The FY2020, FY2021, and FY2022 Virginia State budgets included funding for the Community Action Two-Generation/Whole Family Pilot Project and appropriated $1.125 million annually from the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant. The goal of this pilot project is to test and evaluate concepts and specific interventions that represent two-generation or whole family approaches that move families out of poverty in a variety of communities throughout the Commonwealth. The Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) intends to evaluate the pilot project and disseminate information about the results and impact of this multigenerational approach over a five-year period, releasing information and progress on the pilot annually. It is hoped that this pilot project will accelerate the development of two-generation or whole family strategies by increasing knowledge about what families need and what works.

In FY2020 VDSS developed a program design and Request for Applications (RFA) that was built on supporting pilot projects in Community Action Agencies (CAA) of varied size, capacity, and geographic locations. VDSS developed a program design that set the following priorities/goals:

• Support selected families in achieving self-sufficiency;

• Utilize family coaching models and family coaches to ensure that the pilot project receives dedicated support for families at each of the selected agencies throughout the project;

• Document and learn from activities and outcomes achieved by parents, children, and families in different locations around the state;

• Increase knowledge of the barriers families face and the cost of helping families overcome the barriers and achieve their goals; and

• Replicate, improve, or expand pilot activities that work in future years.

Accomplishments in the first three years of the Virginia Two-Generation/Whole Family Approach Pilot Project implementation include: the selection of six pilot sites through a competitive Request for Application (RFA); hiring of family coaches at each site; developing specific agency whole family program designs; enrolling families; providing a customized mix of services and supports to children and their parents, and collecting data.

Just as the pilot sites began enrolling families in March 2020, Virginia communities began feeling the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is important to note that many planned services, such as continuing education efforts for parents and early childhood education for young children, were delayed, scaled back, or paused—and remained so throughout 2021. Families with school-age children experienced significant challenges, including needing to delay employment and job searches due to lack of childcare. All six pilot sites adapted services in response to needs driven by the pandemic.

Early in the pandemic, essential supports such as food and other nutritional assistance were critical as food insecurity escalated with more family members at home for meals and incomes reduced or eliminated due to reduced hours or unemployment. As families experienced a range of challenges, mental health services for parents and their children became very important.

The National Community Action Partnership (NCAP) assisted the pilot sites in navigating through shifts in service delivery and refinement of design plan elements brought about by the pandemic. Despite the unpredictability of the circumstances, each of the pilot sites engaged in several impressive innovations to continue support for their customers. In addition to leveraging technology to maintain engagement, sites found creative ways to use project funding to meet families’ needs during the pandemic and recovery.

As schools, businesses, and communities have reopened and recovered the pilot sites have expanded the scope and scale of their efforts, including enrolling more families, hiring more coaches, and expanding partnerships.

Key tactics used to support the initial and ongoing implementation of the six pilot sites include providing intensive technical assistance on various aspects of designing and implementing a whole family approach, training related to intake and outcome tracking tools and best practices, and frequent peer sharing and learning meetings.

Even with a health and economic crisis raging, the sites were able to complete their first-year plans, and they have retained and continued their work with the original families during the second and third years of the pilot project.

At the conclusion of the third year, 124 households and a total of 435 persons have been enrolled in the pilot project. In the third year, sites collected data on family demographics, services, and outcomes. In 2021 NCAP collected customer satisfaction information from approximately 33% of participating families. This quantitative and qualitative data indicate that despite the pandemic sites have been able to retain families and help them move forward as evidenced by the following results:

o Sixty-five percent of households/families participating are single-parent, female-headed households. Preliminary data (some income data not yet reported) indicates68.64% percent of households/families were below 100 percent of poverty at program entry (with 33.2% below 50 percent of poverty).

o Sixty-six percent of families are working or have recently worked and are attached to the labor force. Over half of the families participating in the whole family approach pilot are working to make ends meet so education and skill training need to be structured to adapt to the constraints and realities of working families.

o It appears employment as an income source is increasing over time for the households in the pilot. Preliminary results indicate at entry 58.73 percent of households had employment income, and the most recent number available is 66.37 percent, an increase of 7.64 percent.

o Families complete a Life Scale Assessment that looks at functioning across 16 domains. Initial analysis of a comparison between the first and last assessments administered indicates that average scores increased in every domain. The largest gains are seen in the employment/income, financial management, community involvement, childcare, and education/job skills domains. Many of the sites have provided employment-related supports, financial empowerment training, and credit repair, which may have contributed to the increases in the employment/income and financial management domains. Pilot sites have also provided social capital building opportunities and mental health supports, which may have helped to increase families' feelings of connectedness to others in the community.

o All six pilot sites have been recording outcomes for families. Three of the six pilot sites have identified a total of six families completing the whole family pilot experience. Thirty-one family cases have been closed due to non-participation, and eleven cases have been closed because the family moved and was unable to participate or the children were removed from the family. Seventy-six families remain in the pilot receiving services.

o Additional data collection and analysis is needed, but it is clear both families who have completed the pilot and those that remain have secured living-wage jobs, obtained certifications, secured reliable transportation, improved credit and financial well-being, improved mental health and family functioning, and prepared children for kindergarten.

o In 2021 a customer satisfaction survey was completed by 33% of families. One question asked families to assess whether their current feeling of empowerment (defined as a strong feeling or belief that they can control the trajectory of their lives to achieve personal goals) was greater than when they started the program. The average response was 2.8 (Scale: 1 = not true; 2 = somewhat true; and 3 = very true). This feeling of power and autonomy is a critical driver or component of economic mobility.

o The customer satisfaction survey also asked families to use a sliding scale (0 = unsatisfied, 100 = extremely satisfied) to indicate their level of satisfaction of services received while participating in the pilot. Respondents indicated a resounding 92.8% satisfaction rate.

o The flexible funding is being utilized by the pilot sites to help families achieve their unique goals. A total of $132,712 in transportation-related items—including fuel, car payments, car insurance, car repair, and car inspection and registration—has been provided by nearly all sites. Five sites have provided housing-related supports in the amount of $105,301. In most cases these and other financial supportive services have helped families secure or maintain work and/or school goals.

Though challenged by COVID-19 related issues, the six Two-Generation/Whole Family Approach Pilot Project sites have established the conditions for families to advance and improve their well-being. As sites advance deeper into implementation of their whole family approach, data continues to be analyzed, and as families have more time to recover from the pandemic and pursue their goals, the pilot project will begin to reveal more answers about what works, where it works, for whom it works, and why.