debussy.This week's closing theme comes from Debussy, born on August 22, 1862—an apt choice as we mark the anniversary of his birth. Debussy was a revolutionary figure in Western music, often associated with Impressionism, though he rejected the label. He sought to break from the rigid structures of the Germanic tradition, instead favoring color, atmosphere, and suggestion over clear-cut form and resolution. His music evokes shifting light, fluid motion, and emotional ambiguity—more akin to poetry or painting than to classical architecture.One of his early works, Rêverie, composed in the 1890s, offers a glimpse into the world he would come to define. The title means “daydream,” and the piece unfolds with a gentle, unhurried lyricism that floats outside of time. Though simple in construction, it is harmonically rich and emotionally resonant—hinting at the innovations to come in Clair de Lune, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, and Pelléas et Mélisande.Rêverie was one of Debussy's first pieces to gain public attention, though he later dismissed it as “a piece for salon use.” Listeners have disagreed ever since. Its introspective tone and delicate touch make it a lasting favorite among pianists and audiences alike. It feels like a whisper—never urgent, never insistent, always inviting. In that sense, it's a fitting farewell for the week: contemplative, unresolved, and open to interpretation.Without further ado, Claude Debussy's Rêverie enjoy! This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

From Best of 180PODCAST: In this episode of Follow the Leader, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

County receives about $65 million annually About 10 percent of Dutchess County's funding - $65 million - comes from federal funding through eight agencies, according to a newly released report by Dan Aymar-Blair, a Beacon resident who is the county comptroller. The report also calculated that Dutchess residents receive $1.9 billion annually in direct federal assistance through programs such as Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid and military medical insurance. Aymar-Blair released the report, which is posted at dub.sh/dutchess-federal, following a freeze on Jan. 27 by President Donald Trump of all federal funding, causing confusion for municipal governments and nonprofits. Although a federal judge issued a temporary restraining order a few days later and ordered the money restored, the funding has been inconsistent and unpredictable. At the same time, cuts driven by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), an ad hoc agency created by the administration and led by carmaker Elon Musk, have caused further uncertainty. "We were getting a lot of questions," said Aymar-Blair. "People had concerns about how much federal funding the county had, what it was used for, and whether it had been touched by the feds." In Putnam, the finance department and clerk did not respond to inquiries about how much of the county's funding comes from the federal government. Putnam does not have a comptroller's office. Aymar-Blair said he had expected that the investigation would reveal sources of federal funding that the county could do without, but "every single program struck me as vital to the county's functioning and to supporting the vulnerable people in our county." The county's largest source of federal funding in 2024 was $43.6 million from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, which funds programs such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (aka "welfare"); the Home Energy Assistance Program; adoption and foster care; and the enforcement of child support. The county also received $2.95 million from the U.S. Department of Agriculture for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (aka "food stamps") and $12.9 million from the Department of Transportation, among other federal expenditures. The report said that, as of Feb. 20, the county had not seen delays in federal disbursements, but Aymar-Blair said this week that's no longer accurate. "Everything's changing all the time," he said. At a March 6 meeting of the county Legislature's Public Works and Capital Projects Committee, Bob Balakind of the Department of Public Works reported that a federal grant the county had received to study the feasibility of electrifying the county bus fleet had been frozen. A consultant hired to produce the study was already a month into the work; if the funds aren't forthcoming, the county will have to pick up the tab. A grant to install new cameras at Dutchess County Airport also was paused, although "that may have since wiggled loose again," Balakind said. He noted that 90 percent of the airport's capital funding comes from the federal government, with the remainder split between the state and county. "We're usually only stuck with paying that last 5 percent, which is great," he said. "But that federal funding is now much more volatile." There is confusion about the status of some of the $3.2 million that the Department of Housing and Urban Development pays the county after the nonprofit Hudson River Housing reported that it had been told its contract with HUD would not be renewed as of March 31. That could leave dozens of Poughkeepsie families homeless, it said. Hudson River Housing did not respond to a request for comment. Meanwhile, the future of the Social Security Administration office in Poughkeepsie, the only one in the county, has been in doubt. The office, which had been closed for renovations, appeared on a list of government sites that DOGE expected to close. Earlier this week, Aymar-Blair said that the office's staff weren'...

In this episode of Follow the Leader, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

In this episode of Follow the Leader, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

From the Working Together Podcast: In this episode of Follow the Leader, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

In America today, reports show that food insecurity is a pressing issue for over 35 million people. With rising grocery prices, inflation, and the lasting impacts of the pandemic—understanding the complexities of hunger has never been more imperative. Mariana Chilton explores this issue in the book, The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know—and Start Again with some new insights and perspectives. Mariana Chilton is an author, professor, and founder of the Drexel University — Center for Hunger-Free Communities. In The Painful Truth About Hunger in America, Chilton takes a radical and urgent new approach to addressing hunger and poverty in the US. Where traditionally researchers, policymakers, and advocates have approached providing food through donations or non-profit organizations, Chilton focuses on the fundamental structures which she asserts have a keen interest in maintaining food stratification. Chilton suggests that the solution to food insecurity lies beyond providing food itself and will have to take both a political and spiritual approach in fixing this crisis. Drawing on 25 years of research, programming, and advocacy efforts, Chilton argues that food insecurity is created and maintained by those in power. To demonstrate her point, Chilton calls back to the original wounds suffered in this country — through a history of colonization, genocide, and enslavement. Drawing on intimate interviews she has conducted with many Black and Brown women, Chilton sheds light on the experience of hunger as linked with trauma and gender-based violence, violence with the natural world, and with ourselves. The Painful Truth about Hunger in America not only reinvigorates our commitment to uprooting the causes of poverty and discrimination but also points to a more generative and humane world where everyone can be nourished. Mariana Chilton, PhD, MPH, is a Professor at Drexel University's Dornsife School of Public Health and Director of the Center for Hunger-Free Communities, a research and advocacy center focused on addressing hunger and economic insecurity. She founded Witnesses to Hunger, a movement amplifying women's voices in the fight against poverty, and leads the Building Wealth and Health Network, which promotes entrepreneurship in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Her work on food insecurity, trauma, and human rights has influenced national policies, and she has advised Congress, Sesame Street, and the Institute of Medicine. Dr. Chilton's research has been featured in major media outlets, including The Washington Post and CBS News. Agueda Pacheco Flores is a Seattle-based freelancer with a focus on culture, arts, Southend communities, and the Latinx diaspora. Her work has been featured in The Seattle Times, The South Seattle Emerald, Remezcla, and more. You can find her on X @AguedaPachecOH. Buy the Book The Painful Truth about Hunger in America: Why We Must Unlearn Everything We Think We Know--and Start Again Elliott Bay Book Company

Rep. Gwen Moore, who represents the 4th District of Wisconsin, was in the state legislature when her state commenced a welfare-to-work program that would become the template for the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Moore now sits on the House Ways and Means Committee, which oversees TANF. She joined the podcast to discuss her problems with TANF, how it could be improved, and we discussed her most recent bill on the intersection of poverty and child welfare systems.Reading RoomFull Committee Hearing on Reforming Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)https://bit.ly/3Ybqv8Rep. Gwen Moore's comments from the hearinghttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JVCneYbvLQTemporary Assistance for Needy Families, with Ashley Burnsidehttps://imprintnews.org/podcast/temporary-assistance-needy-families-ashley-burnsideStrengthening Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a Safety Net and Work Programhttps://bit.ly/3zRBdJaPublic Comment in response to “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Intermediate Improvement to the Disability Adjudication Process: Including How We Consider Past Work”https://bit.ly/4f61weRTANF Cash Assistance to Families Plummets, But Program Remains Consistent Funder of Child Welfarehttps://bit.ly/3W9Zce9Bipartisan Effort in Congress Aims to Steer Impoverished Families Away From Foster Care Systems https://bit.ly/3YgrZ1LAmid Pandemic, Congress Considers Giving Parents More Time to Reunify with Kids in Foster Carehttps://tinyurl.com/3tazannm

Growing up, the two topics that were taboo at the dinner table were religion and politics. Which may be a big part of how we ended up in the mess we find ourselves in. Please join Dani Joy and me as we ramble a bit about how deconstruction changed our political perspectives, and how those changing perspectives tie into our thoughts on adoption and family preservation. Mentioned in the show: TANF Welfare benefits or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) | USAGov Saving our Sisters: Home - Saving Our Sisters (savingoursistersadoption.org) The Family Preservation Project: Facebook The opinions of the host and their guests are just that, opinions. The host is not a lawyer, therapist or a politician. The host encourages listeners to research the topics discussed and engage your curiosity and critical thinking skills. Let's problem solve together.

On today's episode we spoke with Aditi Shrivastava, deputy director of income security at the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, about the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, known widely as TANF. We talked about the proposed new rule for regulating how states use this program, a new test of how to measure success, and we also discuss the many guaranteed income projects that have popped up around the country.  Reading RoomRule-a-Palooza! Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, with Ashley Burnsidehttps://imprintnews.org/podcast/temporary-assistance-needy-families-ashley-burnsideSupport Grows For No-Strings-Attached Cash For Families To Prevent Foster Care Removalshttps://imprintnews.org/top-stories/support-grows-for-no-strings-attached-cash-for-families-to-prevent-foster-care-removals/243395Feds Begin Test of Welfare Work Requirementshttps://imprintnews.org/youth-services-insider/feds-begin-test-welfare-work-requirements/250920Here's What Happens When You Give People Free Moneyhttps://www.wired.com/story/sam-altmans-big-basic-income-study-is-finally-out/

Kansas Department for Children and Families (DCF) administers the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in Kansas. Kansas receives about $102 million in federal TANF block grants annually. This amount has generally remained stable since 1996, but that means this amount has lost an estimated 49% of its purchasing power since 1996 because of inflation. One of the programs DCF funds with the TANF block grant is cash assistance. TANF cash assistance serves Kansas families with very low incomes. In Kansas, a family is eligible for TANF cash assistance if they have insufficient income or resources to support themselves. Funds must be granted to families that live in Kansas. The family must include a child or expectant mother who is a U.S. citizen, legal immigrant, or qualified immigrant. The state's 2015 Hope, Opportunity, and Prosperity for Everyone (HOPE) Act changed eligibility requirements for TANF cash assistance in Kansas. This included things like capping lifetime assistance to a total of 24 months and reducing the amount of time single caregivers could be exempt from work activity to 3 months. TANF cash assistance benefit amounts in Kansas haven't been updated since 1997. Spending on TANF cash assistance in Kansas has decreased from about 15% of block grant spending (about $15.2 million) to about 9% ($9.4 million) of block grant spending from FY 2009 through FY 2023, while spending on other TANF programs has increased. The purchasing power of TANF cash assistance also decreased by about 30% from FY 2009 to FY 2023 because of inflation. One reason for the decrease in cash assistance spending in Kansas is the decreasing caseloads. All cash assistance caseloads in Kansas decreased from about 12,600 average monthly cases in FY 2009 to about 2,900 average monthly cases in FY 2023; about a 77% decrease. Other reasons may include eligibility changes, wage increases, and inflation. The research we reviewed suggested TANF rules like those in Kansas lead to mostly negative program outcomes for TANF families, while stakeholders held mixed opinions about the impacts of Kansas's TANF rule changes.

Over the summer, The Imprint Weekly Podcast will feature episodes with subject matter experts to talk about several new rules and regulations issued by the Biden administration in the past year. On this week's episode, Ashley Burnside of the Center for Law and Social Policy joins us to discuss a plan to update the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), a federal cash assistance program designed to help low-income families fill the gap. Burnside discussed the changing nature of TANF programs since its inception in 1996, and explains what Biden's proposed rules for it would change about how states could use the money to support families. Ashley Burnside is a senior policy analyst with the public benefits justice team at the Center for Law and Social Policy. She specializes in refundable tax credits, and also focuses on disability policy issues and increasing access to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) for college students with low incomes who face barriers to accessing higher education.Reading RoomStrengthening Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) as a Safety Net and Work Programhttps://bit.ly/3zRBdJaPublic Comment in response to “Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Intermediate Improvement to the Disability Adjudication Process: Including How We Consider Past Work” https://bit.ly/4f61weRTANF Cash Assistance to Families Plummets, But Program Remains Consistent Funder of Child Welfarehttps://bit.ly/3W9Zce9Reports: States Hoard Billions in Welfare Funds Despite Growing Nee https://shorturl.at/K8URJ

In this episode of Follow the Leader, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

In this episode, we welcome special guest Dr. Cira Burke, Director of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program at the U.S. Virgin Islands Department of Human Services. Dr. Burke discusses her work helping families in need gain access to services, job training, education, and more to achieve self-sufficiency. She shares insights on poverty and related issues in the U.S. Virgin Islands, the importance of community partnerships, and her passion for her purpose-driven work. Dr. Burke also highlights her involvement with Parenting Inside Out, a program supporting incarcerated parents and their families. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about making a real difference in the community with the dedicated Dr. Cira Burke.

In this episode, Josh Moon and David Person discuss Alabama's unspent $100 million in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) funds, emphasizing the dire need for better financial support in impoverished areas, particularly in the Black Belt. House Minority Leader Anthony Daniels joins the show to share personal updates, including recovering from a house fire. He reflects on his recent congressional campaign and the significant influence of money in politics. Daniels discusses his future plans, focusing on spending time with family and supporting local communities through sustainable programs like Boys and Girls Clubs, and provides insights into the recent legislative session's impact on Alabama. The hosts then turn to U.S. District Court Judge Lyle C. Burke's controversial order threatening to jail lawyers, expressing concerns about increasing judicial partisanship and suggesting reforms, such as term limits for Supreme Court justices. About Our Sponsor: Alabama Politics This Week is sponsored by Wind Creek Hospitality. Gaming is the heart of Wind Creek Hospitality, but they offer so much more. Wind Creek's 10 distinct properties in the U.S. and Caribbean — including four in Alabama — provide world-class entertainment, dining, hotel stays, amenities and activities. As the principal gaming and hospitality entity for the Poarch Band of Creek Indians, Wind Creek continues to grow and offer guests luxurious destinations and opportunities for escape. Send us a question: We take a bit of time each week to answer questions from our audience about Alabama politics — or Alabama in general. If you have a question about a politician, a policy, or a trend — really anything — you can shoot us an email at apwproducer@gmail.com or with this form. You can also send it to us on Facebook and Twitter. Or by emailing us a voice recording to our email with your question, and we may play it on air. Either way, make sure you include your name (first name is fine) and the city or county where you live. About APW: APW is a weekly Alabama political podcast hosted by Josh Moon and David Person, two longtime Alabama political journalists. More information is available on our website. Listen anywhere you get your podcasts. Follow us on Twitter and Facebook. Music credits: Music courtesy of Mr. Smith via the Free Music Archive. Visit Mr. Smith's page here.  

Peggy Bailey is the Vice President of Housing and Income Security, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  Her work protects and expands access to affordable housing, improves state's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), focuses on child support programs and expands employment opportunities to housing and cash assistance recipients. Before joining the Center, Peggy served in the Biden/Harris Administration as the Senior Advisor on Rental Assistance to HUD Secretary Marcia Fudge.She recently testified before the Senate Banking Committee on housing.1:45 People simply don't have the money to afford housingToo many families are paying more than 40 - 60 percent of their income on housingLandlords have to charge a certain amount of money to pay the mortgage and maintain the buildingMinimum rent is out of reach for too many peopleMultifaceted problem, where do you start?Multi family housing is being developed but most of it is being priced in the upper end of affordability3:58 Government subsidy to afford high rental cost4:10 there are pockets of innovation, European countries are taking a more social approach to housing4:55 People need flexibility regarding where they can live5:19 Child care is a major factor with housing costs6:00 Families don't have enough money to afford their basic needs6:36 Housing justice, everyone has a right to housing7:04 Housing is a basic need like food and clothing7:48 Rent mitigation and rent cost containment8:12 Leveling the playing field and racial injustice with housing8:25 Racism and discrimination underlines most if not all of the things we've used in the past as solutions8:40 Reprogram and redesign new plans to correct past racism and discrimination9:00 Cash programs improves housing, nutrition and more9:16 Denver Colorado has a pilot project that is doing it right10:06 A recent housing initiative will increase affordable housing supply, make it easier to build affordable housing and increase the number of units available10:38 Grant programs for builders to offset the cost of creating housing11:01 A Capital stack12:40 rental assistance programs for people who need help now50th Anniversary of the housing choice voucher program 2024 13:20 Landlord has the control now but that may change and offer the tenant the voucher and option to choose the housing14:00 Many separate voucher programs available but these can leave some people out14:20 Not reinforcing the deserving status but delivering housing assistance to those who need it14:45 What could happen with the housing voucher? 15:30 Reducing discrimination and empowering the individual        Listen Up, Home Buyers! The podcast offering advice and tips from true buyer agents. Host and Producer, Victoria Ray Henderson is the owner and broker of HomeBuyer Brokerage in the Washington D.C. area. Victoria is and a member of the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents.

Please join me as I speak with Katie Nelson Burns, founder of The Family Preservation Project. Katie is a mother of loss to adoption who is passionately committed to preventing others from applying permanent solutions to temporary problems. As the creator of the project and as a board member of Saving our Sisters, Katie devotes a great deal to helping pregnant mothers in crisis. Mentioned on the show: The Family Preservation Project: The Family Preservation Project – Where Moms and Resources Meet Saving our Sisters: Home - Saving Our Sisters (savingoursistersadoption.org) All You Have is Love: Home - (allyouhaveislove.com) Georgis Alliance for Adoptee Rights: Home | Georgia Alliance for Adoptee Rights (gaallianceforadopteerights.org) Georgia Revocation Law: Georgia Code § 19-8-26 (2019) - Forms :: 2019 Georgia Code :: US Codes and Statutes :: US Law :: Justia Adoptee Access to records, Georgia: Georgia | Adoptee Rights Law Center TANF: Welfare benefits or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) | USAGov PTSD: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) - Symptoms and causes - Mayo Clinic Stress Response: Protect your brain from stress - Harvard Health Support for parents of loss to adoption: Concerned United Birthparents [Birth Mother] First Mother Forum If you are experiencing suicidal ideation, please reach out for support. NAMI-National-HelpLine-WarmLine-Directory-3-11-20.pdf Thank ou for listening to the show! The opinions of the host and their guests are just that, their opinions. The host is not a lawyer or a therapist.

Machaela Cavanaugh represents Nebraska's 6th District in the Unicameral. She was re-elected to a second term in 2022 and in 2023, Cavanaugh made national news when she filibustered LB574, also known as the Let Them Grow Act, which bans gender-affirming care for Nebraska children. Cavanaugh spoke on the bill up to 12 hours a day for 11 weeks. LB574 was passed by the Legislature in May and went into effect last October. In the current legislative session, which began on January 3rd, Cavanaugh says she's focused on supporting Nebraska's working poor. She's prioritizing paid family leave, universal school meals, and securing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, or TANF. On today's show, Cavanaugh is in conversation with Maria Corpuz about her historic filibuster, building relationships in a divided legislature, and her hopes for the 108th Legislative Session. --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/riversidechats/support

In Washington, millions of dollars in child support payments are intercepted by the state from custodial parents who receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, a federal assistance program that includes cash benefits. Lawmakers are considering a bill with bipartisan support that would redirect a portion of future child support payments back to families. Brandon Block is an investigative reporter at Cascade PBS. He has reported on the bill and joins us with details.

Chelsey provides a comprehensive overview of the legislation, highlighting its significance in blocking the Biden administration's attempt to exclude pregnancy centers from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program. We explore how this legislation impacts pregnancy centers nationwide, ensuring that the 40,000 families served by organizations like Human Coalition, and the broader 975,000 families served by pregnancy centers, receive vital medical, financial, and material services.Chelsey shares her perspective on the choices made by the U.S. House, emphasizing care and compassion, and contrasts this with what she perceives as abandonment and neglect by the Biden administration. Her recent statement underscores the importance of societal decisions in shaping a supportive environment for pregnant women in need.The discussion delves into specific examples of the services and support that families can now access due to the legislation. We also explore the potential consequences had the Biden administration's attempt succeeded in excluding pregnancy centers from TANF.Looking ahead, Chelsey discusses Human Coalition's plans to leverage the legislation to further their mission of assisting women and families through healthy pregnancies. The conversation concludes with an exploration of the role of government policies in either supporting or neglecting pregnant women and potential improvements.Chelsey Youman, Esq., serves the pro-life coalition, as well as women and their preborn children, by advocating for pro-life policies and jurisprudence; mobilizing and unifying local grassroots to strengthen the pro-life movement and its footprint; and engaging with the public to ultimately strengthen our community's desire to enable women and protect preborn children.Chelsey's professional experience includes working as senior counsel and chief of staff for First Liberty Institute, concentrating on religious liberty matters and First Amendment rights. At First Liberty Institute, she litigated on behalf of and advised hundreds of clients regarding conscience rights nationwide. Chelsey has also worked in private practice, where she successfully litigated corporate fraud matters, complex commercial litigation, and consumer rights issues in both federal and state jurisdictions.Chelsey holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Texas A&M, and a J.D. from Southern Methodist University.Chelsey is happily married with three children. Her family is active in their church, serving in the premarital and pro-life ministries there. They enjoy traveling, adventuring, and eating good food. https://hucoaction.org/leadership/chelsey-youman/ https://www.humancoalition.org/

In the studio today are Joan Phillips, Assistant Commissioner at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Michelle Banks, DIF Strategic Director for MRC.   Find out how MRC is turning VR on its head. What would they do differently in the first year, and what results would they see after year 2? Learn about the success of the job certification program, and how they are meeting the "NextGen-ers" where they are at.   Hear how  Joan and Michelle encourage others to take on a DIF Grant to help bring more innovation and creative ideas to VR.   Learn more about the NextGen Initiative.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music}   Joan: If you are committed to this field, please apply for a DIF grant. Bring your ideas forward so we can infuse the future of VR with new energy and achieve more outcomes for individuals with disabilities who come to us, really depending on us, to help them make life changing decisions.   Michelle: We're moving more and more young adults into trainings. We've developed training partnerships in technology, in health care. We're trying to forge our way into biotech.   Joan: I'm always challenging staff. What else? How else?   Intro Voice: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today are Joan Phillips, assistant commissioner at the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission, and Michelle Banks, DIF strategic director for MRC. So, Joan, how are things going at MRC?   Joan: Things are going really well. We are extremely busy working hard to ensure that the individuals who come to us seeking employment have every opportunity to get the training and to be upskilled and to gain employment. We are very, very busy but very happy.   Carol: Well, and of course, under Tony, she keeps you very busy because Tony's got a lot of great ideas. I love that.   Joan: She's got a lot of energy, more than all of us, that's for sure.   Carol: How about you, Michelle? How are things going for you?   Michelle: Good, busy is the word. Our project is well underway. Got a lot of participants. We've got a lot of interested folks and a lot of optimism for what we're about to achieve here. So it's going well.   Carol: I'm super excited to dig into this because I know our listeners have been really excited. And so this is the third podcast in a series focused on the Disability Innovation Fund career advancement projects. And I want to just do a little quick recap for our listeners about this particular round of the Disability Innovation Fund grants. So grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals with disabilities. And the Career Advancement Initiative model demonstrations funded back in 2021 were intended to identify and demonstrate practices that are supported by evidence to assist VR eligible individuals with disabilities, including previously served VR participants in employment who reenter the program to do the following. And it was to advance in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering, and math or those STEM careers, to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs to improve and maximize the competitive integrated outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society and reduce reliance on public benefits like SSI, SSDI and or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and any state or local benefits. Also, when we think back, Congress made career pathways a necessary, if not foundational, part of WIOA's workforce reforms and states, for example, are required to include career pathways and workforce development systems. They're required to have them in their local plans that they have. So it's been really fun because each of the other agencies that we featured to date has taken a really uniquely Different approach, and I'm excited to unpack what's happening with you all. So, Joan, I'm going to start with you. Tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got into VR.   Joan: I actually have a master's degree in rehabilitation, but spent a significant amount of my career working in the private sector. I feel that those experiences really informed my positions that I've held at MRC. I came in as a director of one of our local offices, and four years later I was promoted to Assistant Commissioner. So that's a little glimpse into my journey. I have significant experience in Workforce Development, disability determination to determine eligibility for disability benefits, working with young adults with disabilities, individuals with severe physical disabilities. And I'm very fortunate to be in this career.   Carol: Well, it's always fun to see how people make their way to VR. We all get here some way. It can be a long and winding road sometimes, or a very direct path in. So Michelle, how about you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself?   Michelle: Sure, mine might reflect a long, winding part when it comes to Vocational Rehabilitation, but I've spent my career working with young adults. I started in the health care sector and then moved to juvenile justice. And then spent about 20 years in public child welfare, and I was the director of Adolescent and Young Adult Services for the Massachusetts Department of Children and Families, where I was helping the agency pursue transition related outcomes, one of them being employment with a group of young adults who were going to leave the public child welfare system without returning home or being adopted. So they had their lives, were calling for an enormous amount of independence, saw a lot of inequity when it came to economic stability, and could see a lot of pathways in things that could be done differently. I had worked with MRC a bit in that role and saw what they were doing, and when I realized that they got this funding to help young adults in particular, really try to have gratifying career pathways that were going to help them achieve economic stability in ways that many of their peers have the opportunity to do. I jumped right on it. So that's how I landed with MRC and have been excited to be working in this role ever since.   Carol: Very cool. So you're well positioned for the role you're in now. That is great. So, Joan, can you paint us a picture of MRC? Like how many staff do you have? How many people do you serve? A little bit more about what it's like in Massachusetts.   Joan: Yeah. So the Massachusetts Rehabilitation Commission provides services that break down barriers and empower people with disabilities to live life on their own terms. Our programs focus on career services, home and community life, and disability determination for federal benefit programs. We like to say that we're change agents and community builders, and we put the people we serve at the heart of everything we do. I'm the Assistant Commissioner of the Vocational Rehabilitation Division. That division serves over 15,000 individuals annually. We have over 300 staff, which includes directors of our local offices, regional managers, statewide managers, vocational rehabilitation counselors, placement and employment specialists, counselors for the deaf and hard of hearing, various clerical positions, supervisors. And hopefully I haven't missed anyone. The NextGen initiative, which you'll hear about, has some broad and some interesting staffing positions that we hope will inform VR moving forward in the future, and you'll hear more about that later.   Carol: So just a side note, I wondered, how are you guys faring kind of coming out of the pandemic? Are you seeing an upswing in the number of people that you're serving?   Joan: Absolutely. The numbers are increasing in terms of the numbers being served and also the numbers of individuals who are getting employment. We had a downswing during the pandemic, but now it's moving in the right direction and we're really excited to see that.   Carol: Good, that's good to hear. Been kind of hearing that trend across the country and I'm super happy about that. Well, I know your commissioner, Tony Wolf. I think she's amazing. She's done a lot of very cool things. She comes with a whole interesting background as well. And I know she's been super supportive and I feel like is always on the cutting edge of improving services. Talk about the support you've received from Tony and kind of throughout your agency for this project.   Joan: Her vision is really to modernize our organization, to modernize the Voc rehab divisions, to be relevant to this generation and future generations of individuals with disabilities. So we're all aligning ourselves. I said earlier, she's got much more energy than all of us combined. So we're trying to keep up with her and her ideas and moving forward.   Carol: Very cool. So, Michelle, big picture. Let's break down the grant. What do you propose to do with this grant? And what are you hoping to accomplish?   Michelle: So in this grant cycle we are looking to get 1000 NextGen-ers. So young adults 18 to 30 years old with disabilities into career pathways that are STEM related. We're going to do that in a few different ways, but our goal is to really open their minds to see how they can be successful in STEM careers, help them develop the tools that they're going to need to make the right career decision for them, understand how they can be successful and happy, and really achieve that economic stability that you were talking about and I was talking about earlier. It's an Innovation grant. So we're doing things differently than they've been done in the past. One of the things that we're doing is we have a learning experience that we provide to all of our NextGen-ers, and it's called Self CARES. Self CARES is an acronym, stands for Self-capacity self-advocacy, self-realization and Self Sufficiency. So it's really understanding. Ending who you are as a worker, what you want out of that, what your strengths and limitations are, what you're going to need to advocate for yourself once you become someone's employee and how you can work independently. And in NextGen, we don't see independence as being alone. We see it as accessing, first of all, having access to services, being able to access them, and harnessing the things that are available in your life to help you be successful at work. So that's our learning experience, Self CARES. And we also have these really creatively built teams looking at success in other sectors and within vocational rehabilitation itself that we've developed these roles within these teams. They include a peer mentor for every NextGener. The moment that they walk into our doors, we actually walk through their doors because we're community based, which is another innovative component. We have family partners, so the families of all of our NextGen-ers have a partner available to them on our team to ensure that their voice is NextGen-ers life and how they can contribute to a successful career. We also have employment success specialists, we have career counselors. We have specialty counselors for our NextGen-ers with sensory disabilities. We have a specialty counselor for blind low vision, NextGen-ers, and deaf hard of hearing NextGen-ers. And we have regional supervisors because we are based in these communities. We have three communities in the Commonwealth that we're serving right now as part of the grant. What's really different is these teams hold the NextGen-ers together, so it's not a 1 to 1 relationship. For example, with a counselor we're testing out, what is it like when you have these multi disciplines in they're all available to you. And we know that young adults like choice. So they choose who in this team is their team lead who they want to talk to, who they're going to return the text from. You know, who can get them where they want to be. But the rest of the team doesn't go away. They stay right there at the table to bring what they're disciplined forward and help move the young adult into work. Those are the main components of our program. I always look to Joan for a moment because she can fill in what I may have forgotten.   Joan: So NextGen is about quick wins. You know, we really want to help the young adults focus on those certificate programs and apprenticeships that are short term. They're not. We're not talking about putting people into a degree program, but a certificate program where there is a demand in the market sector for those skills and that they have a high probability of obtaining employment, making higher wages.   Carol: I love that you're doing that, that focus on, you know, everybody always was thinking, you have to have this four year degree or you got to get your master's, you got to get your doctorate. You know, all that. That is not for everyone. And there are so many good careers out there where you just need this little bit, like this certificate or you do the apprenticeship. Lots of people learn better, hands on. I remember my son, one of his friends in high school is an apprentice to be a plumber. I'm like, Chase, he's going to make more money than everybody because everybody needs plumbers. And that was his thing. He doesn't want to go to school and do the book learning. He learns so much better via hands on. So I like that approach because everybody doesn't want to go to college.   Joan: Yeah, you know what's really interesting is that right now, because of employers being unable to fill so many positions, everybody is looking at their entrance requirements to say, do we really need somebody with a degree? Is this something that somebody could learn on the job? Is this something if they got a certificate in this particular area, would that be sufficient? So I think we're on the cutting edge. We're on the cutting edge of preparing young adults to meet the demands of the labor market. And we're really excited about this. The good news is that if somebody completes a certificate program, gets a job and decides they want a degree, many employers are paying for those degrees. So the young person doesn't have these huge debts that they need to pay back. So that's one of the exciting things about NextGen. And that's one of the things that we inform the participants about that you can get a degree later if you decide that that's a path that you want to take.   Carol: Well, your timing couldn't be more perfect. I mean, I really feel like the pandemic sort of set all this up where people kind of flipped employment on its ear, and people are starting to see that not everybody needs to go to college, and there's lots of different ways to achieve that kind of ultimate career goal that you want to get to. There's a lot of ways to get there. So I think your timing is spot on. So let's talk about the first year. What kind of struggles did you guys encounter? Because I've heard it from the other DIF grantees. They're like, you know, that first year we had some problems, but what kind of struggles did you encounter in year one and what would you have done differently?   Michelle: I think that we used the analogy building the plane as you're flying it a lot. We are very optimistic about reaching our goals. Five years is a very short time to pursue some of these things. So Joan was the crafter of the implementation strategy really, and implementing, you know, building the program, opening the program, staffing the program, delivering the service at the same time is a very rapid pace. So I think that the biggest challenge would be the pace. At the same time, we're asking our NextGen-ers to work really hard in a short period of time to get a big outcome. So we've got to be doing the same thing.   Joan: You know, it's really funny when you write something on paper. It looks so beautiful and. And somewhat easy you know. But then reality hits that you have to, you know, this is a program that's serving people and you need to be strategic around implementation. And how are you going to deliver what it is that you've promised your funders that you're going to deliver? You know, if there was one thing that I could, we spent a lot of time drafting job descriptions, hiring staff, training staff, setting up infrastructure. If there was one thing that I could change as we rolled into year two and began to do outreach and recruitment, I looked back and said, I wish we had done outreach and recruitment in the first year, with a timeline set as to when the program would start. You know, took us a while to get the momentum going for recruitment. We're actually exceeding recruitment goals right now, but it was very stressful in the beginning thinking we weren't going to meet that number.   Carol: So that's a really good tip because I know folks have said the first year is sort of a drag because of the government processes. You have to write your position description and get it approved, and then you've got to post and then you're going to hire. And so you're waiting, waiting, waiting to kind of get going with the program. And then year two, It's like, holy cow, pedal to the metal really quickly, where I love that idea of ramping up and making people aware of what's going on as you're getting these things done. So it isn't quite that just huge forcefulness that needs to happen right away in year two. That makes really good sense. So since you're saying your outreach is going really well, I was going to ask you, I know you guys have a really I call it a groovy way of talking, so I may date myself, but I love how you guys talk about this program because it's exciting. You know, I love your NextGen-ers. I like when you were talking about employee success specialists. Like, I want to be one of those, you know, that kind of cool stuff that you're doing. So how are you connecting with your potential customers? And I'm going to shoot that to you, Michelle.   Michelle: Yeah, we have had a really dynamic and exciting outreach and marketing campaign. I have to talk first about our digital and print collateral, because when we were at CSAVR last year, it just flew off the shelf. They were so impressed with it. They wanted it to take it back to their state and see how they could replicate it. Marketing to young adults. Young adults get marketed to a lot, right? They are exposed to things that new ideas and people that want their presence, their money, their time. So you have a lot of competition out there, and you have to think about what's going to get their attention. So we had a digital and print media campaign in multiple languages. We want to ensure that we are serving young adults that have been under engaged in the past, and that includes specific racial and ethnic demographics. So we needed to make sure that the imagery on this collateral looked like them, look like the people we wanted to come into our program with. So diverse representation, they're young adults. Some had visual disabilities in the print collateral. They were living their lives, you know, so that folks could see that and really see themselves represented. And then also in their languages as well. We have multiple languages, and then everything from like the colors that we use to the background we used. We lifted that from other media campaigns that were for young adults specifically that we knew were successful. So real intentionality in a lot of time was put into that and a great partnership with our coms team. They were there before I got to the table and were so excited to do this work, and it really came through and what they were able to produce. We also went to social media. We launched social media campaigns. On Tik Tok reached close to 1500 views on that. We went to Facebook and Instagram, but we knew our demographic was really on Instagram and TikTok, so that was our area of focus. We did dynamic reels for them, and then we also just did what you would call like a flat still photograph, you know, using our digital media. So we're able to reach a lot of people that way. Then we went out every time we hired somebody and they were trained on the program, we put them out into the community to go find young adults, families and the systems that serve them. So we established partnerships with health and human service sister agencies serving our demographic as well as high schools were a great partner for us. We used some contracted services so that we could harness other relationships that were in the community. Cultural brokers, any type of neighborhood event, community event we were out at trying to we knew that the power wasn't speaking directly to young adults and directly to families, so that was always our focus. And multilingual capacity is really important there as well.   Carol: Yeah, I remember your materials flying off the table. People were like, holy cow, it is, it's like you've brought this whole fresh perspective into VR.   Michelle: Just one more thing. If anybody's listening that was of a huge assistance to us was a QR code on our print material. I just wanted to share that our potential NextGen-ers or their families could scan the QR code came directly to our landing page in a one page inquiry sheet.   Carol: You would now be proud of me because I saw that I was like, so we now have QR codes we're using on everything. So we do if we're doing evaluations, we go anywhere. We use a QR code instead of like, we're sending you this paper evaluation. We're just like we do the QR code. In fact, at our table coming up at the conference, I have QR codes that folks can just scan to get to our resources instead of like, dragging a bunch of paper along. So you're starting a revolution, you guys. It's awesome, I love it. So what kind of results are you seeing now that year two is completed? I think Michelle go to you first.   Michelle: We're moving more and more young adults into trainings. We've developed training partnerships in technology, in health care. We're trying to forge our way into biotech. So our NextGen-ers are coming in at the younger side around 22. So a lot of them do not have significant work history and have never heard of these fields before. They didn't get a lot of exposure to that in their high school experience. So we're doing a lot of career exploration and helping them into these trainings. We're doing some cohort trainings with some partners. So these are just NextGen-ers that we're able to hold together, serve as a group, give them peer support, give them support outside of the training or academics that are happening for them. And we're getting a lot of feedback on how to do that effectively with them. They don't like to meet in the morning. They don't want to meet after dinner. You've lost them permanently. But and they like individualized support. So as they're in these trainings, it's great and very helpful to them to meet as groups and peers. But they also want to be able to privately ask a question if they're struggling with any material, or maybe not quite sure this is a good fit for them. So needing to be really available to really understand what these trainings are, what is being asked of them, and then being able to provide that support. And if we can't provide it, connecting with the training provider to help them understand what the student experience is as well. And we've got some young adults moving into work as well. We again needed to open their minds to STEM careers. And sometimes when you've had no career or no job, you need to start somewhere. So we are looking a lot at some folks that are heading to work in. Our work is nowhere near done, right? They're getting their first job and they're learning what they like and what they don't like there. But the idea is to move more towards a career focused pathway.   Carol: Yeah. Very cool. That's the thing about demonstration projects you learn along the way, which I love, like you're learning little nuances, especially when you're working with that age group. Like, yeah, like after dinner you can and not too early in the morning. You're like all those different pieces, the ways you think you have it set up, and then you go, well, that didn't work so well. We're going to pivot. Joan, did you have some thoughts on that too?   Joan: Yeah, I was just going to say one exciting thing for me is employers engaging with us differently. For example, we have Red River who really stepped up and said we would love to offer an IT training for some of your participants who are interested in that field and their staff delivering the training for these young adults. And the hope is that, you know, many of them will get employment with Red River and other organizations. They brought Cisco and others to the table. And, you know, the opportunities. You know, if these individuals succeed in this area, it's wide. It's wide, wide open. Employer engagement. Also involves coming to talk to the young adults about different jobs in STEM, what it's like to work for their organizations, and etcetera. So it's beautiful to see the employers engaging at that level and who else to give relevant information but the employers.   Carol: Yeah, that's brilliant.   Joan: I walked into one of our conference rooms the other day, and there were 20 young people just focused on taking computers apart, and they didn't even notice me walking in the room. They were so engaged in the process. It was just, just beautiful. Just beautiful.   Carol: I think that's super smart, you know, because we can do it. You sit there and you go, well, you've got your counselors and they're talking about different jobs, but nothing better than people in that field. That particular company. And those companies are smart for hooking up with you guys too, because they have such a need for staff. And so that partnership, like the partnerships you're developing all the way through this, that's amazing. It's very cool. Joan, now I know you talk to me too, about your philosophy when it comes to VR. Can you share that with our listeners? You have some very cool perspective, and I know I can't, I can't say it like you say it.   Joan: Yeah, I've been in the field for a really, really long time, and my greatest desire is to see individuals with disabilities in high level, higher paying jobs. It's time for us to move out of retail flowers and filth. And I can't remember the other half, but, you know,   Carole: Food.   Joan:  and food services. Yes. It's time for us to move there. And I'm extremely excited to see where these NextGen-ers end up as we focus them on potentially jobs and careers that they've never heard of. You know, it's about exposing them to that. I'm always challenging staff. What else? How else? When I came to Mass Rehab, I was very surprised that our organization had been around for about 50 years and that the business community didn't know about us. I'm saying to myself, how are we getting people to work? And the types of jobs that people were getting really demonstrated that we were not connected to the business community. So it was my vision to drive that connection, to hire staff specifically focused on building relationships with the business community, nurturing those relationships, bringing information back to the counselors who are giving the advice around careers, and really developing a feeder system by having individuals who are managing business accounts, who speak their language, you know, who understand their culture and can help us to become much more innovative in preparing the individuals we serve and building the talent pipeline for the employers.   Carol: Good on you. I love that you speak to my heart. I know back when I was at State Services for the Blind in Minnesota and we were trying to expose our Pre-ETS students, that's why we started podcasts. Back then. We wanted to expose students to other kinds of work out there, because a lot of times our young folks who were blind or visually impaired, they just thought, I'm going to be a Walmart greeter. I can't do anything else. And it's like they had no idea I would cry, literally when we would do these student interviews and when people would kind of sell themselves short. It really hit my heart. And so the world is wide open. There's so many awesome opportunities that our folks can fill, you know, and you champion that I think is just brilliant.   Joan: Yeah, I mean, young adults with disabilities need to know that individuals with disabilities are CEOs. They are CFOs. They are IT professionals. You know, they're in the medical field. They're doctors, nurses, firemen. I mean, they're in every business sector. And I really believe that it is our job as VR professionals to expose those individuals to those careers and to really help them to think about their abilities. And, you know, what they have to bring to the table and how can we help them? Our job is to help them make informed decisions. Right? So we need to be informed about the labor market so that the information that we're transferring to these young adults is relevant to the current labor market. I think the NextGeneration of individuals with disabilities are not going to put up with working in a supermarket, bagging groceries. They want to be doing things that give them a great salary and offer them career ladder opportunities. And we're starting with NextGen.   Carol: They're going to be running that grocery store. They're not just bagging the groceries.   Joan: There you go.   Carol: They're going to own it. They're going to own that store. I love that. So, Joan, I know you also talked about the support you've had from RSA. Can you describe that for the listeners with this grant that there's been just really great support?   Joan: Doug Ziou has been an incredible supporter and a great cheerleader of MRC. I mean, everything we bring to the table, he's just. Yes. Do it. Yes. Do it. Very, very supportive, asking great questions, challenging us in ways that we need to be challenged but extremely, extremely supportive. And we're truly grateful that we have Doug on our side.   Carol: Yeah, I've heard that with all the project officers, I mean, like, they are super excited and really invested in these grants. It's almost like it's their babies or something. And they just love this so much. I'm really glad to hear that. Michelle, did you have anything you wanted to add to that?   Michelle: No, I was nodding. I realized this is a podcast, but I was just nodding furiously as Joan was talking. Working with Doug has just been such a pleasure, and you never get off a call with him without just feeling completely pumped about what you're about to go do and see all the possibility in it, because, you know, he does.   Carol: Yeah, I like that. They really cheerlead for that. So for those listeners that would like to apply for a DIF grant but have been afraid to do so, what advice would you give to others? Michelle. I'm going to hit you up with that first.   Michelle: I think that engaging potential employer partners, stakeholders, families are critical in not just the design and implementation phase, but hanging on to those partners, remembering what they told you in the beginning, revisiting that to give them a feedback loop on how you're incorporating their ideas to keep their partnership going, even when it's like, hey, remember you said that maybe you thought you could take on a few NextGen-ers in your organization? We're there now, keeping in contact, revisiting conversations. You know, I think that in a lot of grants, we bring our stakeholders to the table when we're applying for the funding and maybe even right when we first get it. And then we let them go away a little bit. So keep them there, keep them in the conversation. Update them on how things are progressing. Continue to ask questions. The world is different than it was two years ago, so our questions should be different as well. So that we're staying current in that partnership is staying current. And I can't stress family engagement enough and how powerful it is with young adults. Most family engagement models were born to serve children, and our young adults continue to have the bulk of their support come from their family members. I think everybody through the life course has the bulk of their support come through their family members. So why would you not have their voice at the table? Why would you not have their ideas? Why would you not consult with them on the course that you're setting with the NextGener, or because they have a lot of insight to share, they have a lot of resources to offer. So continuing that conversation in as well with that very unique set of stakeholders I would recommend.   Carol: Yeah, well said. Joan, any advice you have for our listeners?   Joan: Yeah. I mean, if you are nervous about applying for a grant, this is what I say. Are you an innovative thinker? Are you tired of VR the way it is and you would like to see change? Then I say go for it. VR needs some inspiration, some new strategies to move to the next level. If you are committed to this field, please apply for a DIF grant. Bring your ideas forward so we can infuse the future of VR with new energy and achieve more outcomes for individuals with disabilities who come to us, really depending on us, to help them make life changing decisions. I just want to share a story of a young adult who worked with MRC. He came to us, he was working in a pizza establishment, and he heard about our job driven training in cybersecurity. He applied even though he wasn't sure that that's an area that he could succeed in, graduated the top of the class, and is now earning over $80,000 a year. We want to replicate that 1000 times over with NextGen, and I would love for VR nationally to replicate that story. We want people to make wages that they can live on, that they can support a family on, that they can purchase a home or a car or, you know, live in a nice apartment. We want people to get off of Social Security disability benefits. That is buying into a lifetime of poverty. So we're depending on people with innovative and creative ideas to make that change. Don't be afraid of a DIF, grant. Jump in with both feet and let's make change happen for voc rehab.   Carol: Hear hear, you guys are going to turn VR on its head for sure, I love it. So Michelle, what would be the best way for our listeners to contact you if they wanted to follow up with any questions or like to see any information?   Michelle: Absolutely, we have a landing page. It's very impressive. I think it has this component where you can see videos of all of our NextGen staff. We did that for young adults to be able to check us out in the way that they like to check people out before they engage with them. It's https://www.mass.gov/nextgen-careers and anybody could email me any time MichelleBanks2, the number two, @mass.gov.   Carol: Excellent. You guys have been awesome. I'm so excited and I'm really hoping to check back in with you in a couple of years. As you get further along in the journey, maybe we can do a little repeat podcast and go like, hey, everybody is making they're not making 80,000 Joan. People are making 100 grand and these guys are living their best life. It is happening, I love it. Thank you both so much for participating in this podcast today. Appreciate it.   Joan: Thank you so much.   Michelle: Thank you.   {Music} Outro Voice: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

In the studio today is David Leon, Director of Workforce Programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services (DARS), and Kate Kaegi, Project Manager for the DIF. In recognition of Disability Awareness Month, the second podcast of our DIF series includes David and Kate explaining how Virginia's DIF grant was initiated, implemented, and adjusted to best reach their initiatives of placing 750 individuals with disabilities in STEM and healthcare careers, registered apprenticeships, and State, County, and City jobs. Learn about the challenges they navigated and what they recommend when applying for a DIF grant.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} David: Don't be afraid to apply for a diff grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs. You get to see staff flourish and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Kate: I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA, but what I have found is this RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed.   David: You can accomplish some great things.   Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Well, welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is David Leon, director for workforce programs at the Virginia Department for Aging and Rehabilitative Services, or DARS, and Kate Kaegi, project manager for the DEP. So David, how are things going at DARS?   David: They are great. We are plugging along, working on our grant. A colleague has a SWITZI grant, so it's been neat to really try a bunch of new things here in Virginia.   Carol: Very cool. So how are you Kate?   Kate: I am doing spectacular. Thank you for having me here today.   Carol: You bet. So, David, you and I had a chance to visit in a podcast on work incentives counseling in April of 22. And just so you know, you were one of my top five downloads. And when I think of Virginia, I always think of you and all the amazing things that have been cooking all the time. You guys always have something in the hopper and this is no different. So I started a series of podcasts focused on the diff grants and career advancement, and you are the second in my series and happened to fall in October with a nod to Disability Employment Awareness Month. So I want to just give our listeners a little snippet again about the diff grant. And so this particular round, the grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving the outcomes of individuals with disabilities. And the Career Advancement Initiative model. Demonstrations were funded in federal fiscal year 2021. They were intended to identify and demonstrate practices supported by evidence to assist eligible individuals with disabilities, including previous served participants in employment who reenter the program to do the following. They were looking at advancing in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering and math, or those Stem careers to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs to improve and maximize competitive integrated employment outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society, and to reduce reliance on public benefits like SSI, SSDI, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families and State or local benefits. Now, I remember reading in the announcement some of that sort of I thought it was disturbing data that provided the base for why RSA picked this particular area and chose to fund it. And they based it on the program year 2019, RSA 911 data. And some of the things that they said were participants that were exiting the program in competitive integrated employment reported a median wage of 12 bucks an hour and working like 30 hours a week. And the top ten most common occupations were reported. They were like stock clerks and they were order fillers, customer service reps, janitors, cleaners. I call it the whole Food, Filth and Flowers. So I know through this initiative they were trying to do more. So let's dig into what you guys have cooking in Virginia. David, tell our listeners a little bit about yourself. How did you get to VR?   David: Thanks, Carol. Started as a job coach years ago. We won't say when. It'll make me feel old, and I worked for a private nonprofit. I then assisted in Virginia, working with individuals, exiting a training center and moving towards community living. From there, I came back to the Richmond area to work for a community service board and again was a job coach and then worked within a sheltered work and day services program before coming to DARS, where I started with the Ticket to Work program and now have that the work incentives and a few grants and the workforce programs.   Carol: You and I have very similar backgrounds. I too was a job coach. I did work in a sheltered workshop for a while as well and all of that. It's always interesting how people find their way to VR. Kate, how about you? Why don't you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and how you got to VR?   Kate: I kind of fell into this. A lot of times, similar to other people. Unexpectedly, I found out about East Carolina's rehab program and that they had a scholarship for people who wanted to get their master's. And I'm like, Oh, free money. So I jumped into that. Absolutely loved it. I did my internship at the Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitative Center. It was called something or a different title when I started back in the day. As I tell my kids, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, I was there, started off there as an evaluator and then kind of moved across the state, became a rehab counselor in the field, have done transition counseling, substance abuse counseling, went back to Boca Vale for a little bit, even dipped my toes into the world of job coaching and worked with David for a period of time at the CSV, came back to DARS, worked with the Department for the Blind and Visually Impaired, and also, as an aside, also had joined the military during that timeframe on the reserve side. So I'm out of that at this point. So I have quite an eclectic background. As a supervisor once said that I couldn't make up my mind what I wanted to do, but it was all overall 24 years of work working with individuals with disabilities in a variety of areas. So it really kind of dovetailed well for me to work in the first dif grant that we received prior to this grant where I was a VMA or Virginia Manufacturing Association liaison for our grant. And when we were working on this Phase two grant, it was just pulling from what we've learned previously and growing from there. And so here I am.   Carol: I love it, it positions you really well for the work under this new grant. Very cool. Thanks for sharing that. So, David, why don't you paint us a picture of Virginia DARS How many staff do you have? About how many people are you all serving?   David: Okay, DARS comprises the Division of Rehabilitative Services, the Disability Determination Services, Aging Services. We have roughly 28 to 30 offices around the state and are currently serving just around 18,000 clients. If you include Pre-ETS in those totals.   Carol: that's a bunch., holy cow. I didn't realize you guys were that big.   David: Yeah, and that doesn't include however many cases DDS is handling or our aging or the other units. But that's a little bit about DARS, and I like to say we stretch from the Atlantic Ocean all the way to almost as far west as Detroit. If you go down to Bristol, Virginia, which is technically a little further than Detroit. So lots of types of environments and communities and very unique challenges in different areas.   Carol: Yeah, so you're definitely facing different geographical issues and I'm sure probably even economic differences. You know, if you're talking the coast versus maybe more of a rural area. So I'm sure there's probably some challenges there with even getting providers or how you're providing services.   David: It's interesting. One of the things we've been able to see in, for instance, Southwest Virginia, there is an economic center that's only 16 miles away from an office. But to get there, you go over three mountains and it could take two hours. So are those jobs really accessible to someone without a vehicle? On paper from Richmond, it might look like, why aren't we placing folks in this community out of that office? Well, it's a two hour drive each way, and that's the only way to do it. You mentioned at the beginning those top ten job areas. And one of the things we're really trying to challenge ourselves with now is giving people the information to make an informed decision about a career choice. But if they choose a career that might not look as great, what is the best potential version of that job? What is the job within that sector that actually could become a career? So at the beginning when we were starting to work on this, our agency had been in order of selection for years with categories closed and with the pandemic. That all changed. But the clients we were seeing didn't change and their goals didn't change. I think that's going to be a longer term conversation. But if we can do things to promote the best version of a position. And so I'll just give you one example. And our commissioner, other folks would probably say, why do we have so many folks who want jobs in food service or in this? Because typically they're low paying. Typically there's a lot of turnover. It's hard to become stable. One of the first projects we worked on in this grant was a partnership with a school nutrition program, and we've been able to help a few individuals enter into work in a kitchen at a school where they have the same hours. Monday through Friday. They have the opportunity for benefits. In one case, we couldn't find transportation. That school system was allowing the individual to take the school bus for that person. That's a really stable job and it's somewhere they can grow and thrive for years. So I do want to just say we have to think a little bit differently about what Kate or I or others might think of as a career. How do we find that best option for someone where there is room for growth, but equally important room for that time for stability to get to mastery, to then look at other skills and hopefully down the road they'd come back, not because they lost that job and need it again, but because they've learned so much that they want to go on to the next thing of their own accord.   Carol: Yeah, I like that you said that because I remember that when we visited before talking about that best version of that job. So not to mean that no one can work in kind of food, filth and flowers. I know I say that and it sounds sort of condescending and it's not meant to be. But we typically relied on kind of those occupations, really entry level. But I like that you're taking a spin on that and really looking deeper because we need folks to work in those occupations too. And there's people that love doing that work. But how like you say, can you do the best version of that? So you have benefits and you're looking at those long term like working in a school district, you can get retirement and all these different really awesome things that go with that. So, Kate, I'm going to switch to you. So big picture, break it down for us on your grant proposal and what you're hoping to accomplish with I know you had said you have three core components. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: Sure. I do want to make a caveat that I love about this grant is it is a demonstration grant, meaning we have the opportunity to try out innovative products and projects across the state. I just want to put a caveat on that to keep that in your mind as I'm going forward here. So our main goal is to place 750 individuals with disabilities in federal, state, county, city jobs and or registered apprenticeships or also Stem and health careers. So we have those three main components on that. And when we looked at this grant and David worked on the development and the proposal for this, we really wanted to touch individuals that had been kind of missed in the first grant. And this I think, is something as we're doing a grant, you're learning all the time. And we wanted to make sure that we were hitting those unserved and underserved across the state. So individuals that aren't as plentiful in different areas. So say like Winchester has a large Hispanic population, does that reflect the number served in the actual DARS office? How do we get Spanish speaking individuals more involved in DARS? How do we get women who may only recognize those areas that you talked about that flower filth? And because that's what they're aware of, that's the work they've done in the past. So I just need another job in that area. How can we open up some possibilities? Have you thought about the IT field? Have you thought about advanced manufacturing and can you see yourself doing that? So providing those opportunities, it's a way for us to look at those unserved and underserved across the state. And we're defining that as we're going and we're looking at the census data, we're looking at who we're serving within each state. And then we're also looking at our plans, the plans that the rehab counselors are creating. What are those plans? What is the main goal? Overall we see a lot of customer service because it's kind of a catch all. What does that mean? Is that customer service as a helpdesk technician as opposed to just somebody as a receptionist? So we're really helping both the VRC, the counselor, and the candidate explore possibilities like that.   Carol: I like that. I just love what you guys are doing and really fundamentally getting down, digging in and really focusing on those folks that have been underserved or unserved and just taking that twist on the occupation because there's a wide range like within customer service, you have the job from here to here.   Kate: Exactly.   Carol: Yeah, that is very cool. Now, I know you all had some really weird hiccups in the beginning when you were starting out with this particular grant. So what were some of those kind of hiccups and how did you overcome that? And Kate, I'll probably shoot to you first on this.   Kate: So part of the thing that I didn't mention was is that the roles that our team players have. So we have a liaison with Department of Labor and Industry, specifically the registered apprenticeship side. So they have their foot in the DOLI world and the foot in the DARS world. We also have a team member who has their foot in the Department of Human Resource Management Liaison, and then also her toes are also dipping in the DARS. So we've had some different team members on that. We also have a quick response, counselor, somebody who can go in and respond to immediate needs of employers, of an individual that might be working with them, that has a disability, that might need some help, whether that's in a registered apprenticeship or on that particular job. During the first year we hired and we had everybody up and running and we had two team members, one had a medical emergency and had to move away from the position because there was some driving involved. And then unfortunately, we had Lisa Hanky, who passed away unexpectedly on us. So, you know, you get all getting that hiring going and then all of a sudden we lost two individuals, so we had to restart that process.   David: But Kate, if I can add to that, and I believe this is true for everyone in our round of this DIF funding, I believe we were told two days before the beginning of the project, it was about a day after that that, you know, many agencies coming out of the pandemic have had challenges with staffing and we had those challenges in our procurement division. So getting contracts signed, getting those staff replaced. But the other thing that has been a challenge and we're finally coming out of. We created three positions that this agency has never had, and it had meant that we had to learn how to provide quality support to two other state agencies in the context of working with DARS and similarly with our quick response counselors. So we created these positions that we had an idea of how they could work. But once someone got into those roles and was learning the other agency, we've had to be flexible in understanding how they can actually benefit our clients and our agency. And that has been a learning process.   Carol: You guys bring up a really good point because I think sometimes when folks are applying for the DIF grant, you're not recognizing off the get-go That first year can be a struggle because like you said, you found out two days before and then you get the money. And then as we know with any state government, it takes time to hire and like to get through all those processes. And so RSA may be on one hand going like spend the money and you're like, we're trying, but we've got to get through all our HR processes and all this crazy stuff. So it takes a little bit to get rolling in that first year. And I know we often on the TA world are talking with people as they're applying for grants going just know as you're going into it that first year, you're probably not going to spend the amount of funds you projected originally because there's just is a time factor and getting through all of that.   Kate: Absolutely. That was the one thought that David and I, if you know, we apply for another one down the road, maybe making that first year a little bit less intensive and spreading it out from year 2 to 5 because that's where the major work will be done.   Carol: Yeah, that's smart. Very smart. So I know you guys were talking about some challenges. What are some other particular challenges that you're experiencing right now?   Kate: Well, I'll get started on that piece. One of the things we have found similar to the staffing, the challenge that we had when we first started of hiring individuals, we're finding a turnover in staff in DARS. And so we are having a lot of younger counselors that have, in some cases don't have a rehab background. They might have a social work background. So we have a lot of training that we're doing and then redoing on that. We're having a training coming up in October for the VOC rehab counselors and we're getting kind of back to basics. What makes a good referral for our Pathways Grant, looking at those possibilities of not just that receptionist job, let's look at helpdesk. What are the opportunities that are out there? And so that has been kind of a challenge, is just retraining. And I think this is kind of normal across the board. But these rehab counselors are busy. They have a lot more documentation they have to put in Aware. There's a lot more individuals coming through their door because we have the rapid engagements, so they are overwhelmed. And how can we dovetail our services to best support them, how to make the referral process as easy as possible for them, what supports make the most sense for them? So that's been one of the interesting challenges.   Carol: So, Kate, have you guys done anything around just the way in which your staff or the support of those counselors, do you have like other staff that are kind of wrapped around them, whether you call them maybe a rehab tech or some sort of a case aide or whatever it might be that can help the counselors with sort of all the documentation requirements and that kind of thing. Have you done some work in that?   Kate: Actually, here in Virginia, we do have support. We have vocational evaluators, placement counselors and what they call employment service specialists that run the job club and things like that. And they can help support with some of the paperwork. But similar to other states that actually have like a rehab tech that would do some of the counseling or the that kind of thing, not as much. And each office is run a little bit different. That's part of the appeal. And what I mean by that is, is some of the offices might not have a vocational evaluator, some might have a placement counselor that might be covering more than one office so that there is enough differences on that piece. But yeah, that has been a struggle for keeping all of that work and getting it done for them.   Carol: Yeah, You're definitely joined by your colleagues across the country on that. I keep hearing that over and over. David did you have anything else you wanted to add to that about any of the particular challenges?   David: Yeah, I think we wrote this knowing we needed to do some things better and serve certain populations differently to get to where people had the same outcome regardless of gender, race, ethnicity. And that is still a challenge. We are learning that we have a long way to go to effectively serve those folks who have English as a second language. And when we started the project, we started with like a counselor advisory board to help not only create buy in, but inform us what the counselors needed. We have now shifted to an advisory board geared towards helping us do better with the Hispanic Latino population, and that English is a second language. So we're hoping over this next year, working with members of our state who are representative of those groups will actually help us figure out what services are going to be most likely to bring people in for help. What supports we will need to think about providing for those individuals to be successful. And again, it goes back to how do we help people see for themselves greater opportunities and careers than they might have.   Carol: So are you linked in then with your like your WIOA partners on your adult basic ed side? Like under that, you know, the English as a second language, Like they're more expert than us in working with that group?   Kate: Absolutely. One of our key partners is the Virginia Adult Learning Resource Center, who teach the adult ed, they help support them across the state when we get further along I'll talk about some of the projects that we're working with with them.   Carol: Yeah, that's excellent. I love that. So I know you guys are seeing some exciting results. What kind of exciting results are percolating up?   Kate: So one of the things that we found as we're moving forward is we actually had working with adult Ed, we had a program that we were doing Intro to IT, where we're starting a basic starting platform for accounting fundamentals, and we were ready to go. We had seven individuals in this first cohort, and one of the things we found was the individuals that we met, even though we just came through Covid with all of the tech training, we had individuals they knew enough to get on to Zoom and to do some items, but we really needed to step back and do some basic tech training. So, they had enough gaps in their knowledge that they couldn't move forward without some major help. So what happened on this is, is we stepped back and started to do some digital literacy training and they moved forward with that. And each of those individuals are now moving forward with the accounting fundamentals this summer. So stepping back, we're actually looking at what we're calling digital work skills training, which is really exciting opportunity for individuals to get started with North Star digital literacy. We're working on goal setting some soft skill development just to get them started on that end. So we have individuals that would typically not be able to go to a virtual training actually get started there. And what we're finding with that end is, is that we have some individuals, you know, those customer service people who just want to do clerical, they're getting introduced to IT. And so we've had a few individuals that have moved on to our next training, which we call the Max Career Lab. And Max Potential is an employer here in Virginia. And I think they go into other states as well, several other states. And what they are, they're a temp agency for IT employment. So they hire individuals to work with Dominion, to work with, you know, with all these employers doing various IT. But they have a unique hiring model. They actually have an opportunity where individuals come in and they go through a career lab five day, three hours a day, 15 hours of a career lab. Then they do an interview. During those five days, they do an overview of data analytics, networking, all these different career areas. So they'll do an hour and a half of overview of the career, and then they do an actual interactive activity that they break out in groups for. So it's a great way to explore the IT field. So we've hired them to actually run career labs for us. They do the 15 hours, then they get homework and then they have an interview assessment. So the interview is just like a typical interview that they run, but they follow up with what activities that they're interested in. So this has been a wonderful way for us to explore different IT areas and to help individuals determine what area of IT they want to do. Here in Virginia, we're blessed. We've got Nova, we've got a lot of IT careers, but counselors and vocal evaluators don't always know how to direct somebody into the right avenue because technology is always changing. You know, cybersecurity, cybersecurity, that's always a great one, right? Because we're right here in Nova. However, not everybody wants to do cyber. Have you thought of data analytics? Have you thought of the different networking positions? Have you thought of machine learning? You know what, all is out there? And so it's an opportunity for us to do a hands on career exploration and next steps with an actual employer running the sessions for us.   Carol: That's cool. Yeah, I hadn't heard about a career lab before like that. That is very intriguing because so many people learn much better, you know, by actually experiencing seeing what that's about because it can sound cool. You read about something like the cybersecurity was the big deal, but then you get into it and you're like, Oh, I don't really want to do that, you know? So giving them that opportunity, I think that's fabulous.   Kate: Yes, and we have had our first cohort. We had 25 people sign up. We had 22 complete the whole piece. That includes the interview.  Of that group we had six individuals. So they compare the group together, but they also compare them to the other public groups that they have across the board. So of those individuals, six are encouraged to look at direct work experience. The rest have been encouraged to do a few other activities, like maybe develop more professional skills or develop more tech training, possibly, you know, accounting fundamentals. We had one that decided they did not want to do IT training. And I'm thinking, what a great opportunity you now know what you don't want to do. And for us, that can be great, right? So we're looking at some other options for that young man. It has been a wonderful opportunity. We're now in our second cohort and our hope is, is to keep continuing this as we're going through this grant and to see how we can set this up once the grant is over.   Carol: Very cool. Have you had any surprises kind of as you've started this. I know you're in year two. Are there any surprises?   David: I think there are always surprises. This is right. Staff and surprises some of the opportunities that have come up. I don't think we anticipated. So we've shifted to take advantage. One of the big pieces of this grant is our focus on state hiring and the individual we hired for that aspect worked diligently during the first six months with them on an alternative hiring process through the legislation, had a go live date, whether we were ready or not. And what we didn't understand is during the first year, this process, it wasn't available to current state employees who may be disabled. That created a lot of issues for folks who were upset that they couldn't access this to move up within state government. We weren't able to change that ourselves, but it was changed in legislation. And starting in July of this year, we were allowed to offer a certificate of disability to someone who was currently employed and that has seen an increase. We've had roughly 1500 people request certificates of disabilities. I think part of what was surprising is what a great opportunity that has become as a referral source for DAR's. Roughly 300 individuals have chosen to get more information and receive VR services, and we are seeing that as a really nice piece of the process. Additionally, I think we finally had our first individual who went from what we call part time wage employment to full time classified, which was one of the intents of the process we developed. So it's nice to begin to see that work. But for Kate and I, we have to remind ourselves some of this might take two, three, four years before we really actually see these things that could be possible in action. And I think the other big surprise there is just how great of a partner our Department of Human Resource Management has been. They recently allowed us to present to 120 hiring managers and we will be a regular part of their monthly recruitment network action meetings. They've bought into our use of windmills training. They advertise it every month and we are co-sponsoring a job accommodation network training in October for them that they will heavily market to state hiring managers. So I think that's been really great. And then the other surprise, it turns out that our division of registered apprenticeship within the Department of Labor and Industry is moving to a new state agency. So we will see what that does. You know, you think things are pretty stable and static in certain ways, but they can change. That's been a surprise. But it's not a good or bad. It just, you know, might be a chance to actually work with more of our partners more directly.   Kate: And David, another surprise that we had was the use of data. We have been doing some trainings with the field and they you know, when you bring numbers involved, people get a little, oh, I don't know if I want to touch this, but what we found was the counselors, the evaluators, the placement, they enjoyed looking at this data. They ate it up. So the use of data as a tool to look at who we're serving, how are we serving them, has been an eye opener. At least it was a surprise for me. Now I'm a vocational evaluator, so I love data and I thought I was, you know, unique. But I'm not you know, everybody is, you know, surprisingly likes that data.   Carol: Yeah.. Well, and definitely how you present it to the field, you know, if you're just like blah, blah, blah, whatever, they really are interested because it's the culmination of their work, you know, so they see what's happening. It really helps to paint that picture and then they can react and respond and do things in a different way in response to that data. So I think that's smart that you guys are doing that. Now. I know you both had talked about shifting the conversation around employment and shifting that whole narrative on barriers to advancement and employment. Talk a little bit about that.   Kate: So one of the things that the counselors are really good at is, is when somebody comes in the door and they say, hey, you know, I need help finding work. But when we look at the definition of what we do, it's getting and but it's also keeping or advancing in your career. So what is that advancement look like? So if you have somebody coming in who I need a job right away, maybe this is where somebody is going to go for a stock clerk. But what about the idea of doing a quick training so that they can get a credential in the Certified logistics associate and then moving from there, maybe when they do that interview, now that they have that credential, maybe they can ask for a little bit of a raise. And what is the next step on that piece? So we've definitely looked at that. How do we make, as David said, the most of the career that you're looking at or the other areas that we've already talked about? Let's look at other areas.   David: One of the things that actually came from one of our offices that they wanted was we've heard more and more about attrition and attrition from application to plan, but also attrition from plan before employment or before successful closure. And we have created a group called Work Wise, which is designed for individuals who have just become employed to meet once a week in the evening, talk about their jobs, have an opportunity with a staff person to talk through issues, challenges. It's been really a powerful group, and I've been pleasantly surprised at how the individuals who choose to participate in a couple of cases did not want to stop going when their case was closed because of how valuable it was to in close to real time talk through things that were happening at work with someone with a VR counseling background. And that has been a really powerful group because it's also given folks to learn from each other and get to that stability and confidence to maybe also look for future opportunities. I know we're getting ready to also hold a salary negotiation training for folks. So again, let's help people think through and have those skills now that they may use now or they may use later when an opportunity to move up comes around. And similarly, we've started a group that we're calling money wise where we've partnered with a local credit union with that hope of how can we help make sure folks maximize their the benefits they choose to take advantage of from an employer. How do we help someone make sure that if there's a 401 match and it's X amount, that they do that much at the very least, Right. Those things that everyone is told, Well, if there's free money from an employer, you take it or if there's tuition assistance or some other thing, maybe there are things to plant some seeds. So someone would continue to move forward.   Carol: I can see how so much of this work that you are doing is so foundational and will be of benefit to, you know, your other colleagues across the country with the things you've uncovered and the things that you are working on, these different classes and groups and all of that. I'm sure other people are going, Gosh, I want to do that too. I think this will be amazing to help plant the seeds across the country. Now, David, I know you were concerned about implementing something that could withstand the test of time. And I know DIF grants are meant it's a demonstration grant. You're trying something out, but you want to also be able to carry forward these ideas into the future. So how are you guys structuring this to make that happen?   David: We really are thinking about sustainability and to Commissioner Hayfield's credit, that's been one of the things that she and Dale Batten have really stressed to us. It's great to do great work in a period of time, but how can we make sure that the things that have the potential to be value add or transformative continue and don't just end the day the funding stops? And we've really thought through many of the activities that we are creating, we are working on from at the beginning. What would this look like when there's no funding? How will we continue these? It's part of our partnership with Valray. We're working to get some of these pieces put into Canvas and set up through that learning management system. But within some of the positions, you know, one of our hopes is that the DHRM VR liaison could become its own full time non restricted position at the end. Similarly, we would hope that for the others, or at least those activities become a part of multiple staff strategically throughout the state. And that's one way we're looking at it.   Kate: And yeah, we're looking at the train, the trainers, also the tools that we're using. One of the pieces for vocational evaluators would be English language acquisition and knowledge. So there are assessments that are out there that can test somebody's English language, which is important for us to know if we're working with individuals and we're trying to place them on the job. So how do we get the tools necessary into the hands of the individuals and trained up for that so that that can be moving forward? So we're being proactive for these individuals that we hope to come into our doors a little bit more often.   Carol: That's excellent. So what do you guys see as your next steps? Where are you going from here? The point you're at right now, what are the next steps?   Kate: So a lot of our programming that we're doing right now is in partnership with adult ed. We see a great marriage between DARS and Adult Ed because Adult Ed works with a lot of individuals with disabilities already. They're adult educators. They can provide a little bit more support for our learners for credential training. They've got different things that are across the state. I'm working with our rehab center, Wilson Workforce and Rehabilitation to really figure out how can we marry these? Right now I'm coordinating all these trainings. Is there a way that the center can provide this? And this gives the center an opportunity to look at a virtual environment? What does this look like? We're not sure what it looks like, but we're giving a try to see for that next piece so that max potential with the employer, can that be run through Wilson so that it is open and able to run after the grant is over.   Carol: So for our listeners that would want to apply for a grant, but they've been afraid to do so. What advice would you give to other people?   David: Don't be afraid to apply for a grant. It is an amazing opportunity to infuse energy and enthusiasm into your workforce. It is a chance to stretch, learn new skills, try new programs and get some great outcomes. If there are things you've wanted to try and you don't necessarily have the budget to do or don't seem to fit a demonstration grant is a phenomenal opportunity, and when I came into this agency under grants and special programs, usually we had to worry about things like a match component. And if you have the chance to apply for a grant where there isn't a match and you are willing to be patient with that work, you can accomplish some great things. You get to know your partners better. You get to see staff flourish and stretch and more importantly, get some really cool outcomes for the clients we serve.   Carol: Love that infuse that energy and enthusiasm. I wrote that down. That was a great. You're like giving a commercial for the RSA DIF Grants, that's awesome.   Kate: One thing I would add on this too is when I first came in eight years ago on the other grant, I was pretty much kind of a newbie in the grant world, and I was a little intimidated with the idea of RSA. But what I have found is, is RSA is there to help us. They want us to succeed. And if you have a solid grant application and know what you want to do, they will help you give you some ideas. They invited other states to meet with you to kind of talk about different things. So they have been very good about sharing knowledge and they want to see us succeed.   Carol: That sounds so great. Well, I am going to definitely tell our listeners like they should reach out to you too, if they've got some questions to reach out to David and Kate, because you all have a lot of very cool stuff cooking, and I'm sure you're willing to talk to others about what you've been doing as they're thinking about maybe applying some of this, even though they may not have a DIF grant, but applying some of the things that you're learning into their own work in their states?   Kate: Absolutely. We're here.   Carol: Excellent. Well, I appreciate you both. Thanks for spending time with us. And I look forward to circling back with you a little bit in a couple more years as time flies on this grant and see where you're coming in at and those good results. So have a great day.   David: Thank you very much.   Kate: Thank you.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!  

Joining Carol in the studio today is Sabrina Cunliffe, Disability Innovation Fund (DIF) Grant Manager, with Oregon General. Find out how Oregon General has tackled some challenging cultural issues and is starting to see great results with their strategy for implementing the DIF grant through their Inclusive Career Advancement Program.   Listen Here   Full Transcript:   {Music} Speaker1: Manager Minute brought to you by the VRTAC for Quality Management, Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time. Here is your host Carol Pankow.   Carol: Welcome to the Manager Minute. Joining me in the studio today is Sabrina Cunliffe Disability Innovation Fund, Inclusive Career Advancement Program Manager, or DIF grant manager for short with Oregon General. So Sabrina, how are things going in Oregon?   Sabrina: Oh gosh. Oregon has five seasons, fall, winter, spring, summer and fire season. So it is currently fire season. It looks like a little post-apocalyptic nightmare outside right now, but other than that, we're doing really well.   Carol: I'm sorry to hear that, though. There's been a lot of the wildfires this year that have been so devastating.   Sabrina: Absolutely.   Carol: Well, I'm really glad you're here today. And I just want to take a couple of minutes to give our listeners a little bit of background on the Disability Innovation Fund grants. And so in this particular round, grant activities are geared to support innovative activities aimed at improving outcomes of individuals with disabilities and the Career the Advancement Initiative model demonstration. And these were funded in FY 2021 were intended to identify and demonstrate practices that are supported by evidence to assist eligible individuals with disabilities, including previously served VR participants in employment who reenter the program to do kind of four of the following things to advance in high demand, high quality careers like science, technology, engineering and math, or those Stem careers, to enter career pathways in industry driven sectors through pre apprenticeships, registered apprenticeships and industry recognized apprenticeship programs, to improve and maximize their competitive integrated employment outcomes, economic self-sufficiency, independence and inclusion in society, and to reduce the reliance on public benefits like SSI and SSDI and or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Now I remember reading the application and kind of the notice and all of that, and there was really actually some disturbing data that provided the base for RSA and why this particular area was chosen to fund. And they were looking at the program year 2019, RSA 911 data, and it said things like this, like approximately 80% of the participants were earning less than 17 bucks an hour. And in fact, participants who exited the program in competitive integrated employment reported a median wage of 12 bucks an hour and median hours at 30 hours a week. And the ten most common occupations that were reported by one third of the participants who exited in CIE were stock clerks and order fillers, customer service reps, janitors, laborers, stack material movers, retail salespersons, cashiers, food prep survey, including fast food production workers and dishwashers. It's that whole food, filth, kind of the flowers thing I used to call it. And I know they probably were focusing on career pathways because RSA had also done a competition back in 2015 and they awarded for career pathways for individuals with Disabilities projects under a demonstration training program. And furthermore, Congress made career pathways a necessary, if not foundational, part of WIOAs workforce reform. And so you put all of this together just to put a little under our belt, I just wanted people to have a little bit of a base. Like, what on earth are they picking and why are they doing this? So let's dig in and learn more about you in the project. So can you tell our listeners a little bit about yourself and what your journey was getting to VR?   Sabrina: Sure, Carol. I started out going to college, majoring in business, working in the corporate world, doing that sort of thing, did that for several years, and then life sort of caught up with me. And I had children and my second child was born with cerebral palsy. And when that happens, it kind of changes your whole view on the world and you start to find out about disability in a way that you never really knew, and you really dig into the systems that exist and see what's available for your people in the world. And what I saw was, you know, the long trajectory of my son's life. And I decided, hey, you know what? I'm going to leave the corporate gig behind. I'm going to go back to graduate school, study disability awareness, study disability services ended up leading to rehab counseling, became a rehab counselor in the state of Oregon in 2009 and then was a branch manager starting in 2013. And then just about a year and a half ago, signed up to take on this innovation grant so that I can maybe change the system from the inside out a little bit was really what happened for me and why VR is so important and critical?   Carol: I love your story because we all come with these different stories and how we got involved in this field and some people fall into it a variety of different ways. But I really like your journey and I think it'll give our listeners a great perspective as they hear you because it's super fun, your passion and and all of that. So can you give us some facts too, about Oregon General? Like how many staff and customers do you have?   Sabrina: Yeah, so we have approximately 275 employees in Oregon that work for Oregon General, and we serve roughly 10,000 customers annually. I would say it used to be a lot more pre-pandemic than it is now or working through that. And we serve customers across 13 individual VR branch offices. So there's 13 branches, 20 offices throughout the state. Oregon has four very distinct economies that are geologically diverse and geographically diverse. We have that Oregon, Portland metro area, and then we have very much rural eastern Oregon and we have the coast and then the southern Willamette Valley and southern Oregon regions. So it's sort of like working in four different states all at the same time in a lot of ways.   Carol: I didn't realize that about Oregon. I was thinking about it. I knew you had some sort of rural nature, but really thinking about those four different distinct areas, that does always pose a big challenge, I'm sure, with both staffing and just as far as getting service provision.   Sabrina: Right, running a statewide program and trying to make it locally based and locally run and locally honored can have its own special challenges for sure.   Carol: Absolutely. So what prompted Oregon General to apply for this grant?   Sabrina: So you may or may not know that Oregon had probably the worst, if not the second worst. We might have been the second worst as far as data in that RSA911 that they based these grants on for measurable skill gains and credential attainment just in the tank, really. And it's something that that we knew that we needed to change for WIOA 2014. And we just never really got with the program in changing the culture of VR to really talk about optimal level of employment and to fully bring post-secondary education into the fold to get those credentials and those Measurable Skill Gains that we needed. And in Oregon, we have this beautiful, robust, existing career pathway system within Oregon's community colleges with hundreds of different career pathways nationally recognized that VR was completely under utilizing. And so what a great opportunity for us to partner with Oregon community colleges and change the culture of Oregon VR, really to see post-secondary education as a gateway to optimal level of employment that we needed to be focusing on.   Carol: Well, the only place to go is up then, from where you were. No. You know, when you start kind of in the basement, you're like, all right...  Well, we're climbing out of it. Good on you. So can you give us a big overview of the project? I know you have these different arms of things you wanted to do.   Sabrina: So ICAP - Inclusive Career Advancement Program is what we named our grant, and it supports a minimum of 500 people with disabilities, including those from marginalized communities. So 45% from black, indigenous, people of color communities in Oregon to help them choose a career pathway of interest, access post-secondary education, participate in that training or the internships in those high demand career fields. Obtain the credentials in their career field that's chosen, and then to also help them gain the employment upon completion of their program and we're doing that through installing a career coach in 16 of the community colleges across Oregon. So in one FTE position at the college, that's the boots on the ground person to be that conduit between the counselor and the community college. And the difference between this mean you might see navigators with Department of Labor or with all sorts of other different programs. But what's different about ICAP is that that career coach is specifically trained around people with disabilities, the specific needs of people with disabilities, really looking at the intersectionality of race and disability, of poverty and disability and all of those things that often people with disabilities don't have success or as much success with those other navigators because very specific disability barriers are lost on them. And so huge emphasis on that. We have four core partners. It's Oregon VR, it's the main grantee, and then we have Portland Community College, which is a Subawardee that manages all of the individual sub grants with each individual community college. And then we have Oregon Commission for the Blind because we wanted the Oregon Commission for the Blind to have their participants be able to participate in our program as well. We have two of them already, which is fantastic. And then Cornell University or the Yang-Tan Institute on Employment and Disability, there are evaluation partner and also our training and provider for this grant.   Carol: I'm so glad that you partnered too, with your blind agency. Sometimes we've got states where you know you're both there, but it's not always good communication between you, so that is great.   Sabrina: And then we just have the GEPRAs. I just wanted to touch on those real quick so people know what we're measuring. We're 500 people is the target of those 45% need to be from black, indigenous and people of color communities. So that'd be 225. We need to have 375 of those that start finish and of those 375 that get a credential, we need another 75% of those to actually get competitive, integrated employment within the span of the grants timeframe. And then 75 Percent of those people to get hourly wage gains, 50% of those to get employer provided medical benefits. 65% of those also need to increase the hours that they worked from whenever they came in to whenever they left. And then we need to also track if anybody got a promotion or any additional responsibilities or anything like that between when they get the job and when the grant ends. And then also reporting about whether or not they are receiving less or no public benefits with 35% hopefully having their competitive integrated employment be their primary source of support.   Carol: So you're going big or going...   Sabrina: Big or go home. Exactly.   Carol: That's right. So what are you seeing as the biggest challenges?   Sabrina: Oh, gosh. When we decided to do this innovation grant, we could have gone two ways. We could have had ICAP be separate and apart and ran it completely independently of the larger program. And we decided not to do that. We decided to fully integrate it into the existing program. All ICAP participants must be VR participants. All VR counselors can work with ICAP participants, no specialization of any kind. So we needed to completely train the entire staff about this cultural shift, about what it means to have optimal level of employment, to teach them how to write post-secondary ed plans that work, how to do the comprehensive assessment in a way that we're really, truly looking at interest, ability, skills, resources, priorities, concerns all through an informed choice lens and making optimal level of employment happen. And not just for lack of a better term, McJobbing people left and right and hiring job developers and punting and seeing how it goes for folks. And so that is our innovation for our grant. It doesn't sound like much, but it's huge for us to be able to do that work. And so, of course, the first challenge we have is the amount of time it takes for someone to become a participant. It's not like we could just sign them up for ICAP. They had to go get in line at VR, and in Oregon, Sometimes that can take up to three months. By the time they get asked, call the office, ask for an intake, meet with the counselor, found eligible for our services. And when you're working with particularly youth and students that are going from high school and potentially entering a career pathway, they might decide that they want to start a career pathway two weeks beforehand. And so our system and the career pathway system had to really say, we need to look at this, right? We're starting to really pay attention as an agency to figure out what several other states are doing. Some states are finding people eligible within three days or 17 days. And we're looking at all of those different ways in which we can change that. That's a larger process that's going to have to happen. But what the ICAP Grant did was really shine a light on it and gave us some really cool data of something that everybody knew but that nobody had really codified in writing and reported to the RSA. And so here we are. That challenge has been identified and it's definitely something that we're going to have to address. We've, of course made lots of little shortcut solutions in there to address the ICAP grant. But as far as the larger program, it's kind of front and center. Now that particular issue. The second biggest challenge that we have is that while we thought we had a great post-secondary ed policy, what we found out that it was really how to rule people out, not how to rule people in policy, and it created an exorbitant amount of red tape for counselors. No counselor wanted to do it because it was an extra three hours worth of work with a participant. Right. Who would want to go through all these checklists and make sure all of these things are in place and fight these fights with the financial aid offices and do all of this stuff that was required in our policy that just seemed like we're going to figure out every way to not support post-secondary ed. So one of the first things that we did was identify that and we completely rewrote our post-secondary ed policy, took out all of the language that you shall and you must and made it seem very inclusive. And you know what? Tell us what you want to do. Let's figure out what supports you need so that you can be successful. We're going to do that and we're going to remove all that paperwork piece for the VRC to be able to feel confident in doing that. And we also had these things with every branch manager, had to approve every plan that a counselor wrote for any post-secondary ed that was removed completely. And it's given autonomy and trust to the counselor to make these judgments that they need to make in their jobs. And so that just came out a week and a half ago, though. So we haven't seen the impact of it yet completely. But one of the most exciting challenges and solutions that we've had to date, what's great, we have Cornell University on doing our and training. We've probably done over 50 trainings in the last year and a half, really looking at the discernment for appropriate use of training through an what does that mean for someone and how do we write those plans? Just creating fake plans, really. I have plans, samples that are like for IB CAPPY so counselors know how to reflect the services and the plan. They know how to write them effectively. They know how to really understand. And their decision making and how to have those critical thinking moments and how to have the conversations with the client that are more appropriate when you have a lot of counselors that have been discouraged for years from doing this work. It can be kind of scary as they learn these new steps and when people kind of make decisions out of fear, they do it either with, Oh, you can do whatever you want and there's no accountability. That's probably half the VRCs, and the other half is, No, you can't do this because I need to have control over this and make sure that I can control the outcome, right? So finding that middle ground, empowering clients, empowering VRCs to do the work has been absolutely huge. We'll be ongoing for the duration of the program and then lack of equitable workflow for coaches. So we were silly kind of when we designed this in the beginning and we didn't realize that there are 17 community colleges in Oregon, but they are vastly different in their capacity. And so we started out with everybody is going to serve, you know, the same amount of participants in the grant and what we found out, that's not going to work because Portland Community College, you know, has seven campuses within the Portland metro area and has 30 different VRCs that are referring to the program. We're out in eastern Oregon. There's two VRCs and one community college with only 14 career pathways, right? So we couldn't expect the same result from rural schools as we have from metro schools. And so really not looking at it through an equality lens, but an equitable lens for our performance measures through each of the individual community colleges is something that we're doing when we start serving students at the beginning of this year. And hopefully that will give our numbers more meaning and have people feel more respected in where they're at and what they can actually do.   Carol: Well, I love that you're digging into these very tough challenges, and I know things like our policies and procedures, words do matter. I mean, it sets a tone for your counselors. And we've seen this with lots of states. When we do TA work, you know, people will be like, thou shalt not, you know, and everything that the customer has to do and we will not pay for this or do this. And you have to prove yourself and all of that. When you flip all those words around, it does send a message, even if it's subliminally to those people that are reading it can just see that in other states you see this cultural shift happening because you're looking at this more positively. You're focusing more on like a person's strengths instead of all the reasons they can't do something. I think digging in and all your kind of warts, so to speak.   Sabrina: Yeah. And to watch someone go from having a process driven agency to a people driven agency just warms my heart. It just feels really good.   Carol: See, that's all you West Coast folks, because Joe Xavier started the charge with that because he's like, We're not going to let the paperwork get in the way of the people. Like we got to remember the people are here first. And so you're picking up on that, too. And you also have created new acronyms with the IBCAPPY or whatever. That is very cool. So obviously you've got all these things, you're digging in and you're doing this stuff, but how like I know you said you wanted everybody in the organization to be able to do this, so you didn't keep this all separate. But structurally, organizationally, I'm sure people are sitting out there thinking, okay, Sabrina, there's you, do you have a team of people? Like, how are you structurally carrying this off?   Sabrina: When you look at our key personnel for the grant, I left my cushy branch manager job and took a limited duration job to do this. Not much of a pay raise at all, but I believed in it so much. That's how I got here. And then I have a communication specialist. That's Jen Munson. She sort of runs all of the communication and all of the outreach activities. Really in lots of communications we have organizationally is a community of practices, so local community of practices and statewide community of practices. And so she makes sure that those are happening. And then I have a data analyst and their job is to extract all of that 911 data for ICAP participants to work really well with Cornell and their evaluation team, making sure that they get the data that they need. And then just giving us kind of a daily update on all of the data that's happening and where we need to be focusing so that we can stay really data informed as we move forward and continue to innovate the grant. So there's three FTEs with the grant and then there's a project manager for 0.2 or 0.3 FTE. I have a project manager that is worth their weight in gold. They write our huge project plan, develop all of our buckets, tell us all of the different work that needs to be happening in those buckets. By when mean don't wake up a single day without knowing exactly what I need to do that day and why and how it needs to happen and when it needs to be done by. So it creates a very proactive approach to managing the grant through this project management lens that we have. And then of course, we have our deputy director who's overseeing the entire grant at 0.2 FTE of her salary is dedicated to this grant for the duration of the grant. So that is how we're structured internally. And then of course, we meet with branch managers, get an ICAP FaceTime with me for an hour once a month, and there are multiple opportunities to our communication system on the side that we're able to distribute information and keep people up to date on what's happening.   Carol: So you do not have an army, I mean like you're really literally talking about 3.5 FTEs?   Sabrina: Yes   Carol: And you're making miracles happen, like you're changing the world with three and a half people. You know, I know sometimes states think like, oh, we don't have enough people, We can't do the thing, We need this and that. But like, you are making it happen with a really minimal staff investment. But it is shifting all this thinking and shifting the ways that the agency is operating. That is very interesting.   Sabrina: Yeah, it has the love, though, of the entire exec team of Oregon VR. We couldn't do it, just the three of us. If Keith and Heather and all of the other people that do all of the instrumental things that are happening in VR, if there was infighting about the direction that we needed to go culturally, it'd be a much different situation. But we are united in our thinking and our belief system about where our agency needs to go. And so I think we get a lot of free labor actually from whether it's our youth manager or policy manager, our business and operations manager, probably not a single person in VR that hasn't helped us in some level or another. Also, so don't want to make it sound like just the three of us pulled this off.   Carol: Yeah, you do have a really good exec team because Keith is great, like Keith and Heather. I know those guys and they're very invested. And especially as you talk about like wanting to change the culture and making significant impact, like go big or go home. I love that. I love that. So I know you said some of the activities, you know, you were out you did like 50 trainings and all of that. What are some of those other activities like specifically you're carrying out? Because I'm sure people are thinking like, oh, my gosh, you have this huge project. And when you were listing like all of the kind of the metrics that you want to accomplish, it sounded like this massive word problem. So if we were in Chicago leaving on the train and then we hit New York, you know, like how many people are on the train now, all of that. But gosh, like, how do you start this?   Sabrina: So the interesting thing about a DIF grant is that you find out you're getting the grant and then two days later you get this money, right? And don't know about you. But in state government around here, it takes about six months to write a position description, get it approved, post the position, get the positions, go through the hiring process, and then start dates and then onboarding. And so while the grant started in October of what, 21 is that it? 22?   Carol: Yeah.   Sabrina: Yeah. I wasn't hired until the next end of April. And so there was a large chunk of time where there was a whole bunch of work happening on the background when people could, when they weren't trying to run Oregon General at the same time, but also trying to get the people hired to do the work. And then we also needed to hire all of the career coaches at all of the community colleges and the infrastructure within Portland Community College to manage those career coaches. And so all of that took the first 9 to 10 months of the grant where we weren't really drawing down hardly any funds, and it made the people who monitored the drawdowns very nervous. And so that clock starting immediately, just be aware of that, right? It might be a five year innovation fund grant, but you're really not going to start to serve the participants. And we were lucky we were able to start serving them at the end of year one probably had about 19 or 20 participants then, but lots of DIF grants even struggled even more than we did with getting those people hired and into those positions. And then we created a framework, is really was the first thing that I did whenever I came was say, okay, this is the framework document, this is what we're doing, this is how we're going to structure our community of practices. This is how we're going to communicate with each other. This is how we're going to get everyone on the same page. This is how we're going to delineate workflow between what's a VRCs responsibility, what's a career coach's responsibility, what's everyone else's responsibility? And really talk about that. Educate all of the VRCs on what career pathways are, how to access them, how to contact them, develop the referral processes that needed to be developed for those, we needed to update some policies we're doing that. We'll continue to do that and then develop statewide community of practices in addition to the local community of practices and calendaring. All of those sorts of things is really how you get started is just map it out, sit down and go, okay, this is where we want to be. Work backwards from there. Get your project manager in, create your work buckets and get to work.   Carol: You made such a good point. I think people don't realize that. So for our listeners, you know, as you're thinking about the DIF and people that have been part of one, they'll realize we've heard it over and over, man, that first year. It does not go like you think because it takes forever for every state government, you know, to get rolling with getting those positions hired and all of that. So you've got that pile of money sitting there and then you're going, Oh my gosh. I mean, we're just trying to get the people on board and get rolling. So that is good advice. Just to remind people, it takes, takes a bit to get going. So I know you are starting to already see some initial results. What are you seeing?   Sabrina: Let's see. We have about 140 students enrolled now. Ten folks have already received their career pathway certificate, which is fantastic, which means they're in the looking for a job stage. We're about two months behind on the reports that we get from the community college. So actually, there might be people out there that have a job. I just can't tell you that for sure because I don't have it in writing yet. About 58% of our ICAP students are youth, which is fantastic, and 37% of those youth population are from the BIPOC community. And so what we're noticing is that we have a lot more success if we focus on youth and career pathways than if we are looking to people who are needing to change careers for whatever reason. We need to find out more about that. But as far as our referral process is concerned, really working with our youth partners to pull this off I think is going to be instrumental that we didn't realize we needed such an emphasis on when we started. We have ICAP students are enrolled in 75 different unique educational pathways. Right now, 75 we have 58% of the VRCs in the state have at least one ICAP participant. We have that much penetration with VR staff, which warms my heart because we were worried about that. But we'd love it to be 70 by the end of this. So if you were to combine all the college credits that our ICAP students are currently taking, they're currently taking over 4000 college credits, according to my little data analyst told me this morning. So they're doing it.   Carol: Good stuff. That's good stuff that's happening. I love to hear it. So now that's the happy news. What are some of these speed bumps that you've hit along the way?   Sabrina: The biggest one is that in our $18 million grant, 2.3 million of that is supposed to be spent on client service dollars, right? Tuition fees, books and supplies. And what we're finding is there are so many comparable benefits out there. And how we're structured with comparable benefits in VR doesn't do anybody any favors. And so when we're getting their Pell Grants or their Oregon Opportunity grants or their SNAP grants, there's so many. When Oregon is the last payer that US spending that $2.3 million and doing it within regional and policy has been really, really challenging. And so that'll be interesting to see how it is that we can maybe change that or shift that or find ways to braid services more effectively with all of these other different grant opportunities because they're the last pair to they're just less cumbersome than VR is in order to do that. And just some more of that ancient thinking on the part of VR as we only pay after we've made sure everybody else is paid right, What might that look like if we were a little less stringent? And then of course, our big, big giant speed bumps were around Measurable Skill Gain Credential Attainment. The nuts and bolts of that we found out, is really how we were capturing that data in our aware program. And the translation is, is we weren't. And so hence the...   Carol: Reason you were in the basement.   Sabrina: Right? So we had to completely look at how we had those screens developed on our educational goal screen in Orca. And like so many late nights of Heather and I watching videos from Missouri General on how they did it right and looking at that and then rebuilding that entire part of our Orca system, Orca meaning AWARE system so that we could capture that data and have it be accurate because it's not that Oregon wasn't doing MSGs and credential attainment. We just never wrote it down. And so we had to train staff about what those are. We had to create procedures and have those in place for how to do the data entry. And we actually had to build the infrastructure back so that it would actually report correctly on our 911 reports. So that was a huge undertaking of I'll sleep when I'm dead kind of activities that needed to happen to pull this off.   Carol: Holy cow. I like it when you get you did your voice as your stringent voice. Oh my gosh. So I know you also have had you are not shy for all our listeners. I mean, Sabrina and I had chatted a little bit ago and super cracked up because you are definitely one to say what's on your mind. And so I know you made some interesting observations since you started leading this project. What are some of your ideas you thought should change?   Sabrina: Oh, that's the if you could change the world, Sabrina, what would it be question? Oh, this is just Sabrina talking, not saying anything. But if I could, we all know how poverty and disability go hand in hand. Same outcome results since the 80s. What's going on? Where's the juggernaut? Guys, we have the ability to fix this and it all comes down to post-secondary ed and our unmet need problem that we have, how we take their Pell grants and we skim right off the top and we do tuition fees, books and supplies off of their Pell grant. If nationally, we could find a way to take that Pell grant and let them use that for poverty based stuff housing, food, all their disability related stuff that we can't pay for or that they don't know how to report. Just let them have their Pell grants to live on and. We covered tuition fees, books and supplies. In addition to that, it would be life altering and life changing to the poverty cycle. We continue to find people with disabilities in in America, but that can only change with big time people that have, you know, some sort of sway in how it is that Pell Grants are administered and approved. And think under the Department of Ed, they could really work together in a great way to recognize participants in a different way. With Pell Grants, let us do the tuition fees, books and supplies, allow those Pell Grants to serve the people from their poverty lens. Huge opportunity there. That I think would really take a lot of fear. And the struggle I mean, you know, it a person with a disability doesn't have the option of working three hours in the evening while going to school full time. It takes them 2.5 hours to get dressed in the morning. It takes them another three hours to work with their adaptive equipment to write that paper. It's not apples to apples. It doesn't need to be apples to apples. And we have an opportunity to recognize that. And change the unmet need calculations for VR or change how Pell Grants are interpreted by VR. That's my biggest dream. It would change so many lives.   Carol: That is excellent. I know one of my colleagues, DJ Ralston, does a lot of training around disability and poverty and how it goes hand in hand, and I think we don't talk about it enough in VR. It's like we somehow think all of that's superfluous, like it's out to the side and but it's so intricately intertwined with the person because if you don't have food and you don't have a house, how are you...   Sabrina: You're not going to go to school.   Carol: How are you going to school and where are you plugging in your laptop? You know, you can only be at Starbucks so long in a day.   Sabrina: Or if you're  housing is tied to those benefits that are tied to a poverty cycle.   Carol: Yeah.   Sabrina: Yeah. No , can't do it. Yeah, So much fear around that.   Carol: Do you have any other thoughts on changing the world?   Sabrina: I have so many thoughts on changing the world, but that's the one that. That's the one that I probably have the okay to talk about.   Carol: Yeah. We don't want to get you off the grant now. So one of the other things that's interesting is that the DIF grants are a discretionary grant. So when we get our VR or 110 dollars, it's a VR formula grant. What kind of challenges have you faced in managing this discretionary grant versus, you know, the typical VR funding?   Sabrina: I would say it's constantly managing and balancing the funds and the report writing requirements of the grant. I don't think anybody knew what that was all about. Whenever we signed up to do this, it's pretty heavy. We have, you know, monthly reports that we need to write, monthly calls with that we need to attend quarterly, meetings with other DIF people that we need to attend. And then twice a year we had an end of year report, annual performance report, that are giant documents. We are held accountable for every penny. Don't lose a penny, Pull down the money, spend the money, Why aren't you spending it fast enough? But make sure it's applicable, make sure it's reasonable. Make sure it's necessary. Make sure you prove it to us. Then all of those things are. But are you serving the people? How many people are you serving? It's this dichotomy of crazyville that kind of gets me going around pulling down the funds, spending the money, managing the budget, re managing the budget because you're just guessing when you say how much this is going to cost, you have no idea that the entire workforce is going to receive a 6.5% wage increase next year and another 6.5% wage increase after that. And you didn't write that into your grant and you don't know that travel is going to be exorbitant with inflation, all sorts of things that you have to constantly rebalance the funds and you have to write down absolutely everything you do with a DIF grant. So you have to say what you're going to do and then go do it and say what you're doing while you're doing it, and then say how you could have done it better and then say what you might do better in the future in this continuous cycle across 15 to 20 different work buckets and work plans that you have in place? Yeah. For every minute that you spend doing something, you spend another minute and a half writing about it, it feels like.   Carol: So yeah, I'm glad we brought this up because I know it's just the stark reality of it. And so I think folks sometimes get into the DIF grant and they don't understand this about, you know, you have line items in a budget and now we're going to go outside of this and we want to move money, but we got to get okay, you know, and all of these things because it's very different than the VR grant. So I think it's better for people to at least understand that going in that there is going to be this component. So if you're able to build in, you know, someone that can help assist with some of this stuff as you're doing the project, which is the really cool stuff, you know, that you're trying to get done. But you have to remember there is this sort of a little bit of an administrative burden. And it's not just even a little bit, you know, it's kind of a, a lot bit, but it is sort of the price we pay to have these funds to do these cool different things.   Sabrina: Totally worth it. But yeah, go in with your eyes wide open. And if you don't have somebody that's done grant management or you have somebody that's strong in project management, think about the person that you need in that role to be able to pull that off for sure.   Carol: Yeah, good advice. Good advice. So of course we talk about the bummer things, but let's talk about something like what is like one of the coolest things that has happened to date. Do you have a fun story or something really cool? We want to leave people with like a happy thing.   Sabrina: Want to share two things because two things came to mind. The first thing that comes to mind is part of our initiative is to either develop or enhance existing career pathways in Oregon for people with disabilities. So make them more accessible, make them more anything that they could be to be working for the people that we serve. And so one of the things that they've done out in eastern Oregon is create this drone program. You know, those drones that go up in the air and fly over stuff. And so what that's done is it's allowed for people that want to work in agricultural fields and want to work with cattle, want to watch crops, want to work for an elk hunting operation, those sorts of things. They can now, without a lot of physical mobility, be able to run a drone, go check on their crops, go check on their cattle and their herds, run hunting programs and all sorts of things through this program that teaches people how to run these drones and how to work for companies that have these drones all over eastern Oregon, which I think is really cool. And we're having several people that have disabilities sign up for those programs in a way that because of this program, we're able to develop that and make that possible for them. So that feels really good.   Carol: That is very cool.   Sabrina: Yeah. But one of the cooler things that sort of hits me in the feels is just when an ICAP participant walks up to you and says, Before I had my career coach, I didn't have anyone. But with career coaches that understand my disability, I have gone from a 1.6 GPA to a 4.0 GPA, and I'm the first person in my family to ever go to college. Right? Those just, yup. that's why we all get up every day and we do this work and we keep plugging away at it and we try and make the world a little bit better for people. And so that's really what excites me. And it happens not just once, not just twice, but all the time.   Carol: That makes my heart happy. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Because we've thought about those navigators, other places we've had, but not here. Like what your spin on this has been super interesting. I love it.   Sabrina: What happens if that career coach understands disability, understands that unique lens? Gives grace. Just somebody that goes in and talks to the Accommodations office at the local community college on behalf of a student that can even troubleshoot it with a professor if it's not working out right, somebody that's physically there that they can just walk into their office and sit down and go, Hey, this is really hard. It's great. Those coaches, they're amazing.   Carol: That's great. So what are your next steps?   Sabrina: Next steps, Right. We're going to continue with our messaging. We really need to target in to get up to that 45% BIPOC number. With our recruiting strategies, there's not a lot of black indigenous people of color in Oregon. It's pretty low, 14.4% of the overall population. So that 45% is a big ask for us and they don't have a lot of warm, happy feelings about accessing VR in general or our larger human services offices that we're all located in. So that's a big deal. We are going to be onboarding three additional community colleges to start serving students this fall. We started out with the core ten. Now we're adding three more. So that's a big deal. We're going to continue to draw down those funds as quickly as we can, find new and inventive ways to braid funding more effectively so that we can use those client service dollars. And then really, the big thing on my mind that I worry about is figuring out a way for this to be sustainable. How do we get to retain those coaches long term in Oregon? We're going to prove that they matter and that they make a difference. How do we keep them? So that's on my to dos.   Carol: Well, I'm fully confident you're going to do it. All of it, because you are a get up and go kind of gal. So I so appreciate the work you're doing in Oregon. I appreciate you taking the time to talk with us and share so our listeners can get a little glimpse into what's going on in Oregon. I think it's fun and that you guys have been willing to like you expose all your dirty laundry like where we were. You know, we're in the basement, we're going up. It's going to be so good for the people in your state. And I'm really excited. I hope you'll come back towards that last year when you have really fun results to share.   Sabrina: I hope so. I do hope so. That'd be great. I'd love to come back. Thank you, Carol, so much for inviting me. It's been fun. Thanks.   Carol: Have a great day.   Sabrina: Hey, you, too.   {Music} Speaker1: Conversations powered by VR, one manager at a time, one minute at a time, brought to you by the VR TAC for Quality Management. Catch all of our podcast episodes by subscribing on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts or wherever you listen to podcasts. Thanks for listening!

The recent U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations included demands for cutting funding for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. How much would cuts to these and other social safety net programs reduce government spending by? And at what cost to its beneficiaries, that comprised about 3 in 10 people, including nearly half of all U.S. children, in 2019? Melissa Kearney joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these and other issues concerning the U.S. social safety net. Melissa is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also the director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group.

The recent U.S. debt-ceiling negotiations included demands for cutting funding for Medicaid, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program. How much would cuts to these and other social safety net programs reduce government spending by? And at what cost to its beneficiaries, that comprised about 3 in 10 people, including nearly half of all U.S. children, in 2019? Melissa Kearney joins EconoFact Chats to discuss these and other issues concerning the U.S. social safety net. Melissa is a professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Maryland. She is also the director of the Aspen Economic Strategy Group.

More charges in the massive Mississippi TANF fraud case as ex-WWE performer Ted Dibiase Jr. is indicted for fraudulently obtaining federal funds from The Emergency Food Assistance Program and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and charges are filed on both a student and teacher after their classroom fight goes viral. 

This week, Angela and Alexander discuss movement on the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program expansion bill, a bill that would allow pharmacists to prescribe contraceptives, and the importance of grassroots efforts and ICAN liaisons around the state.

Earned Income Tax Credit (the refundable portion), Supplemental Security Income (not social security!), and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Family program are all programs that provide cash to people in need. Or, sort of. Kind of. Okay, not really. The first part of our Public Health Explained mini-series about the components of our welfare system. -o-Visit our website for more detail and updates! Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/everythingispublichealth  Instagram: Everything is Public Health Email: EverythingIsPublicHealth@gmail.com   Twitter: EverythingisPH Mastodon: @everythingispublichealthPhoto credit:Photo by StellrWeb on Unsplashhttps://unsplash.com/photos/djb1whucfBY?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditShareLinkReferences: https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/08/07/541609649/how-to-fix-poverty-why-not-just-give-people-moneyhttps://www.ssa.gov/sf/FactSheets/aianssavsssifinalrev.pdfhttps://www.ssa.gov/ssi/text-eligibility-ussi.htmhttps://www.taxpolicycenter.org/briefing-book/what-earned-income-tax-credithttps://federalsafetynet.com/welfare-budget/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earned_income_tax_credithttps://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/tanf/abouthttps://www.cbpp.org/research/family-income-support/temporary-assistance-for-needy-familiesSupport the show

Our largest and most vital US public government programs — food stamps (SNAP), Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), unemployment insurance and even the tax system — are being systematically plundered by domestic and transnational criminals who are intent on disrupting our way of life. Woody Talcove knows this because for 14 years, he has been on the frontlines of securing government agencies from fraudsters, cybercriminals and adversaries. The level of fraud is possibly the biggest heist in American history. To put things in perspective, US government published preliminary data showing that in 2021 alone,  it was defrauded by $277bn. And that relates to the unemployment insurance programme alone. Fraud is not only a problem for taxpayers and the federal budget. Fraud wreaks havoc on individuals' lives and the people who suffer are those who need the most support. If fraud losses were stopped, they could pay for free childcare for every family in America. The time for complacency has come to an end. It is time to treat this as an national emergency. This podcast episode is a wake up call.  Haywood ‘Woody' Talcove is CEO of LexisNexis Risk Solution's government business. This podcast is brought to you by RELX.

This week, Alexander shares exciting news about a new partnership with Catholic Radio Indy alongside discussing efforts to expand the TANF program this session.

On this midweek show, Misha Werschkul of the Washington State Budget & Policy Center talks with Crystal about the opportunity this legislative session to align the laws and budget of the state with our values and provide bright futures for all Washingtonians. As legislators prepare to set the State Budget for the next two years, Crystal and Misha discuss how important issues like housing and homelessness are receiving a lot of attention in contrast with less fanfare around education, before diving into impactful cash assistance programs targeted at addressing the wealth gap such as Guaranteed Basic Income and baby bonds. They then turn to the subject of ending Legal Financial Obligations, as it is a practice of wealth taking from the least-resourced to fund our court system, and have a philosophical discussion on unpacking the question of - what does real public safety look like? Finally, they cover progress on much-needed reform of the tax code - the long-awaited launch of the Working Families Tax Credit, movement towards implementation of the capital gains tax, and the anticipated introduction of a wealth tax proposal. As always, a full text transcript of the show is available below and at officialhacksandwonks.com. Follow us on Twitter at @HacksWonks. Find the host, Crystal Fincher, on Twitter at @finchfrii, find our guest Misha Werschkul at @mishaanne and the Washington State Budget & Policy Center @budget_policy.   Misha Werschkul Misha (she/her) is a leading voice shaping the debate in Washington state on budget priorities and economic policies. She's a policy wonk at heart and a relentless believer in the importance of people joining together to make change. She has more than two decades of policy and legislative experience and is eager to build on this experience with an openness to new ideas and approaches, especially about how to bring racial equity into policymaking and organizational processes. You're most likely to find Misha working with partners to craft policy proposals and build coalitions around statewide progressive revenue, economic, and racial justice issues. She also serves on the board of directors of Balance Our Tax Code and the SEIU Benefits Group. In her spare time, Misha tries to be outside as much as possible. Some of her favorite activities are gardening in her taxpayer-supported neighborhood community garden, backpacking with friends in the publicly funded Olympic National Park, and paddleboarding in Lake Washington.   Resources Washington State Budget & Policy Center   2023 State of the State Address: Bold actions for building a stronger Washington | Washington Governor Jay Inslee   “Washington Should Tax the Rich to Save Our Public Schools” by Robert Cruickshank for The Stranger    “The U.S. Could Help Solve Its Poverty Problem with a Universal Basic Income” by Michael W. Howard for Scientific American   “How Tacoma's yearlong guaranteed income experiment fared” by Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks from The Seattle Times   HB 1045 - Creating the evergreen basic income pilot program   “To address wealth gap, WA to consider $4,000 ‘baby bonds'” by Alexandra Yoon-Hendricks from The Seattle Times   “Budget funds key first step in State Treasurer's wealth gap initiative” by Adam Johnson for Office of the State Treasurer   SB 5125 | HB 1094 - Creating the Washington future fund program   “A tragic Seattle story explains the decline of American welfare” by Shaun Scott for Crosscut    “Getting rid of legal financial obligations can protect the economic security of thousands of Washingtonians” by Evan Walker for Washington State Budget & Policy Center   “It's Time to Reform Washington's Harmful System of Fines and Fees” by Evan Walker & Andy Nicholas for Washington State Budget & Policy Center   “Beyond Policing: Investing in Offices of Neighborhood Safety" by Betsy Pearl for The Center for American Progress   “The Working Families Tax Credit will reduce hardship across Washington” by Margaret Babayan for Washington State Budget & Policy Center   Working Families Tax Credit Coalition   “In Washington State, the Left Won a Major Victory for Taxing the Rich” by Galen Herz for Jacobin   “Share the Wealth, Washington!” by Carolyn Brotherton for Economic Opportunity Institute   WA Possible - podcast about what is possible for economic justice in Washington state by Washington State Budget & Policy Center   Transcript [00:00:00] Crystal Fincher: Welcome to Hacks & Wonks. I'm Crystal Fincher, and I'm a political consultant and your host. On this show, we talk with policy wonks and political hacks to gather insight into local politics and policy in Washington state through the lens of those doing the work with behind-the-scenes perspectives on what's happening, why it's happening, and what you can do about it. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, the most helpful thing you can do is leave a review wherever you listen to Hacks & Wonks. Full transcripts and resources referenced in the show are always available at officialhacksandwonks.com and in our episode notes. Today I am excited to be welcoming Misha Werschkul, who's the Executive Director of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center - welcome. [00:01:01] Misha Werschkul: So glad to be with you, Crystal. Thanks for having me. [00:01:04] Crystal Fincher: Thanks for joining us. I just want to start off by talking about - a lot of people are familiar with the Washington Budget and Policy Center, but for those who aren't, what is it? What do you do? And what brought you to this work? [00:01:14] Misha Werschkul: Thanks so much for starting with that. The first thing that I just want to share is - at the Washington State Budget and Policy Center - we're a nonprofit advocacy organization, so we're not part of State government. We actually work doing research and analysis, work in coalition with other organizations. And really, our goal is to make sure that the laws and the budget of Washington State are in alignment with the values of our state and really setting up a bright future for all Washingtonians. So we primarily work on state policy, although we do a little bit of work on local issues from time to time and federal issues. And all of our work is, as I mentioned, in coalition partnership - so we work with other organizations that do grassroots organizing and power building, communications, more political work - and really work together to try to make sure that when the Legislature comes together, as they are right now, that they're doing the things that match the values in our community. So it's really actually super fun work that allows us to bring those skills of research and analysis in what we hope to be service for social justice. A little bit about me is just - I came to this work really through a path of advocacy work. So prior to being with the Budget and Policy Center, I worked with a labor union in our state that represents home care and nursing home workers, and had a chance to be a frontline lobbyist down in Olympia trying to advance the interests of the long-term care workforce. And I saw through that work the incredible impact of the Budget and Policy Center, the power of the team here, and the importance of working on structural issues like the state budget, tax policy, economic justice - and now get the chance to work still in collaboration and partnership with organizations like the labor union that I worked with. [00:03:12] Crystal Fincher: You talk about the structural impact that can be made - and so much of that is impacted at the state level. What are you looking to have accomplished in this legislative session that just started? [00:03:24] Misha Werschkul: We always talk about the most important piece of legislation that the Legislature tackles each year is the state budget. And that is hundreds of pages of decisions - embedded in the state budget - around what are we going to spend money on, and how are we going to collect the revenue that pays for those things. And so our state has been really in a good situation with being able to receive federal dollars through all of the COVID relief that has happened over the past few years. And we've been able to do a lot - our legislators have - to be able to invest in our communities and help, really, us weather a really horrific pandemic. And this year, the Legislature is going to be putting together the budget for the next two years, so the end of 2023 through 2025. And I would say, always, that the most important thing that they can do is put together a budget that really meets the needs of communities, reflects community input, and ideally collects the revenue to pay for those investments in an equitable way. So there's millions of things within the state budget that matter to folks all across our state, and that's something that we'll be watching super carefully this legislative session - and frankly, every legislative session. [00:04:44] Crystal Fincher: What are the most important things you believe are going to be the components of the budget that will make a positive impact for the state? [00:04:52] Misha Werschkul: Some of the things that are getting a lot of attention and are going to be really important are really what is the level of investment in housing and homelessness. That's something that - I live in Seattle - that is something we're talking about a lot in Seattle, but is also really an issue all across the state - folks in rural communities, other urban areas, suburban areas - dealing with the homelessness crisis and the lack of access to affordable housing. And so this year, the governor has proposed a really big investment in housing and homelessness services - much bigger than has been talked about in previous years - and really, I think, embraced the need for a statewide solution that really matches the scale of what the crisis is that folks are experiencing. And so we're going to be watching that really carefully to see what can be done in that area. The governor is also talking about behavioral health as an important area for investment, climate change. One area we'll be paying attention to at the Budget and Policy Center is education - that is actually the biggest part of the state budget - is funding for public schools. And we know that schools all across our communities - kids need to be invested in, right? And that that is something that is going to be important this year - special education, how are we supporting teachers, what are we really doing to make sure that kids' mental health are taken care of. There's a lot more to do in that area and a lot of conversation to be had in the next 100-ish days of the legislative session. [00:06:29] Crystal Fincher: Certainly a lot of conversation to be had. And while we have heard a lot of talk, fortunately, about taking action on housing and homelessness, we haven't heard as much about education after, surprisingly, seeing so many teachers and educators bringing to the fore the crisis, basically, that we're facing in terms of funding, special education resources, and the ability to really give kids the education that will equip them for their future and that we're constitutionally obligated to give them. What are the prospects for action and what do you think is possible this legislative session? [00:07:06] Misha Werschkul: I think the Legislature is going to step up and do something for our kids. So there hasn't been as much talk about it - there are a number of different challenges that the Legislature is grappling with, a number of different things the Legislature is dealing with. But ultimately, education is the most important thing when it comes to the state budget and the paramount duty of Washington State. And so last year there was investment in counselors and other types of support professionals in the schools - that's going to be rolling out and making a difference for kids this year, but more has to be done. And I think that that is an area where we're hearing folks - really from both political parties - talk about the need to invest in education. And so I'm actually pretty hopeful about what's going to be done in that area for kids all across the state because the need is really present. And as you mentioned, the calls that teachers made at the start of the school year, folks' experience of the first few months of the school year, kids back to school in January - the needs there are very visible. And I think legislators will listen to that. [00:08:23] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely. You have also, and the Budget and Policy Center has done a lot of work and highlighted a lot of research about the importance of cash assistance policies in addressing poverty and strengthening communities. Starting with Guaranteed Basic Income, that we've heard a lot from Representative Liz Berry on - what is that? What kind of record does it have? And why is it important? [00:08:48] Misha Werschkul: I love that you're asking about this because I think this is actually one of the most important things the Legislature can and should act on this year. So the idea of Guaranteed Basic Income is really a concept that's really been brought forward by - historically by Black leaders, Black women, also by tribal governments - as a way to really recognize the inherent dignity of people and the fact that people can make the best choices with resources that can meet the needs of themselves individually, their families, and their communities. And it's really a rejection of the paternalistic approach of a lot of policy approaches where - too often - you have government agencies really making decisions on behalf of people and taking away that ability for people to make their own decisions. And so this concept of Guaranteed Basic Income has been around for a long time. There has been a dramatic emergence of local pilots of Guaranteed Basic Income programs all across the country in recent years - and huge successes of those programs. The Magnolia Mother's Trust is one of the first, the Stockton SEED [Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration] program - also those two pilot programs really sparked action in every part of our country, including right in Tacoma where there's been a pilot that Mayor Woodards led with United Way of Pierce County. And so we're seeing a lot of success historically and even in the last few years of really the approach of getting cash to people in a way that's not restrictive and that lets people make choices that meet their own needs and the needs of their families and communities. The opportunity this year - and what Representative Berry is talking about - is the opportunity to really move that from local pilots to state policy. And she's proposing a statewide pilot that is limited in certain ways in scope, but would be the first state in the country to really have a statewide program for Guaranteed Basic Income. And it's an opportunity to take all of the things that we know from all of the local pilots and the past work on Guaranteed Basic Income and really try it out in a new context of a state program. That bill has gotten a lot of excitement and energy, and hopefully we'll see it get all the way to the finish line this year because it really is, I think, a transformative way to think about the role of state government and a move away from what really are pretty failed paternalistic policies that we've had in the past towards - one, policies that recognize the inherent dignity and the ability of people to make choices for themselves. [00:11:52] Crystal Fincher: Another program that is really interesting and that you have talked about is the Baby Bonds savings program. What is that? [00:12:01] Misha Werschkul: Okay, so the Baby Bonds program is something that I think is complementary to Guaranteed Basic Income, and also complementary to other approaches like the Working Families Tax Credit and existing public benefits, like TANF [Temporary Assistance for Needy Families] and the Housing and Essential Needs program. So it's important to think about it as a complementary, not a replacement for any of these other programs. But the idea of Baby Bonds is really a concept that was developed by an economist, Darrick Hamilton, to think about how do we really address the issue of wealth disparities - primarily by race - that exists. And we know that little bits of money, changing people's income doesn't actually get to that core issue of how people build wealth over time and how people build wealth intergenerationally. So white folks like me, in a lot of cases, have been able to build wealth in our families that we passed down through generations. And I, for example, was able to go to college because my parents were able to help me pay for the cost of going to college. The idea of Baby Bonds is how could we really give every Washingtonian the opportunity to have that little additional seed investment to be able to invest in themselves and their future. And so the State Treasurer, Mike Pellicciotti, has championed this approach for our state. Other states are already moving forward on this, but the idea would be to create an account for every kid who's eligible - to be able to have a little bit of resources that grow over time that they could then use to invest in college, to invest in starting a business, or to invest in buying a home. And really start to move the needle on those intergenerational inequities around wealth. In and of itself, Baby Bonds isn't going to fix everything - it is a piece of the puzzle but is an important one. And it's been exciting to see bipartisan support for that proposal and a lot of energy from local communities to really think about really a proposal that isn't going to have a huge impact in 2024 or 2025, but is setting kids up for success over the long-term and giving people the access to opportunity. [00:14:31] Crystal Fincher: So this is an interesting area. So we talked about Guaranteed Basic Income, which is something that definitely has an immediate impact, Baby Bonds savings, which is a long-term impact - both of which are direct cash assistance. And we are so used to, in our society, and hearing pushback on - Well, just giving people cash, are they going to just waste it? How do we know that they're not going to spend it on different things? People are in poverty - as some people say - because they're bad at managing their money, so we can't just hand it over. We need to really prescribe how it can and can't be used. How do you battle that mindset and address those kinds of worries? [00:15:15] Misha Werschkul: I think for us at the Budget and Policy Center, it comes back to - what does the research say? And those narratives that exist are just not supported by anything that we see in the research. And so what we've seen is that programs that are out there that give people direct cash - that folks use it in ways that really do meet the needs of themselves and their communities. And I can't remember the number right now, but I feel like there's something like more than 100 local pilots that have operated around Guaranteed Basic Income in the last several years. And so we're not talking about just one example - we are talking about example after example after example. I also think it is actually really important to tackle those narratives a little bit head-on and talk about - where do those narratives come from, and why are they so compelling for some folks? And these ideas of - for example, with regards to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program and welfare and the dialogues over the years around that program - the kind of myth of the welfare queen - that is a created story that serves a particular purpose. It's not rooted in any sort of reality and we have to actually talk about, we have to actually name those myths that are out there, name those narratives, and call them out for what they are. Because so often it's deeply rooted in racism, deeply rooted in classism and sexism. And to be able to - our hope at the Budget and Policy Center, and other folks play different roles in this, is that by really looking at actually what does the research say and what are the facts on the ground, that that will help to begin to dismantle these narratives that have been built over time. So that's our hope at the Budget and Policy Center - is showing the success of the local pilots, showing what works, and really building some different narratives out there that actually are more rooted in reality. [00:17:42] Crystal Fincher: So another thing that you've talked about that is really important is the impact of Legal Financial Obligations on poverty and people's ability to get out of poverty. What are Legal Financial Obligations and what can the Legislature do about it? [00:17:57] Misha Werschkul: This is such an important area that hasn't been actually talked about as much when it comes to the upcoming legislative session, so I'm really glad you're asking about it, Crystal. So Legal Financial Obligations are essentially fines and fees that are put on folks based on their interactions with the criminal legal system. And it is one of the primary ways that we actually currently fund our court system. It is probably obvious, as I'm saying this, how inequitable this system is and how ineffective it is, but I'll just elaborate just a little bit. So basically what happens is that folks who are interacting with the criminal legal system - through those interactions - are building up debt over time that oftentimes folks don't have the ability to pay, so that - and there's an expectation that folks will pay those debts in the future. Most of the time, as I said, folks don't have the ability to pay - the money can't be collected. And so really what you have is a situation where folks are shouldering this debt that carries with them after their interaction with the criminal legal system. And the courts don't get the resources that they need to actually fund their operations. So it's a super ineffective way to fund operations - based on trying to collect money from people who, for the most part, really don't have any money to pay those fines and fees. Our goal at the Budget and Policy Center, and in coalition with a lot of other organizations, is to really end the practice of Legal Financial Obligations. There are infinite number of better ways to fund our court systems than through the collection of fines and fees. So the goal - the big goal - is to actually end the practice of Legal Financial Obligations as a whole. Not surprisingly, that's not something that's likely to happen in one legislative session. We do have legislative champions who are working towards incremental changes to Legal Financial Obligations, a greater recognition of ability to pay in terms of how fees are assessed and collected - and there we hope to see some progress this legislative session. But in the work around trying to end poverty, people talk about not just the importance of giving people money to be able to afford their basic needs, but actually stopping the practice of wealth taking, which is basically what Legal Financial Obligations are - is another way that any resources that people have are taken from them and that folks are in a system of indebtedness based on an interaction that is already deeply racialized with the criminal legal system. So Representative Tarra Simmons is really leading a lot of that work in the Legislature, groups like Civil Survival and Living with Conviction - want to lift up their work. And I also will just, as I'm answering this question, take this opportunity to say I am so appreciative to be able to be here and share this information with you, and I'm also doing that work on behalf of an amazing team of folks at the Budget and Policy Center - so Evan Walker is the person on our team who leads the work on Legal Financial Obligations, Emily Vyhnanek and Tracy Yeung lead the work on direct cash assistance, and other folks are leading other pieces of the work. So I just want to take the opportunity to celebrate their deeper work in each of these areas and how they engage with our coalition partners, even though I'm the one here sharing it with you. [00:21:49] Crystal Fincher: And I really appreciate that, and appreciate the work of your entire team - and the work over years that you've been doing - this is not work that you or the Budget and Policy Center is new to. It's really been just a long-term labor, and so really appreciate that. And also just appreciate the importance in you working on issues like Guaranteed Basic Income, Legal Financial Obligations - because we're so used to hearing sometimes in common discourse - things like, If you do the crime, then you do the time. If you don't want something, you should follow the law. Now you got to pay up. And viewing it as we need to hold people accountable and really focusing on a lot of the punitive and punishment aspects of these things, when really we're all losing as a result of those - trying to implement these punitive policies are creating worse outcomes for everyone in every way. When you look at the percentage of our budgets going towards supporting the court systems and jails, clearly fines are not cutting it. And also we say that we want a safe community. We say that we want people to be able to make a mistake, to do their time, fulfill their obligation, and then become a productive member of society - we commonly hear. But we do things that really impair their ability to do that and trap them in cycles of criminalization and poverty - and it just is counterproductive and we wind up paying for it as a community. How do you address people who focus on the punitive aspects - and really wanting to hold people accountable or punish people - and not realizing the other impacts that come from that? [00:23:40] Misha Werschkul: I think that's such a big question and I don't know if I have the full answer to it. I will say I was listening to the governor's State of the State address, and he said some things that I really agreed with and then some things that I didn't agree with as much. But one thing he said that I thought was interesting was - he talked about public safety, which we know is a term that means certain things to, and maybe different things, to different people. And he talked about how we actually need to unpack what public safety is and recognize that there's a lot of different aspects of that. And then he actually talked about the work around gun responsibility as an aspect of public safety. And it got me thinking about - just these terms and how they're code, in a lot of ways, for certain things - like public safety is code for policing. And how can we actually really talk about public safety for all of us? And what does it actually look like for all of us to be safe in our communities? And policing - heavy policing - is clearly not providing safety for all of us. In fact, I don't think it's really providing safety for any of us. And if we can think about - what is that aspiration around safety and what does that value for us in our lives and for our families and communities? How do we actually build that together? And a lot of times that does mean a lot of different things - it actually means people having the resources to be able to afford their basic needs so that they can put food on the table, it means that people have shelter - that people are not homeless. It means talking about gun responsibility. And I think a lot of times we fall into, again, these sort of narrative traps of - Oh, yeah, like crime - punish - yeah, if you do the crime, you have to do the time. And sort of believe in a way that that is going to make us safer. And actually I don't know that - it doesn't. And so I think just - I don't know, I think we just have to have those conversations in a real way - because, as a white person, a white woman, doing this work, I did believe for a long time that having a police presence was a way that my safety was - was about my safety. But actually, as I unpack that - it's not true, even for me as the model person that the police are here, supposed to protect. And I think we have to just actually talk about that a little bit more and actually have a higher aspiration for safety for all of us, because sometimes it's like walking around certain parts of maybe cities with a heavy police presence might make someone feel - it might make someone feel a little bit safe in the immediate term, but I actually hope for something a lot more. I hope that we can get to a place where - I don't know - safety, just - it's not actually true safety. And so I'm just trying to get at - what is that higher aspiration of safety that we could be striving towards and building towards, and not feeling like our only definition of safety is having armed police officers walking around - to what - shoot someone if something happens? That actually doesn't make me feel super safe - to think about people wielding guns on the streets shooting people to protect me. And so I think that's just something we need to be talking about and grappling with. But I do think - I really appreciated Governor Inslee starting to peel open that conversation a little bit. Now, he then did go on - I want to acknowledge - to talk about the importance, I think he did go on to talk about the importance of investing in policing as well. So he still has that as part of his solution. But I think at least he was starting to unpack - what does public safety look like and maybe open up a different conversation. [00:28:34] Crystal Fincher: Yeah, I appreciate your thoughts on that. And unpacking what public safety looks like, unpacking what accountability looks like, and really trying to reduce harm all the way around. We don't want people to be victimized. We don't want people to be trapped in cycles that create and produce harm. What does accountability look like if it's not our court system and jails, which are not doing an effective job. What does public safety look like if it's not only police officers who, I think everyone agrees, can't do the job alone. If not, other models being more successful and effective. The final thing I want to talk about and cover today is what our tax code looks like. It is so foundational to everything in society. It is underneath, it impacts the revenue that we collect that enables every public service to be possible, which public services are possible, and to what degree. There's been lots of talk about how regressive our system has been, how much needs reform. Where do we stand on that? What needs to happen? And what's possible this legislative session? [00:29:56] Misha Werschkul: My favorite topic, Crystal - at the Budget and Policy Center, we love talking about taxes. And the reason is because it is super important how we collect revenue as a state and local government. And there are a lot of policy choices embedded in - a lot of values embedded in how we collect revenue. So I think probably most of your listeners know that Washington State has the most inequitable tax code in the country, meaning those with the lowest incomes pay the highest percentage of their income in state and local taxes. And in fact, we're way out of sync with most other states on this. So low income people in Washington State are paying basically double someone with a similar income in Oregon, simply because of the structure of our tax code. This is obviously a pretty bad deal for most Washingtonians. It's a super good deal for the wealthiest Washingtonians who are paying a minute share of their income in state and local taxes. And this is a big problem. This is not something that there's a quick and easy fix for, but there is some really exciting stuff happening. So in 2021, the Legislature took two big actions to start to make progress to reform our state tax code. One is they passed a capital gains tax to fund early learning investments in education. The other is they passed a Working Families Tax Credit set up to benefit 420,000 households in Washington State with direct cash sales tax refunds. Both of these policies are happening. So the Working Families Tax Credit launches February 1st. I'm so nerdy excited about this - it's not even funny. But starting very soon, people - 420,000 households - will be able to apply to be able to get a refund check of up to $1,200 in our state. We have been talking about this for so long, it feels like - and the day is finally almost here where this is happening. It is a step in the right direction of balancing our tax code in and of itself. It's not enough. It needs to be expanded. We'll be working this legislative session to try to expand eligibility to younger adults, so folks who are 18-24 and actually older adults as well - 65+ - who aren't currently eligible for the Working Families Tax Credit - to basically bring them in and allow them to be eligible. There's a great website called wataxcredit.org, I think - I hope it's org now - that has a ton of information about this. And I want to just share that out so folks know to spread the word because folks do need to actually proactively apply. One way to think about it is - really anybody who's eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit is going to be eligible for the Washington Working Families Tax Credit too. Plus anyone who files their taxes with an ITIN number who is being excluded right now from the EITC will be eligible for the Working Families Tax Credit. So I'm super excited. It's happening soon. There's going to be action in the Legislature on this, but more importantly, the policy is happening. Folks can get the money if they take the step to apply with Department of Revenue. Capital gains tax is being challenged, not surprisingly, by wealthy individuals who would pay the tax. They're trying to get the court to basically intervene and rule that the tax is unconstitutional. The State Supreme Court is hearing that case on January 26th and this is a wonky legal issue that needs to get sorted out before the tax can be fully implemented. And I could go on and on about the legal part of it, but I will stop because you actually asked about also what's happening this legislative session. And I will just pitch the efforts that some of our partners, especially Economic Opportunity Institute and Balance Our Tax Code, are leading with regards to a wealth tax and really thinking about big solutions that make a real difference in making our tax code more equitable. We have to get to the root of it, which is wealth. And so it's exciting to see this proposal coming forward this session that Representative Noel Frame has been a huge leader in. [00:35:01] Crystal Fincher: Absolutely and appreciate that. We will include the wataxcredit.org link in our episode notes to make it convenient for people to visit. And also thanks for mentioning your partners - we did have a conversation with Summer Stinson of the Economic Opportunity Institute, and she did talk a lot about that court case and how important it is to have a capital gains tax, what it really means, how few people it actually impacts - it is the wealthiest portion of the wealthy - and we'll see how this court case turns out. I really do appreciate you joining us today. If people want to learn more about the organization, where can they visit? [00:35:51] Misha Werschkul: Our website is www.budgetandpolicy.org so you can check us out on the website. We're also on social media - I'll share those links with you for the show notes hopefully. And I also will share - April Dickinson on our team has led the effort just to launch a new podcast called WA Possible that we hope is a great complement to Hacks & Wonks and a bit of a deeper dive into some of what could be possible when it comes to economic justice in Washington state. There's a great episode there talking about the Black Women Best framework that some national partners launched and some of the policies we talked about today, so just would share that as well. [00:36:37] Crystal Fincher: Thank you so much, and April Dickinson is awesome. Thank you for all the work. Thank you for joining us today and we'll talk to you all next time. [00:36:44] Misha Werschkul: Thank you so much Crystal - appreciate you. [00:36:46] Crystal Fincher: Thank you for listening to Hacks & Wonks, which is co-produced by Shannon Cheng and Bryce Cannatelli. You can follow Hacks & Wonks on Twitter @HacksWonks. You can catch Hacks & Wonks on iTunes, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts - just type "Hacks and Wonks" into the search bar. Be sure to subscribe to the podcast to get the full versions of our Friday almost-live shows and our midweek show delivered to your podcast feed. If you like us, leave a review wherever you listen. You can also get a full transcript of this episode and links to the resources referenced in the show at officialhacksandwonks.com and in the episode notes. Thanks for tuning in - talk to you next time.

Today we're speaking with coauthors of a new report by the Center for Law and Social Policy, entitled "A Community-Driven Anti-Racism Vision for SNAP." Senior policy analyst, Parker Gilkesson, and community organizer, Tamika Moore, argue that although public benefits such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program provide critical care and support for families with low incomes, they also reinforce racism and structures of oppression. Interview Summary   As I was mentioning to both of you before we started recording, this is a really interesting perspective, and it needs to be aired more. I'm glad we're playing a role in that. Parker, let's begin with you. Can you tell our listeners, what you're hoping to accomplish with this report?   Parker: So I was a social services worker for the State of North Carolina, and that is where a lot of my thoughts around policy, particularly pertaining to public benefits, arise. I saw so much while working there. I recognized that the systems in place often are framed as race neutral. They are set up to help people, however, there are multiple barriers put in place that particularly harm people of color. It was really important to me when I began my journey at CLASP, to figure out how we could bring along folks who have deep expertise. People who actually have received and been recipients of the program themselves. They are the experts. And so, that is what led me to bring together folks to create the Community Partnership Group, who wrote this report along with us, and which Tamika is a part of. It's super important to really set the tone for community driven vision for what the SNAP program can be. Obviously, just based on different systemic roots, the program currently, innately, is not anti-racist, even though it does help people and helps people of color as well. We talk about multiple barriers in the paper, what we want to grow, what we want to eliminate, we want to make better, so that it better serves people and moves on the journey to becoming more anti-racist.   Let's talk in a little more detail about something that you just mentioned, which was the importance of the partnership between your center, the Center for Law and Social Policy, the staff there, and people with direct lived experience of people in the communities that are most affected by these programs. And you've created something called the Community Partnership Group. So can you tell us a little bit more about that group and why is it so important?   Parker: So the Community Partnership Group is a diverse collective of activists from across the US. They partner with us, other nonprofits, administering agencies, and policy makers, to ensure that whoever they're working with, the work is grounded in the expertise of people who are directly impacted by poverty. This group is small but mighty. We work together on multiple issues. Tamika works on youth issues. We have other folks who work on housing. We've been meeting together over the last two years. It was definitely something different for a CLASP to embark upon. It had not been done before, where we wanted to deeply engage with folks to really shape our minds around what policy changes could look like. And to do it in a way that wasn't transactional, that wasn't, "We're just going to consult with you all on this one off project." Or, "We are just going to create something and bring it back to you all for your advice," versus helping them to be a part of the process. I'll push it over to Tamika to talk a little bit about her experience with this.   Tamika, I'm glad that we can hear from you on this. So what are your thoughts on this issue of a partnership and working together with a group like CLASP?   Tamika: It has been nothing short of incredible. They are extremely supportive. Our entire group is extremely supportive. I've been a part of the Community Partnership Group since its inception in 2020. I do youth empowerment work as well as anti-hunger work. I am a lived experience expert, someone that has gone through and used these programs, and been street homeless, and lived in my car, and I've utilized these programs over a course of several years. I don't anymore. But I have plenty to say about them and how these different programs and different pieces of legislation that affect these programs can be updated and changed to actually benefit the people that's supposed to benefit. Being a part of this and having this partnership with CLASP, with everyone else in the CPG group, has been an incredible journey.   It's really nice to hear from both of you that this partnership is working so well. These partnerships don't happen all that often. It really takes, I know from our own experience, a lot of work by all parties to make these successful. So congratulations for doing something pretty unique and important. So Tamika, back to you. Could you share some historical examples of what you see as institutionalized racism built into the SNAP program?   Tamika: We can find institutional racism across the board when it comes to the SNAP program. From different neighborhoods that need the SNAP program and that are impacted by different policies that block individuals from receiving SNAP benefits, such as the drug felon ban, to gatekeepers that are hired and are supposed to approve, disapprove the benefit to the participant. These individuals, their training, affect the lives of people that they're supposed to be assisting. The foods that are available in these neighborhoods, what's available and accessible in the neighborhoods that mainly receive SNAP benefits, which are obviously disproportionately, black and brown communities, communities of color. Not having access to hot foods, which is just a policy issue in and of itself. But not having access to nutritious foods, like fruits and vegetables, in these neighborhoods that receive the SNAP benefits. Not receiving enough of a SNAP benefit to even benefit the way that you're supposed to and be able to feed your family, is another one. There's just so many different ways that this affects the SNAP policies and SNAP benefits.   Let me ask you a follow-up question about that. You've given a lot of examples and I really appreciate that. Can you tell us a little bit more about how individuals experience interacting with the system? How does it make people feel to interact with such a system, and does this affect people's willingness to engage with the SNAP program? Or does it affect, you think, the number of people who are eligible, who enroll in the program? What's it like?   Tamika: A hundred percent. I can say from personal experience. I was homeless for a period of time before I applied for benefits myself because there's such a stigma attached to receiving these benefits. That you're lazy, that you don't want to work, that you're a bum or a whatever other derogatory terms. I'm sure you've heard them, we all have. Or you're on drugs, or you're an addict of some kind. Anything and everything. But that's simply not the case. I wasn't on drugs, I didn't have any children, no one could say, "Oh! You know." But there's such a stigma attached to it, it keeps a lot of people from applying. And then when you do apply, you're in this place where there's so many people that are needy, that are in the position that you're in. And it's a re-traumatizing system, to have to tell someone your story, first of all, that you don't know. Tell them what's going on in your life, and actually admit to the fact that you can't provide for yourself and that you need help. But to have to go from that person to another person, to another person, to another person, and actually hope that these people care. They're dealing with a number of people throughout the day, so it's stressful on them as well. But to actually talk to somebody that cares about what's going on in your life, that wants to help you, which is not something that happens often. Unfortunately, I was homeless for seven months before and I went through three social workers before I got to someone that actually told me how I could help myself. This is why I call them gatekeepers. Because they are the individuals that ultimately have an effect on whether you receive this assistance that you need so badly, or whether you don't and you continue to struggle.   It's not a great process. It needs to be updated, it needs to be streamlined in every state so that you don't have to be re-traumatized every time you have to go in there. You don't have to re-qualify. Every time you have to re-qualify, you have to worry about losing your benefits. You're threatened by letters and stuff that you receive when it is time for re-qualification. I mean, it is so hard to explain without becoming relatively emotional, but it's a terrifying process when we're supposed to be helping people. These are our people, and we're supposed to be helping them and lifting them up. Instead, we're threatening them every step of the way. If you lie about this or if you misspeak about this, there's public charge associated with so many different parts of this process as well. And you're just like, "I don't know what to say." So you don't say anything, and you don't get the benefits that you could have gotten. There's so many different parts of this. It's just not a great process. It's not a fun process, it's not a good process. It needs to be revamped.   Tamika, I appreciate you sharing that, and I'm sorry that I've asked you to relive it yet again. But it really helps, I think, paint a picture of what it's like to interact with a system like this and how traumatizing, re-traumatizing, and difficult it can be. So thank you very much for sharing that. Parker, why don't we dig into the report recommendations? Can you describe to our listeners, what you believe the key points in the recommendations are?   Parker: We have multiple recommendations that fall into different buckets. The main thing that we want, is that SNAP should absolutely be available to all who need it. Meaning, remove any barriers for folks who like Tamika mentioned earlier, who have been formally incarcerated students, immigrants. Even some indigenous populations who receive another food program that's full of canned foods and not fresh foods, if they received at that month, they aren't able to receive SNAP. That's not fair. Also, residents of Puerto Rico. There are multiple different policies right now that prevent different groups of folks from being able to receive benefits. So we want to make sure that it's available to all who need it.   We also want to make sure that it's sufficient enough to meet the needs of community members. So we want to make sure that, number one, we protect the Thrifty Food Plan. Although it's the lowest level food plan, they just reevaluated it last year, and we want to protect that. We know that there are multiple legislators that want to come against it. We know that the SNAP program does help folks, and we want to protect the good changes that have happened. But we also know that we need to increase overall SNAP benefits. Right now, currently per person, it is around $5 per day. $5 per day, so that's around a dollar and 33 cents per meal. I don't know anywhere that you can get a meal for $1.33 cents. So folks are having to make difficult decisions about what type of food they want to provide for their families. We think about food policing, and telling folks they can't buy sodas with their SNAP benefits, or they can't buy sugary foods, or they can't buy chips and all these different things. But the reality is that, to stretch someone's SNAP benefits to make sure that their families feel full, we can't talk about nutrition, and we can't talk about healthy foods without talking about increasing the benefits. Because at that point we'll be blaming people for the difficult choices that they have to make, instead of recognizing that the SNAP benefits just aren't enough for a sustainable diet. Not only in terms of the cost of food, but also in terms of culturally appropriate foods. In different communities, whether it is Caribbean, African, Latino communities, we use different spices, we use different beans and flavors, and different things that also cost a lot of money. And so, oftentimes the diets that are used to estimate the average cost of food are Eurocentric diets. And so we have to move away from the idea that Eurocentric diets are the only diets that are healthy. That's not necessarily true. When we look at the more culturally diverse diet, and we add those foods as we estimate the cost, that will help SNAP benefits to go up as well.   In thinking of different dietary needs and different things of that nature, we also want to expand bonus funds for accessing fruits and vegetables. So currently there are multiple programs. One that we talk about specifically in the paper is a farmer's market benefit where if you have a farmer's market in your area, you can use double benefits to purchase from the farmer's market. However, farmer's markets are seasonal. Farmer's markets sometimes for different communities are extremely difficult to get to. And so, if we want to encourage fruits and vegetables, and the purchase of them with the SNAP program, we should encourage that by using this benefit across all grocery stores.   And one of our major, major, major recommendations, is about hot foods. This is one that many folks in the anti-hunger community, don't necessarily jump into but it was super important. The group was really serious about us taking this on to really talk about how the SNAP program should allow people to buy hot and prepared foods. Because it is something that is necessary for folks who have experienced homelessness, for folks who may live in housing where they don't have a working stove. There are so many different situations that we've heard of through doing our research and talking to folks, where if they were able to purchase hot foods with the SNAP program, it would completely and totally change their lives. So I'll let Tamika jump in here, to talk about our recommendations with hot foods, and also just talking about subsidies, in terms of fruits and vegetables.   Thanks, Parker. I appreciate it. There are a lot of very concrete ideas among your recommendations. So Tamika, what would you like to highlight about the report?   Tamika: So I'm going to start with hot foods, speaking with direct personal experience with street homelessness while I was receiving benefits. I'm first going to address just how dehumanizing it is to tell someone that if you don't have a stove or a kitchen, that you don't deserve a hot meal. That's basically what the current SNAP policy is insinuating, right? Because if you don't, you can't. It's ridiculous to think that someone is homeless and out in the cold in the wintertime, and they can't go and get a bowl of soup from the corner store or from a grocery store, if they have access to one, or somewhere like that. Or a hot dog or just something that's hot to warm your stomach. Food should be treated and accessed as a basic human right no matter the disposition of it. And that's just the fact of the matter. Could you imagine someone telling you that you can't have something hot to eat just because they don't want you to use the dollars that they're giving you for that? It's incredibly dehumanizing and ridiculous.   And then also as a homeless person, you really can't budget the same way that you would if you did have access to a fridge, or a refrigerator, or a stove. You can't go and buy milk because there's nowhere to put it. Or eggs, or rice; nowhere to cook it. Pancake mix - nowhere to cook it. These are all things that you could use to stretch those dollars for yourself and your family. You can't do these things. So you actually end up spending more money having to go to corner stores and buy whatever it is that they have at the corner store that you can eat that day rather than being able to cook something for yourself, or buy something that is hot for yourself. One of my colleagues talks about the frozen chicken or frozen turkeys at the grocery store where you could buy a roasted one for $7, maybe 5$, $7 something like that, that's already cooked. But you can't buy that. But then you can buy the frozen one that's $14. It's just not cost effective either. And like Parker just highlighted, that is what you're limited to with the SNAP funds.   As a single person in the United States, the benefit right now is about $192 or less. The USDA estimates that for a single person, a single person in the United States, it's $230 to $420 per month. So the benefit is not enough to sustain you. We know that. Just for a single person, not enough to sustain you. Now going to the corner store, you're reduced to those foods, which we know is not nutritious in any way. And like I said, more expensive in the long run. Furthermore, it is re-traumatizing to have to go to the store or corner store, whoever or wherever you're going every day, to ask them to heat something up for you too, because you don't have access. Being homeless is already a daily battle, mentally, physically, emotionally; a battle. You're constantly having to fight negative thoughts and feeling unworthy. Having to go and ask someone to heat up food for you because you can't do it for yourself, it just amplifies those feelings.   I'm so happy that you're able to lay some of these things out, because these are not stories that everybody has heard.   Tamika: That's one of the reasons why we're hearing why it's important to have someone's perspective that has experienced these things. It's important to have people with lived experience in the room when you're creating policies that affect the individuals that actually experience these things. This is why. This is why. It's a different effect. If you have never experienced that, I don't feel like you should be writing a policy that affects someone that does, especially not without direct input from someone that has.   Bios   Parker Gilkesson is a senior policy analyst with the Center for Law and Social Policy's Income and Work Supports team. She specializes in work support programs for people with low incomes and focuses on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Parker is a subject matter expert in social policy, benefit eligibility, human services delivery, racial equity, community partnership, and state and local policy regarding SNAP, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and Medicaid. She has been quoted in TIME Magazine, New York Times, National Public Radio, The Hill, and many more. Prior to joining CLASP, Parker began her career as a human services specialist in Mecklenburg County, NC. In this role, she worked directly with people to determine their eligibility for Medicaid, TANF, and SNAP. Parker earned a Master of Public Policy degree, with a concentration in public administration, from Liberty University and a bachelor's degree in health education, maternal and child health from Howard University. Parker believes all policies should be grounded in the wisdom and experiences of those directly impacted by them. Therefore, she has worked to co-create a community of shared learning that highly regards lived experience as necessary expertise in the quest toward equitable policy solutions. Parker is passionate about systemic change that addresses root causes to eventually eradicate poverty and inequities in the health and social welfare of our nation's residents.   Tamika Moore is a New Jersey native who has spread her passion for youth empowerment through her non-profit organization VisionWorkz. Her mission is to help guide, inspire, and empower LGBTQ youth to see their true potential and value. She pushes to provide healthy and safe avenues for teens and adolescents to release their emotions on a creative and functional basis. Tamika has traveled the East Coast delivering her global vision of bringing the input of young people to the forefront for legislative changes involving education, programs for teens, and poverty. Tamika contributed to the LGBT curriculum in New Jersey and believes in helping to establish core values like financial literacy and professional development to help kids feel secure about themselves and their future.  

Senate and House Democratic leaders Sen. Derrick Simmons and Rep. Robert Johnson provide a recap of their joint caucus hearing on the scandal-plagued Mississippi Department of Human Services and its administration of the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. In the poorest state in the country, millions of federal welfare dollars have been squandered and systemic problems remain that prevent the help getting to the poorest of the poor in Mississippi.

MLB – Major League Baseball Last Night Oakland A’s 2, Detroit Tigers 0 Cleveland Guardians 12, Chicago White Sox 9 – 11 Innings Chicago Cubs 6, San Diego Padres 0 Athletics 2, Tigers 0 – A’s beat Tigers 2-0 as Blackburn improves to 4-0 Paul Blackburn threw 6 2/3 strong innings to improve to 4-0 as the Oakland A’s shutout the Detroit Tigers 2-0 to snap a season-high nine-game losing streak. Tony Kemp hit a solo home run in the third and Chad Pinder added an RBI single in the fourth. Blackburn gave up four hits and struck out three before leaving in the seventh inning. Despite walking two batters, rookie Dany Jiménez escaped damage and earned his fifth save to finish off the four-hitter. Guardians 12, White Sox 9 – F/11 – Naylor powers big comeback, Guardians stun White Sox in 11 Josh Naylor hit a tying grand slam with two outs in the ninth inning and a three-run homer in the 11th, powering a huge comeback that carried the Cleveland Guardians to a wild 12-9 victory over the Chicago White Sox. Naylor also had a run-scoring double in the eighth and finished with eight RBIs for the Guardians, who stunned Chicago by rallying from an 8-2 deficit in the ninth aided by two White Sox errors. Andrés Giménez led off the inning with a homer and then doubled home a run in the 10th as the Guardians snapped Chicago’s six-game winning streak. Cubs 6, Padres 0 – Hendricks brilliant for 8 2/3 innings as Cubs snap skid Kyle Hendricks came within one out of three-hit shutout for the Chicago Cubs, who beat the listless San Diego Padres 6-0 to snap a season-high five-game losing streak. Manager David Ross came out to get Hendricks after he got Jurickson Profar to fly out to left on his 116th pitch. Hendricks struck out rookie José Azocar to open the ninth and walked Jake Cronenworth on six pitches before going to a full count against Profar. Scott Effros came on and retired Manny Machado. Hendricks (2-3) didn’t allow a runner to reach scoring position. Today Oakland (Montas 2-2) at Detroit (Skubal 1-2), 1:10 p.m. – Game 1        WSJM/WCSY 12:50 (Game 1, Oakland is the home team) Oakland (Martinez 0-0) at Detroit (Faedo 0-0), 4:40 p.m. – Game 2       WSJM/WCSY Cleveland (Quantrill 1-1) at Chicago White Sox (Giolito 1-1), 8:10 p.m. Chicago Cubs (Miley 0-0) at San Diego (Clevinger 0-0), 9:40 p.m. MLB – MLB plans London games in 2023, 2024 and 2026 Major League Baseball plans to play regular-season games in London in 2023, 2024 and 2026. The New York Yankees and Boston Red Sox split two games at London’s Olympic Stadium in June 2019. The St. Louis Cardinals and Chicago Cubs were scheduled to play there in June 2020, but those games were canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic. MLB plans to hold a Home Run Derby at London’s Crystal Palace Park on July 9 this year. NBA – National Basketball Association – 2022 NBA Playoffs – 2nd Round Last Night Boston Celtics 116, Milwaukee Bucks 108                        (Series Tied 2-2) Golden State Warriors 101, Memphis Grizzlies 98            (GSW Leads 3-1) Tonight Philadelphia 76ers at Miami Heat, 7:30 p.m.                       (Series Tied 2-2) Dallas Mavericks at Phoenix Suns, 10:00 p.m.                   (Series Tied 2-2) NBA – Suns coach: NBA should consider families-only seats at games Phoenix Suns coach Monty Williams says the NBA should consider having a special section in the stands reserved for the families of visiting teams in the wake of Chris Paul’s family being harassed during a playoff game in Dallas. The incident happened Sunday during Game 4 of the Western Conference semifinals between the Dallas Mavericks and Suns. The Mavericks said afterward that they were aware of an incident between a fan and Paul’s family at American Airlines Center and that the fan was ejected. Paul tweeted about the incident after it happened but didn’t speak to the media following practice Monday. NCAAMBKB/NBA – Former NBA, Michigan State star Adreian Payne shot, killed Former Michigan State basketball standout and NBA player Adreian Payne has died in a shooting. He was 31. The sheriff’s office in Orange County, Florida said deputies responded to a shooting Monday morning when Payne was identified and taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead. Lawrence Dority was present at the scene, according to the sherriff’s office. The 29-year-old Dority was arrested on a first-degree murder warrant after homicide detectives interviewed him. Payne played in 107 NBA games, averaging four points and three rebounds, over four seasons with the Atlanta Hawks, Minnesota Timberwolves and Orlando Magic. NHL – National Hockey League – 2022 Stanley Cup Playoffs – 1st Round Yesterday Pittsburgh Penguins 7, New York Rangers 2                      (PIT Leads 3-1) Florida Panthers 3, Washington Capitals 2 – OT                (Series Tied 2-2) Colorado Avalanche 5, Nashville Predators 3                   (COL Wins 4-0) Calgary Flames 4, Dallas Stars 1                                      (Series Tied 2-2) Tonight Boston Bruins at Carolina Hurricanes, 7:00 p.m.              (Series Tied 2-2) Tampa Bay Lightning at Toronto Maple Leafs, 7:30 p.m.      (Series Tied 2-2) St. Louis Blues at Minnesota Wild, 9:30 p.m.                     (Series Tied 2-2) Los Angeles Kings at Edmonton Oilers, 10:00 p.m.            (Series Tied 2-2) NHL – Islanders fire coach Barry Trotz after missing playoffs The New York Islanders have fired coach Barry Trotz after missing the playoffs in his fourth season with the team. General manager Lou Lamoriello made the surprising announcement more than a week after the regular season ended. Trotz coached the Islanders to playoff appearances in each of his first three years with them. They failed to qualify this year after starting the season on a 13-game road trip and enduring a string of coronavirus-related absences and injuries that derailed the season. Trotz had one year left on his contract. He joined the Islanders in 2018 after winning the Stanley Cup with the Washington Capitals. WNBA – Women’s National Basketball Association Tonight Minnesota Lynx at Indiana Fever, 7:00 p.m. NCAAFB – NCAA clarifies compensation rules but is crackdown likely? College sports leaders are trying to send a warning to schools and boosters when it comes to paying athletes for endorsement and sponsorship deals: There are still rules and they will be enforced. The NCAA’s Division I Board of Directors has approved guidance clarifying the types of payments and booster involvement that could be considered recruiting violations. It is not clear whether the NCAA will clamp down on boosters offering money to recruits or whether it will be taken to court over it. NFL – Mississippi sues Favre, wrestlers, over welfare misspending The Mississippi Department of Human Services is suing retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre, three former pro wrestlers and several other people and businesses to try to recover millions of misspent welfare dollars that were intended to help some of the poorest people in the nation. The lawsuit was filed Monday. It says the defendants “squandered” more than $20 million in money from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families anti-poverty program. The suit was filed less than two weeks after a mother and son who ran a nonprofit group and an education company in Mississippi pleaded guilty to state criminal charges tied to the misspending. MILB – Midwest League Baseball Last Night No games last night Today Great Lakes Loons at Lake County Captains, 11:00 a.m. Dayton Dragons at Lansing Lugnuts, 11:05 a.m. Beloit Snappers at West Michigan Whitecaps, 6:35 p.m. Fort Wayne Tin Caps at South Bend Cubs, 7:05 p.m. MHSAA – High School Sports Last Night Girls Soccer St. Joseph 1, Lakeshore 0 Our Lady of the Lake 8, Michigan Lutheran 0 Edwardsburg 8, Niles 0 Plainwell 3, Dowagiac 1 Buchanan 8, Bronson 0 Allegan 6, Sturgis 0 Paw Paw 4, Three Rivers 1 Vicksburg 3, Otsego 1 Coloma 1, Lawton 0 Kalamazoo Hackett 8, Watervliet 0 Fennville 2, Constantine 1 Delton-Kellogg 2, Olivet 1 Kalamazoo Christian 2, Parchment 0 Schoolcraft 3, Saugatuck 1 Mattawan 8, Battle Creek Central 0 Portage Central 9, Battle Creek Central 0 Gull Lake 8, Kalamazoo Central 0 Kalamazoo Loy Norrix 2, Portage Northern 0 Comstock 9, Marcellus 1 Hartford 5, Bangor 1 Baseball Mattawan 9, St. Joseph 6 – Game 1 Mattawan 13, St. Joseph 0 – Game 2 Watervliet 5, Coloma 2 – Game 1 Watervliet 7, Coloma 1 – Game 2 Mendon 18, Bangor 2 – Game 1 Mendon 19, Bangor 0 – Game 2 Hartford 7, White Pigeon 4 – Game 1 Hartford 15, White Pigeon 5 – Game 2 Parchment 12, Battle Creek Pennfield 2 – Game 1 Parchment 15, Battle Creek Pennfield 5 – Game 2 Gobles 8, Saugatuck 1 – Game 1 Gobles 10, Saugatuck 4 – Game 2 Girls Tennis St. Joseph 4, Mattawan 4 Brandywine 8, South Haven 0 Edwardsburg 8, Paw Paw 0 Otsego 7, Niles 1 Softball Michigan Lutheran 17, Benton Harbor 0 – Game 1 Michigan Lutheran 16, Benton Harbor 1 – Game 2 River Valley 18, Eau Claire 0 – Game 1 River Valley 15, Eau Claire 0 – Game 2 Watervliet 16, Coloma 6 – Game 1 Watervliet 8, Coloma 3 – Game 2 New Buffalo 9, Lawrence 7 – Game 1 New Buffalo 14, Lawrence 4 – Game 2 Paw Paw 5, Lawton 4 – Game 1 Paw Paw 12, Lawton 2 – Game 2 Jackson Northwest 4, Mattawan 0 Mendon 19, Bangor 0 – Game 1 Mendon 21, Bangor 0 – Game 2 Centreville 15, Bloomingdale 0 – Game 1 Centreville 17, Bloomingdale 2 – Game 2 Hartford 10, White Pigeon 0 – Game 1 Hartford 15, White Pigeon 0 – Game 2 Gobles 28, Saugatuck 9 – Game 1 Gobles 12, Saugatuck 8 – Game 2 Track and Field St. Joseph at Lakeshore Girls: St. Joseph 120, Lakeshore 40 Boys:  St. Joseph 105, Lakeshore 58 Today Baseball Lakeshore at St. Joseph, 4:00 p.m. (1 game) Our Lady of the Lake at New Buffalo, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Michigan Lutheran at River Valley, 4:15 p.m. (DH) South Haven at Berrien Springs, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Bridgman at Buchanan, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Eau Claire at Lawrence, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Paw Paw at Allegan, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Niles at Otsego, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Sturgis at Plainwell, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Dowagiac at Three Rivers, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Edwardsburg at Vicksburg, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Softball Battle Creek Central at Lakeshore, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Michigan Lutheran at River Valley, 4:15 p.m. (DH) South Haven at Berrien Springs, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Bridgman at Buchanan, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Eau Claire at Lawrence, 4:15 p.m. (DH) Paw Paw at Allegan, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Niles at Otsego, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Sturgis at Plainwell, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Dowagiac at Three Rivers, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Edwardsburg at Vicksburg, 4:00 p.m. (DH) Girls Soccer Bangor at Marcellus, 5:30 p.m. Girls Tennis Gull Lake at Lakeshore, 2:00 p.m. Gull Lake at St. Joseph, 4:00 p.m. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The COVID-19 pandemic prompted human services agencies to rethink how they engage with clients and how they address persistent stress and trauma experienced by their own staff. On this episode of On the Evidence, Mathematica's J.B. Wogan and Diana McCallum discuss how human services agencies have adapted during the pandemic. The episode also includes insights from Kataney Couamin and Andrea Barnum, who work at local agencies providing workforce services, as well as Mathematica's Jonathan McCay and The Adjacent Possible's Michelle Derr, who have provided research and evaluation technical assistance to state, tribal, and local agencies that administer the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Find a full transcript of the episode here: mathematica.org/blogs/pandemic-era-adaptations-in-human-services-could-fill-a-need-even-outside-a-public-health-emergency Read the issue brief about supporting mental wellness for TANF program staff and participants: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/supporting-mental-wellness-program-staff-and-participants-strategies-temporary Read the issue brief about pandemic-era innovations for the future of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs: https://www.acf.hhs.gov/opre/report/brief-pandemic-era-innovations-future-temporary-assistance-needy-families-programs Read the issue brief about lessons from delivering remote services to job seekers with low incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic: https://pathwaystowork.acf.hhs.gov/pathways_publications/lessons-learned-delivering-remote-services-job-seekers-low-incomes-during Read the issue brief about what works to help job seekers with low incomes during economic recessions and recoveries: https://mathematica.org/publications/what-works-during-economic-recessions-and-recoveries-evidence-from-the-pathways-clearinghouse Read the issue brief about providing coaching and navigation services virtually to promote economic mobility during the pandemic: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/using-coaching-and-navigation-to-promote-economic-mobility-how-might-programs-provide-these-services Read a program snapshot about a nonprofit in South Carolina that used virtual services to continue supporting fathers during the pandemic: https://www.mathematica.org/publications/engaging-fathers-during-the-covid-19-pandemic-and-beyond-program-snapshot

When kids experience extreme poverty, it can have lifelong impacts on their health and well-being. That is why it is critical we take steps to help support families who are living far below the federal poverty level. House Bill 22-1259 will make changes to the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Program (TANF), known here as Colorado Works, so that it is responsive to the needs of our families and our changing economic landscape. By increasing basic cash assistance payments, improving outreach and engagement around the program, and creating a smoother ramp to economic security for TANF recipients, this bill will ensure that all families can meet their basic needs and live happy, healthy lives.  Welcome back to The West Steps. This week, we are excited to have an in-depth conversation on one of the most consequential policies at the legislature this year: House Bill 22-1259. Sarah Barnes, Manager of Special Policy Initiatives at the Colorado Children's Campaign, joins us for an overview of the bill and the impact it would have on families living in extreme poverty. Sarah discusses the ways in which the current TANF program is failing the families that depend on it, and how HB22-1259 would enact to fix our TANF statute's outdated provisions. Basic cash assistance is one of the most targeted ways to lift families out of poverty, and it is essential that structural changes are made to ensure this program is accessible to the families that need it.  To follow this bill and its journey through the legislature, subscribe to KidsFlash and look out for our weekly Capitol Updates. Interested in joining the discussion? Contact Sarah Barnes at sarahb@coloradokids.org to find out ways to get involved with the TANF Coalition. Support the show (https://www.coloradokids.org/)

On this week's Friday Politics Roundup,  I welcome guest host, Amy Knect, back to the show. On today's show, we're be digging into the great Universal Basic Income (UBI) debate and check in on the latest school board meeting in the Pennridge School District. Yes, the school board carrying out a right-wing extremist experiment in undermining public education. Earlier this year, Philadelphia announced that it will begin a very limited guaranteed income pilot program as soon as this month. The pilot program would give a maximum of 60 people $500/month for at least 12 months. The 60 people are drawn from a pool of about 1,100 who have received federal support through TANF, or Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, for five years. The funds will come without any strings attached, unlike traditional social welfare programs. Philly now joins a growing list of U.S. and cities around the world piloting programs to give people money as a way to provide an economic floor for individuals and families.  UBI is not just one thing. They range from libertarian proposals - to give people money and wipe out other social welfare programs such as TANF, Medicaid, and Social Security - to more democratic socialist programs - to give people money as a baseline for being part of a given society while maintaining or expanding existing programs (think Medicare for All).  We'll take a look at some of the preliminary results of Stockton, California's UBI experiment - the Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED) to see what $500/month did for 125 individuals in that pilot. We'll also talk about the report, "Becoming Visible: Race, Economic Security, and Political Voice in Jackson, Mississippi." That report investigates " how policies created through racial exclusion and oppression are maintained behind a veneer of race-neutrality, and to reject reform efforts that tinker at the margins of this system." We'll also be checking in with the Pennridge School District school board meeting this past Monday. We're starting to see an organized pushback in the community to the board's thinly-veiled extremism. Amy Knecht was there for the meeting. Looking forward to this one! Magnolia Mother's Trust: https://springboardto.org/magnolia-mothers-trust/ Stockton Economic Empowerment Demonstration (SEED): https://www.stocktondemonstration.org/ Policy Paper: “Becoming Visible: Race, Economic Security, and Political Voice in Jackson, Mississippi,” https://bit.ly/34eEEu1 Center for Guaranteed Income Research, UPenn: https://www.penncgir.org/ You can help support homegrown, progressive media by becoming a patron of Raging Chicken for as little as $5/month: https://www.patreon.com/rcpress Join our Discord to continue the conversation all week long: https://discord.gg/BnjRNz3u  

With less than 80 days to go in the legislative session, the pace has started to pick up at the Capitol. More than 400 pieces of legislation have been introduced, and the Children's Campaign has already analyzed and taken positions on 120.  We are excited to see some of our priority bills already making their way through the legislature. If passed, our state could see significant systems change in the early childhood sector, school finance formula, and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, among others. You can follow these bills – and many more to be introduced – by subscribing to our weekly KidsFlash newsletter and visiting our Capitol Updates page.   This week on The West Steps, we're in house! Riley Kitts, Government Affairs Director at the Colorado Children's Campaign, sits down with our host and Communications Director, Beza Taddess, to give us an insider view of what the 2022 legislative session has looked and felt like so far. In a year that more closely resembles pre-pandemic times, the session has been off to a slow start. However, the Children's Campaign is still anticipating the introduction of our additional priority bills – and hopefully their passage – to secure some significant wins for Colorado kids and families. Riley shares his excitement for the remainder of the session, and encourages all Coloradans to reach out to their legislators and share their stories. In fact, you don't even need to travel to the Capitol to advocate for policies you care about. Contact your legislator via email, phone, or social media, and consider signing up to provide virtual testimony on a bill you are passionate about. To learn more about ways to engage, contact Riley at riley@coloradokids.org. Support the show (https://www.coloradokids.org/)

In Colorado, a family with two children must make less than $421 per month to qualify for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Therefore, the level of poverty a family must experience to access this program is too low for it to truly help families achieve economic security. In addition, TANF payments do not adjust proportionally to inflation. The payments families receive are worth far less today than they were in 1996 when the program began. Colorado needs to take steps to ensure TANF better serves the families that need it. In doing so, we can help place families on the path to economic prosperity and ensure children have the resources they need to thrive. On this week's episode of The West Steps, we gain firsthand insight about the changes needed to help TANF best support the Colorado families that need it. We are joined by Sarah Barnes, Manager of Special Policy Initiatives at the Colorado Children's Campaign; and three members of the Clayton Early Learning team: Coressia Sanders, a former TANF recipient and Continuous Learning and Data Coach; Kayla Frawley, Manager of Policy and Advocacy, and Ealasha Vaughner, mother of two and Community Ambassador Coordinator . Our discussion centers around the many obstacles families face in accessing TANF. With TANF legislation soon to be introduced at the state Capitol, we also hear about the important steps advocates are taking to elevate the voices of TANF recipients in the policy making process to ensure the program changes in a way that better serves families. Interested in learning more about the work of the TANF coalition? Contact Sarah Barnes at sarahb@coloradokids.org. Support the show (https://www.coloradokids.org/)

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Performance Audit Services Senior Auditor Kristen Jacobs recaps a new LLA report that reviews the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services' implementation and administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. | https://LLA.La.gov/go/podcast

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families: Performance Audit Services Senior Auditor Kristen Jacobs recaps a new LLA report that reviews the Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services' implementation and administration of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. | https://LLA.La.gov/go/podcast

When the Federal pandemic-related UI programs ended on September 6th, 2021, many Americans became aware of what low-income, government program-dependent Americans have long been aware of – a benefits cliff. This cliff occurs when public benefits taper off or phase out quickly, forcing beneficiaries to choose between earning more or maintaining what is often a vital subsidy. It is a classic Catch-22. These cliffs impact both short-term work incentives and long-term opportunities for growth in wages. On this episode of “https://www.aei.org/tag/hardly-working-podcast/ (Hardly Working)”, am joined by https://www.atlantafed.org/community-development/about-us/staff/ruder-alexander (Dr. Alex Ruder), the principal advisor of Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta's Community and Economic Development team. We discuss Dr. Ruder's vocational journey in workforce development policy, the https://www.atlantafed.org/economic-mobility-and-resilience/advancing-careers-for-low-income-families/cliff-tool (Career Ladder Identifier and Financial Forecasting (CLIFF)) tool that he helped develop, and the future of federal benefits and benefits cliffs post-pandemic. Mentioned During the Episode: https://www.aei.org/events/unemployment-insurance-at-a-crossroads-tracing-program-design-during-and-beyond-covid-19/?mkt_tok=NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGAORfixn9OyJ_sMhzVVmwWoOTHiFGKS96we9NyGIJ8k2EjfO2N1D1Vopl_T9ETw7mxlbgx0PWWnjDqjSG2hXQhttps://www.aei.org/events/unemployment-insurance-at-a-crossroads-tracing-program-design-during-and-beyond-covid-19/?mkt_tok=NDc1LVBCUS05NzEAAAGAORfixn9OyJ_sMhzVVmwWoOTHiFGKS96we9NyGIJ8k2EjfO2N1D1Vopl_T9ETw7mxlbgx0PWWnjDqjSG2hXQ (AEI's upcoming event on UI Reform)  https://files.stlouisfed.org/files/htdocs/publications/review/08/03/Garrett.pdf (St. Louis Federal Reserve Publication on 1918 Influenza) https://www.aei.org/op-eds/its-not-enough-to-learn-to-code/ (Brent Orrell on how “Learning to Code” Isn't Enough) https://www.atlantafed.org/community-development/publications/partners-update/2020/01/200226-research-on-understanding-and-overcoming-benefits-cliffs (Alex Ruder on Understanding and Overcoming Benefits Cliffs) https://www.atlantafed.org/news/conferences-and-events/conferences/2020/10/15/reframing-benefits-cliffs/transcript.aspx (Alex Ruder on Benefit Plateaus) https://www.atlantafed.org/-/media/documents/community-development/publications/discussion-papers/2021/01-restructuring-the-eligibility-policies-of-the-child-care-and-development-fund-to-address-benefit-cliffs-and-affordability-2021-06-18.pdf (Childcare Benefits Cliff Florida Case Study) https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/marginal-tax-rate-series (Effective Marginal Tax Rate Series on Effective Tax Rates) https://metroatlantaexchange.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/MAX_Ruder_Presentation.pdf (Alex Ruder on Benefits Cliffs and Career Pathways) https://aspe.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/private/pdf/264531/strengthening-the-EHCW-Report.pdf (Entry-Level Healthcare Workforce Report) https://www.ncsl.org/research/human-services/addressing-benefits-cliffs.aspx (Programs on Smoothing Out Benefits Cliff Effects) https://www.aecf.org/resources/promoting-economic-self-sufficiency-as-a-state-tanf-outcome (Economic Self-Sufficiency Measures as a State Goal) https://livingwage.mit.edu/ (MIT's Living Wage Measure) http://www.selfsufficiencystandard.org/washington (UW's Self-Sufficiency Standard Measurement) https://research.stlouisfed.org/publications/cost-of-living/calculator (St. Louis Federal Reserve's Cost of Living Index) https://www.acf.hhs.gov/ofa/programs/temporary-assistance-needy-families-tanf (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Programs) https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/WEO (World Economic Outlook (WEO) Metrics) https://www.atlantafed.org/community-development/publications/partners-update/2020/covid-19-publications/200604-dollars-and-sense-affordability-of-childcare (The Atlanta Fed on the Affordability of Childcare)...

What is health equity and how does it relate to food systems?  Derek Lin, a policy analyst at New Mexico Voices for Children, joins Sophia to share his perspective on using an equity lens to think about and address food insecurity. Show Notes: 3:20 The "gut microbiome" or gut flora or gut microbiota are the microorganisms including bacteria, archaea and fungi that live in the digestive tracts of humans and other animals including insects. 3:50 the “Map the Meal Gap 2019” annual report from Feeding America found that 1 in 4 children experience food insecurity in New Mexico, the highest indices of childhood hunger in the nation. https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/new-mexico15:50 SNAP aka the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, formerly known as food stamps, provides nutrition benefits to food insecure families. 17:35 TANF aka Temporary Assistance for Needy Families operates differently state by state and supports a variety of programs that are aimed at helping income insecure families achieve more self-sufficiency. 18:35 Under the Trump administration, the "Public Charge" rule has been interpreted broadly and used widely to  reduce the number of people eligible for green cards and other visas in the United States and has consequently made benefits such as SNAP increasingly inaccessible to immigrant populations. https://www.inquirer.com/news/immigration-trump-hunger-food-stamps-public-charge-20200301.html19:55 Households do not reach food security through access to maximum amount of benefits. The shortfall of these programs is clearly illustrated through numbers: https://www.npr.org/2020/09/27/912486921/food-insecurity-in-the-u-s-by-the-numbers23:44 Research has been done on how the working families tax refund would reduce childhood poverty and hunger significantly https://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/working-families-tax-relief-act-would-raise-incomes-of-46-million-households#:~:text=The%20credit%20is%20refundable%2C%20meaning,%2C%20property%2C%20and%20other%20taxes.Expanding low income comprehensive tax rebates and creating a fairer tax system is another policy solution to systemic poverty and food insecurity that NM Voices advocates for. Check out their factsheet: https://www.nmvoices.org/archives/1229225:10 https://www.lcsun-news.com/story/opinion/2020/10/21/addressing-new-mexicos-food-and-water-insecurity-critical/6002366002/31:00 Food sovereignty, a term coined in 1996 by members of Via Campesina, an international farmers' organization, asserts that the people who produce, distribute, and consume food should control the mechanisms and policies of food production and distribution.Learn more about how the New Mexico Out-of-School Network is fighting hunger through OST at our website NMOST.org. The music for this podcast was made by Rock Violinist, Adam Degraff, you can follow him and check out his music at adamviolin.com.