TN Officials Award $175M In Grants For Temporary Assistance For Needy Families Pilot Program

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The Center Square [By Jon Styf] –

Tennessee announced an award of $25 million a piece for seven groups as part of a $175 million grant process for three-year pilot programs with federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families funds.

The program was part of an initiative passed in 2021 by the Tennessee Legislature after the state was found to have $730 million in excess TANF funds.

More than 80 programs submitted requests for the funds in a process that began in fall 2021.

The programs awarded were Families Matter and the University of Memphis in West Tennessee, Family & Children’s Services, Upper Cumberland Human Resources Agency and the Martha O’Bryan Center in Middle Tennessee and First Tennessee Developmental District Foundation and United Way of Greater Knoxville in East Tennessee.

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“Tennessee is taking a comprehensive approach to serving those who are the most economically vulnerable, in a truly transformative way,” said Tennessee Department of Human Services Commissioner Clarence H. Carter. “Through this collaboration of multi-disciplinary partners dedicated to engaging all sectors of the state, these pilots offer an opportunity for innovation and best practices to match the needs of low-income families in their journey forward.

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The programs will now be monitored over the next three years with the goal of using the successful programs to repeat across the state.

“We will take the programs that are successful and we will scale them appropriately,” said Sen. Bo Watson, R-Hixson. “We’ll take the programs that fail and we’ll either eliminate them or we will modify them significantly.

“At the end of the day, taxpayers expect to pay for programs that work. … It is our responsibility to prove to them that the programs work.”

Watson said that he hoped the TANF Opportunity Grants become a national model for other states to follow.

Of the $710.4 million in surplus in the TANF program as of December 2020, $119 million was allowed to remain in the rainy day fund each year, representing 12 months of operating capital.

Then $205.3 million of the surplus was sent to the state’s 2Gen program — with a goal of educating two generations of a family at the same time to find long-term employment success — and $82.7 million to the Department of Education’s Summer Camp program.

About the Author: Jon Styf, The Center Square Staff Reporter – Jon Styf is an award-winning editor and reporter who has worked in Illinois, Texas, Wisconsin, Florida and Michigan in local newsrooms over the past 20 years, working for Shaw Media, Hearst and several other companies. Follow Jon on Twitter @JonStyf.

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