Public Sector Solutions, Children & Families, Workforce & Economic Mobility
Highlights
3 phasePartnership to better orient the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program around participant families and mitigate the barriers they face in building careers
In 2023, the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families (DCF) partnered with Social Finance to assess Wisconsin Works (W-2), the state’s Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, with the goal of better orienting the program around participant families and mitigating the barriers they face in building careers.
Our team is helping establish the blueprint for a state TANF system focused on helping Wisconsin’s most vulnerable families climb the economic ladder—representing the biggest changes to the program in over a decade.
Goals
Improve access. Better understand and address participant barriers to access.
Incorporate participant lens. Design the program to encourage robust participation, including the consideration of holistic program impacts (e.g., whole-family approach that considers family of a participant, not just the individual).
Integrate performance data. Use data to identify problems and drive decision-making.
Incentivize quality outcomes. Develop and measure metrics to incentivize providers to focus on quality, long-term participant outcomes and tie these metrics to provider compensation.
Change the program narrative. Emphasize the impact of effective participant outcomes as a strategy for supporting the upward economic mobility of participants.
The Work
Phase 1: Program assessment. Evaluated Wisconsin Works’ efficacy against state goals for economic stability and mobility for participating families. Held focus groups with program participants and conducted interviews with third-party service providers, local policy experts, state officials, and TANF experts across the country. Produced a detailed report that summarized key assessment takeaways, including a participant experience map that identified system pain points, and outlined recommendations to improve the program.
Phase 2: Re-procurement launch. Translated Phase 1 recommendations, which centered on implementing an outcomes-based W-2 service strategy, into a system re-procurement. Developed sections of the Wisconsin Works RFP, tailoring the content to specify critical outcome metrics, eligible services, linkages between payments and outcomes, and other service delivery improvements. In parallel, worked with state partners to define payment and reporting metrics, tools, and processes that will enable an outcomes-based approach.
Phase 3: New outcomes-based system implementation. Providing technical assistance to ensure that the state and procured service providers are ready to implement the re-procured W-2 program and remaining engaged through early implementation to help troubleshoot challenges.
The assessment of Wisconsin Works that Social Finance completed for our team was critical to identifying how to make the program a more effective tool for supporting participant families’ economic mobility. Social Finance’s partnership has helped us join a focus on performance-based outcomes to the whole family approach we put at the center of our system re-procurement goals.
Patara Horn
Director of Wisconsin’s Bureau of Working Families
The Bureau of Analytics and Research within DCF provides reporting, performance monitoring, and evaluation resources for the Wisconsin Works program.
Social Finance conducted the assessment of the Wisconsin Works program and is supporting the design and launch of the system re-procurement.
Wisconsin Works participants and eight regional service providers shared their experiences with the program and provided considerations for the future.
![A child wearing a knit hat is being carried by an adult in a red cap and dark jacket, outdoors in a snowy setting.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/tanf.png")
