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February 2017
Policy&Practice
7
from
the
field
T
he enactment of the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity
Act (WIOA) of 2014 by bipartisan
majorities in Congress revitalized and
transformed the public workforce
system to reflect the realities of the 21st
century economy and meet the needs
of jobseekers, workers, and employers.
A key part of the WIOA vision is
making government more efficient
to serve the public more effectively
through a comprehensive, integrated,
and streamlined system.
Missouri’s Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) program,
which is named Temporary Assistance
(TA) in Missouri, encourages partner-
ships to streamline services and align
resources, and WIOA has solidified
this concept. TA plays a vital role in
WIOA by offering cash benefits to
eligible participants while they are
receiving assistance. Missouri chose
to submit a WIOA combined state
plan with Family Support Division
By Jennifer Heimericks, Jeriane Jaegers-Brenneke,
and JaCinda Rainey
programs as partners, including the
Missouri Work Assistance (MWA)
program, which is contracted to
provide eligible TA participants
with employment and training and
other wrap-around services. The
MWA offers educational assistance,
training, supportive services, and job
skills to help TA recipients become
productive members of the work-
force. While participating in these
activities, MWA participants are
also eligible for child-care assistance
through the Family Support Division.
Under WIOA, American Job Centers
offer labor market analysis that helps
ensure MWA participants not only
get a job, but gain employment that
meets the needs of employers and the
participant.
However, WIOA’s vision of this
comprehensive, integrated, and
streamlined system can only be
achieved through the implementa-
tion of new policies and practices, and
this is easier said than done. Since the
passage of WIOA, Missouri has taken
several concrete steps to better align
the MWA program with its workforce
development programs. These steps
include:
Changed the MWA regions to mimic
WIOA regions
Included MWA staff on Workforce
Development Boards
Hosted a WIOA Convening that
partners from all regions attended
to understand WIOA, the roles of
various agencies, and local planning
requirements
Engaged in a WIOA Design and
Delivery Team with partner agencies
Made adjustments to requests for
proposal/contracts by:
– Requiring MWA contractors to
start using the same Career Ready
101 assessment used by work-
force development programs in
See Missouri on page 30
Missouri’s Story
Practical Steps Toward WIOA/TANF Alignment
Photo Illustration by Chris Campbell