Montana Pathways (TANF)

Career Transitions is the contractor for Montana Pathways – Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) for the Montana Department of Health and Human Services for Gallatin and Madison Counties.

Purpose of the TANF program is to support families to be stable, able to work, and financially secure.

The Vision of the TANF program is that families will seek services and build a plan in partnership with their client advocate, achieve goals that meet or exceed the stability threshold on the Family Bridge Model, and will no longer be dependent on public assistance at the end of their journey

The income threshold to be eligible for TANF is listed in the chart below:

Family Size	GMI	Benefit Standard	Payment Schedule
1	$642	$272	$347
2	$867	$368	$467
3	$1092	$463	$588
4	$1317	$559	$709
5	$1542	$654	$830
6	$1767	$750	$950
7	$1992	$845	$1071
8	$2217	$941	$1193
9	$2442	$1036	$1314
10	$2667	$1132	$1435

GMI= Gross Monthly Income Standards effective 07/01/2016
Benefit Standard effective 07/01/2016
Payment Standard effective 07/01/2016

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Our staff of experienced professionals educated and certified in human services continues to advocate for clients and families to engage and work with them to enhance quality of life, achieve economic stability, and become partners with a shared accountability for success.

Our Client Advocates believe that continued work with families is a vital investment for the entire community. Career Transitions’ process is to use the Montana Pathways program to shift power from the system to the family, using a strength-based approach. By integrating and leveraging community-based services, we inspire and create an engagement pathway that matters. Priority is given to those cash assistance clients/families and secondarily to others within DPHHS guidelines of 200% of poverty, meeting them “where they are” and “what they need”.

We will accomplish the “roadmap to success” for clients and families through:

• An assessment tool that addresses readiness to change/motivation.
• A gap analysis for obstacles to family stability, employability and financial security using the TANF Family Bridge Model.  By brokering services, our person and family centered plan will leverage resources and make small, progressive steps for individuals and families to obtain success. Individual case management remains with the Client Advocate, is always person-centered, relationship based and goal driven.
• Development of Executive Skills: ability to draw upon and to set and achieve short- and long-term goals. Matching employment to skills, but development of weak skills through cultivation and training that become life-long and through use, become stronger. Our worksheet will identify:
  • Four Executive Skills (specific sequence): 
    • Representation: what is my goal and what is preventing me from accomplishment. 
    • Planning: What is the plan to achieve the goals. 
    • Execution: How will I carry out the goal. What resources/help do I need? 
    • Evaluation: Did I select the right goal? Did the plan work? If not, what to change. Was it realistic? How well did I do at execute it? What to do differently to get a better result?
  • Our method: teach skills; practice of skills in the context they will be used; review and reflect; adjust goals.
• Celebrate success by turning barriers into challenges, providing rewards and incentives through support services, educational incentives, job training, and work readiness and preparation.   

All interaction with the client/family and the Client Advocate will be conversational rather than directional. Using a motivational interview process and coaching will assist in gathering information and lead to a better outcome for the client/family.

As we believe that intentional community development is a key to success for clients/families, Career Transitions remains committed to cooperate with community investment and economic growth. Through career pathways in industries that lead to a higher level of earning, e.g., job shadowing; internships; apprenticeships; subsidized employment; clients will realize and utilize self-determination and build upon their future for self-reliance and long-term stability rather than reliance on the system.

Although DPHHS will develop an evaluation plan to measure performance for TANF integrated service delivery, Career Transitions will measure cost comparison to outcomes per client; impact of services and resources on client’s progress vs. regression and how the client/family has moved through the Bridge, at a self-determined, client/family centered success rate, strategically moving families to sustainable financial independence. As we progress with a client/family we will use continuous improvement as a model for follow-up: what went wrong; what has been learned; what to do differently in order to provide the best assistance on the client/family’s roadmap to self-sufficiency.