Overview

State and local officials note that federal funding silos, different eligibility and reporting requirements, and conflicting regulations can make it difficult to serve families comprehensively and effectively. Under the flexibility provided by the 1996 welfare reform legislation, some states developed programs to deliver coordinated services through initiatives employing imaginative cross-program integration. Their initial promise has heightened interest in identifying new opportunities and addressing remaining barriers to such integration. The NGA Center for Best Practices has a number of activities underway to help states improve services to low-income children and families through cross-system integration.

Focus of Center Activities

Assessing Flexibility and Opportunities under Current Law
The following papers analyze the extent to which federal law allows states to streamline benefits, integrate services for families and children, and integrate workforce development and welfare reform programs. The papers were written as part of a collaborative effort between the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices, the Center for Law and Social Policy, and the Hudson Institute's Welfare Policy Center.

• Cross-Systems Innovation Project Description (pdf)
• Integrating TANF and WIA (pdf)
• Providing Comprehensive, Integrated Social Services to Vulnerable Children and Families (pdf)
• Aligning Policies and Procedures In Benefit Programs: An Overview of the Opportunities and Challenges Under Current Federal Laws and Regulations
• Increasing State and Local Capacity for Cross-Systems Innovation: Assessing Flexibility and Opportunities under Current Law (pdf)
• Supporting Cross Program Integration: Some Recommendations for Federal Policies and Practices (pdf)

Cross Program Innovation Policy Academy
The Center is working with teams from six states to improve outcomes for children and families through cross-system initiatives. Through the Academy, states will share lessons learned with other states and advance broader policy and system reforms.

Related Links:

• A Means to an End: Integration of Welfare and Workforce Development Systems
  
• Case Studies of Service Integration
  
• Connecting the Dots: Can the United States Integrate Welfare Reform and Workforce Development
  
• Eliminating the Silos
  
• Human Service Integration: Results of a GAO Cosponsored Conference on Modernizing Information Systems
  
• Service and Systems Integration: Renewing the quest for the 'Holy Grail' of public policy
  
• Transforming Child Welfare and TANF in El Paso County, Colorado
  

• Annie E. Casey Foundation
  
• Midwest Welfare Peer Assistance Network (WELPAN)
  
• The Center for Human Services
  
• Welfare Information Network