The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, which provides states with funds to support income assistance and other services for low-income families with children, has been due for reauthorization for the past several years. The sharp TANF caseload declines during the boom economy of the 1990s have often been cited as proof of the success of “welfare reform,” but less attention has been paid to TANF’s effectiveness and deficiencies in providing a safety net and employment assistance to low-income families in the recent recession, or to the success of subsidized jobs programs operated under the TANF Emergency Fund.
It is time to have an honest discussion about what we have learned about TANF’s successes and failures and how we can apply those lessons to develop and obtain support for policy reforms that put poverty-reduction back at the center of this income assistance program.
Please join the Center for American Progress and our cosponsoring partners for a presentation and panel discussion on learning from TANF’s past and planning for its future.
Co-sponsors include: Half in Ten, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, Center for Law and Social Policy, Coalition on Human Needs, Legal Momentum and Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy at Georgetown University Law Center.
Welcoming Remarks:
Joy Moses, Senior Policy Analyst, Center for American Progress
Presentation:
LaDonna Pavetti, Ph.D., Vice President for Family Income Support Policy, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Featured Panelists:
Mariana Chilton, Ph. D, MPH, Director of Center for Hunger Free Communities
Shearine Mcghee, Witness to Hunger, former participant in TANF subsidized jobs program
Deborah Schlick, Project Manager, Transitions to Economic Stability, Minnesota Department of Human Services
Kristin Seefeldt, Ph. D, Assistant Professor of Social Work, University of Michigan
Moderator:
Peter Edelman, Director of Center on Poverty, Inequality, and Public Policy, Professor of Law at Georgetown University Law Center
Join the discussion on Twitter: #talkpoverty