In 2019, the New Jersey Department of Human Services, Division of Family Development (DFD) was selected as one of eight pilot programs to participate in the federally funded, TANF Data Collaborative, a pilot initiative that provides training and technical assistance to TANF agencies. The Social Policy and Family Well-being Lab is pleased to be a partner on the DFD TANF Data Collaborative project — New Jersey Listens. The goal of New Jersey Listens is to pilot sustainable operations research that integrates cross-sectional streams of safety net supports and employment outcomes into individual-level longitudinal records. The ultimate goal of the project is to enable DFD to build a sustainable data analytics infrastructure to “listen” to NJ TANF recipients and conduct analyses of which types of services work best for whom. This project complements the Lab’s Understanding TANF project by providing strong training and technical assistance directly to DFD staff, thus strengthening the team’s ability to conduct the Understanding TANF quantitative administrative data analyses and answer other quantitative research questions.
Funding source: TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) Pilot Initiative (funding recipient NJ DHS DFD)