The 2024 National Forum will offer dynamic sessions following the theme, Momentum. These sessions will be organized in conference tracks, allowing attendees to customize their National Forum experience and learn about various aspects of SNAP E&T.
*All times are in Eastern Time, and are subject to change. Sessions with ▶️ will be livestreamed.
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Welcome
Speaker:
Opening Plenary ▶️
Speaker(s):
10:15 AM – 10:45 AM
Networking Break
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Breakout Sessions Track: Advancing Equity Description: This panel session will discuss protocols for scheduling meetings with Tribes, conducting meetings with tribal members working for Tribes, tribal consultations and documenting tribal consultation or outreach in the State plan. Each panelist comes with their unique perceptions and experience working with Tribal Nations. The panel consists of the Interim Superintendent from the Department of Education for the Laguna Pueblo, The Oklahoma State Liaison for Native Nations, a member of Choctaw Nation, the State of Arizona SNAP CAN Manager and two subject matter experts from the Southwest Regional Office. Speaker(s): Track: Fueling Innovative Programs Description: The State of Maine partners with Lewiston Auburn Chamber of Commerce and its nonprofit arm, Strengthen LA, to implement a collective impact model. Strengthen LA brings together community and business leaders to bridge the gap between career seekers and local employers. Collective impact is a commitment to solving problems that are too big for any one organization to solve on their own. Speaker(s): Track: Growing and Strengthening SNAP E&T Description: Every State operates a SNAP E&T program; however, operating an effective program is complex. State agencies should be designing programs to meet the needs of participants and to be responsive to the communities in which it operates. Designing an E&T program is not a one-time effort and requires continual review and assessments of evolving community factors—including current labor market needs, provider availability and service quality—and the target population’s interests and needs. When there is not alignment, administrators should redesign aspects of the program. To help with this process, FNS has developed the Growing and Strengthening series: a set of tools that, together, will help determine if your SNAP E&T program is meeting your goals of operating an effective program. This session will introduce the series and the existing tools. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: Community colleges are vital partners for strong SNAP E&T programs. However, college partnerships are unique and have their own distinct challenges. A college consortium, acting as an intermediary, can help states develop, build, and maintain these partnerships. This session will look at several models of college consortia and the advantages of each. Speaker(s): Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: In this hands-on, interactive session, participants will learn a case management strategy for helping clients feel more engaged and empowered to ask questions and participate in decisions that affect them. Participants in this session will learn the strategy, examine applications in the field, learn facilitation techniques and guidelines and discuss how to apply client empowerment principles in their work. The Right Question Institute is a nonprofit organization that specializes in designing simple, educational methods and tools to teach skills essential for self-advocacy, participation and agency. When direct service providers use RQI’s methods, the people they serve feel new agency and confidence as they navigate systems and advocate for themselves in a range of institutions. Providers, in turn, strengthen their ability to provide client-centered services and partner with SNAP E&T recipients to achieve recipients’ goals. Speaker(s): 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM Lunch on Your Own 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM Breakout Sessions Track: Advancing Equity Description: Minnesota SNAP E&T and Seattle Jobs Initiative have just completed a three-year DATA grant project to make program equity, quality and data improvements through applied research, assessment and collaborative design. This session will share lessons learned, pitfalls and successes from the DATA grant work, how attendees can begin their own equity advancement, data collection and/or participant feedback journeys, and how three equity-focused projects were carried out in the final year of the project. Equity-focused projects: Speaker(s): Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: In this session, participants, North Carolina partners and State staff will share their unique stories of how their roles have evolved into something more meaningful than just a job. This session will offer a space for individuals to reflect on their personal journeys within the North Carolina workforce, highlighting the experiences that have shaped their careers and impacted their lives. Attendees will gain insights into the diverse paths that professionals take and how personal values, challenges and successes intertwine with their work. Join us to explore how careers can transcend job descriptions, becoming sources of purpose, growth and fulfillment. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: Join us for a brief overview of SNAP E&T history and policy basics. States have considerable flexibility in designing their SNAP E&T programs, including which participants to serve, which specific services to offer and who will provide the services. Attendees will learn about the federal requirements and the flexibilities States have to design SNAP E&T programs that meet local workforce needs and the needs of SNAP participants in the State. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: This session will provide participants with an overview of the three-year long assessment of the SNAP E&T Data Reporting project. The project objectives included identifying and describing the current State and Federal systems that collect, validate and analyze E&T data; and assessing the current and future E&T data needs of National, Regional and State staff. This project culminated with a recommendation report that included several recommendations to improve SNAP E&T data collection, validation and reporting at the National, Regional and State levels. Participants will learn of those recommendations and FNS’ plan to implement the recommendations. Including the recommendation for the development of the Data Analysis and Tracking Application for SNAP Employment and Training (DATASET). DATASET is a single Federal E&T data system to collect all reports and forms from State agencies, such as the E&T State Plan, E&T Program Activity Reports (FNS-583) and Annual Outcome Reports. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: This will be a highly interactive session to gain deep insight into one method of braiding and leveraging funding with SNAP E&T 50/50 reimbursement. Attendees will learn how to effectively manage the braiding funding process from private sources (e.g. philanthropy, social enterprise, etc.) for reimbursement and how to leverage funding from various Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Titles I-IV for strong return on investment in social impact and cover financial expense. This session is formatted as a game, with the objective to enroll and serve the most program participants while meeting their tuition and participant reimbursement (wrap-around work support) needs, using a variety of funding sources. Each player or team begins the game with a set amount of public and private funds, personas of program participants recruited and a few resources to assist. During the game, players and teams will recruit more participants, hire a grant-writer, confirm SNAP E&T eligibility of their jobseekers and request 50% reimbursement of private funds on allowable components provided and participant reimbursements such as transportation, childcare and uniforms. Real-life examples of twists will make the game interesting. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: This session will take attendees through the fiscal life journey of SNAP E&T programs from a fiscal perspective. This session will discuss E&T State Plan submissions, report monitoring and what FNS looks for in financial management reviews. Speaker(s): 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM Networking Break 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: The Center for Employment Opportunities will lead an interactive session to increase understanding of participant experience in SNAP E&T, focused on understanding the employment and mobility barriers experienced by individuals returning from incarceration. This session intends to create a space for storytelling and sharing, while also providing suggested tactics agencies can use for engaging and understanding participant experience to improve their programs. In this interactive session, audience members will engage with different stages that simulate the experience of the immediate weeks following incarceration to meet employment-related needs, including obtaining identification, maintaining housing, applying for benefits and complying with supervision requirements, such as treatment and parole officer meetings. Session attendees will hear directly from those with lived experience, allowing even the most experienced professionals to have renewed appreciation for the value and determination of E&T participants with legal system involvement. Learning about the reentry experience in this way will inform SNAP E&T agency attendees on person-centered program design, delivery and innovation. Attendees will also walk away with concrete strategies for gathering participant feedback that can be used in tandem with third-party providers to influence both individual programs and E&T programs from the administering agency. Speaker(s): Track: Fueling Innovative Programs Description: The SNAP E&T program in Hennepin County, Minnesota, is a State funded, county operated, 50% reimbursement program that works with community-based organizations to deliver services. As the program has evolved, we have created a thorough onboarding training path for the CBOs we partner with. This includes a comprehensive onboarding guide which provides step-by-step information to assist our providers from day one, a per provider customized PowerPoint presentation which covers key points of the onboarding guide and process and training on the fiscal responsibilities for reimbursement. This session will include sharing the step-by-step process onboarding guide, including the documents and resources that are utilized. Speaker(s): Track: Advancing Equity Description: Numerous public programs impact the lives of persons with disabilities in the United States. Often, such programs do not intentionally work together to achieve greater outcomes than they can accomplish individually. Individuals with disability are underserved in SNAP E&T. Through collaboration, we believe we can achieve greater engagement and outcomes. This panel discussion will focus on how SNAP and the AbilityOne Program can positively impact public administration and the disability community through collaboration. In this session, panelists will offer perspectives from the federal government, a national provider network and a local E&T service provider. Each will offer actionable ideas to better coordinate the activities of USDA SNAP and the AbilityOne Program at a federal, state and local level, resulting in greater social and economic impact. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: State and local Workforce Development Boards offer important strategic partnership opportunities for SNAP agencies and SNAP E&T programs by offering onramps to career pathway training, a pipeline to high-quality jobs with local employers and access to workforce services and funding that extend beyond the SNAP E&T program. This session will focus on showcasing effective partnership models between State SNAP agencies and local WDBs and program alignment case examples that highlight the opportunities which exist for local regions. The session will offer the chance to hear from workforce boards that operate as both SNAP E&T intermediaries and service providers, State SNAP agency staff that oversee SNAP E&T/workforce partnerships and learn about important findings related to SNAP E&T/workforce board partnerships resulting from the National Association of Workforce Board’s National Partnership Grant. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: With a shared focus on propelling economic mobility and career pathways, community college and human service partnerships can have a transformative impact on people and communities. By expanding collaboration amongst community colleges, human services, and workforce partners to create robust SNAP E&T programs, States can braid resources and move from focusing on individual fixes to developing systemic solutions that boost college access and connection to careers that offer economic mobility. In this session, attendees will hear how states and community colleges can leverage SNAP access and SNAP E&T, and center lived expertise to reduce basic needs insecurity and close opportunity gaps. Join this session to gain tactical strategies you can replicate in your own communities and hear lessons learned from three national partners who have led or supported the development of SNAP E&T community college programs and intermediary models across multiple States. Speaker(s): 4:00 PM – 4:15 PM Networking Break 4:15 PM – 5:15 PM Affinity GroupsHow to Work with Tribal Nations in Your State ▶️
Chamber of Commerce Partners with SNAP E&T: A Collective Impact Model
Growing and Strengthening SNAP E&T Programs
How College Consortia can Elevate Your SNAP E&T Program
Empowering Client Voices
Making Data Meaningful to Advance Program Equity: Lessons Learned from Minnesota’s SNAP E&T DATA Grant Project
Participant Perspectives: Personal Journeys with More Than A Job NC
SNAP E&T 101
Moving Forward to Improve SNAP E&T Data ▶️
Braiding and Leveraging Funds
The Fiscal Life Journey of the SNAP E&T Program
Reentry Realities: Food Security, Supports and a Path to Economic Stability
SNAP E&T 50% Reimbursement: Provider Onboarding
Greater Impact Through Collaboration: Serving Individuals with Disabilities in SNAP E&T
SNAP E&T and Workforce Board Partnerships: Strategic Collaboration for Sustainable Growth
Transformative Impact: Community College and Human Service SNAP E&T Partnerships ▶️
*All times are in Eastern Time, and are subject to change. Sessions with ▶️ will be livestreamed.
9:00 AM – 10:15 AM
Plenary: Congressional Perspectives on SNAP E&T
10:15 AM – 10:45 AM
Networking Break
10:45 AM – 12:00 PM
Breakout Sessions Track: Advancing Equity Description: This session will explore the pivotal role of Community Action Agencies (CAAs) in delivering equitable SNAP E&T services to rural communities. As a National Partnership Grantee funded by FNS, NCAP has empowered rural CAAs to navigate the SNAP E&T landscape and establish themselves as key partners with their State SNAP agencies. Attendees will gain insight into the Community Action Network and hear directly from Lakes and Prairies Community Action Agency about their innovative approaches to serving local job seekers. This session will highlight how State SNAP agencies can leverage CAAs to expand and enhance SNAP E&T services in rural areas, ensuring that these communities receive the tailored support they need to thrive. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: Many States have made significant progress developing best practices to comply with SNAP regulations for screening and referring participants to SNAP E&T by establishing efficient processes. This session will feature a panel of voluntary, mandatory, county and State-administered States sharing their challenges and solutions for screening and referring participants. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: For low-income college students, the cost of basic needs like food can make it difficult to stay on track with school. Many college students may be eligible for SNAP to help with groceries, but a lack of awareness about the program and confusion about eligibility rules keep students from accessing benefits. In this session, FNS will tackle the basics about student SNAP eligibility, building on guidance FNS released in 2023. We will cover what it means to be a student, what SNAP considers an institution of higher education and who needs to meet a student exemption to be eligible. We will also discuss how States can screen for student eligibility, how the student rules intersect with SNAP work requirements and some of the most promising practices for using data to target SNAP outreach to likely eligible students. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: Philanthropy plays a critical and often undervalued role in the SNAP E&T program. Many SNAP E&T providers use philanthropy as a source of nonfederal match, yet very few State SNAP agencies partner with philanthropy leaders. Together, State SNAP agencies and philanthropy leaders can make more intentional and impactful investments in SNAP E&T programs nationwide. In this panel discussion, you will gain insight from philanthropy leaders who support SNAP E&T programs. You will learn how philanthropy leaders view their role in the SNAP E&T program, how they make investments and what partnerships can look like. Speaker(s): Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: How do we explain our programs? What messages work? Which don’t? In this session, panelists will share real world examples of how they have developed community informed, human centered messaging to raise awareness and encourage enrollment in SNAP E&T. This will include national, regional and local initiatives. Panelists will talk about how focus groups, user testing, data analytics and real world experiences informed the way they design – and test – their communications to maximize impact and speak to the needs of participants. The panel will also talk about opportunities for future engagements. Speaker(s): 12:00 PM – 1:15 PM Lunch on Your Own 1:15 PM – 2:30 PM Breakout Sessions Track: Fueling Innovative Programs Description: This session will provide a high-level overview of advanced automation projects active in SNAP and consider the benefits and limitations of AI in E&T programs. Speaker(s): Track: Growing and Strengthening SNAP E&T Description: This session will explore how Colorado has integrated the Goal4 It! coaching model into its case management approach for Employment First (SNAP E&T) alongside other programs as part of a State-wide initiative to improve the consistency and quality of workforce development services. This session will provide an overview of the Goal4 It! model and how it embeds science-based strategies for strengthening core self-regulation skills through goal achievement coaching. The session will also share State-level perspectives about the design and implementation of State-wide case management strategy in the context of a county-administered system, and how the State is promoting adoption and integration of the model through leadership development. Lastly, the session will share specific strategies of this model that advance and support the goals of SNAP E&T. Speaker(s): Track: Growing and Strengthening SNAP E&T Description: The Food and Nutrition Act of 2008, as amended, requires that USDA assess the effectiveness of State SNAP E&T programs as part of the Department’s program monitoring and oversight activities. FNS is adopting a broad consideration of what makes an effective SNAP E&T program, grounded in ensuring E&T programs are designed to truly meet the employment and training needs of all SNAP participants, meaningfully address barriers to employment and lead to program participants obtaining good jobs. FNS understands the complicated nature of this undertaking and seeks to capitalize on the expertise and experience of SNAP E&T stakeholders to inform this effort. During this session, FNS will solicit input and feedback from State SNAP agencies about what makes an effective SNAP E&T program, what elements should be included in a framework for determining an effective program and any additional considerations that should inform this effort. This listening session will build upon the discussion began at the 2024 Economic Mobility and Well Being Conference. While this session is a continuation of the discussion held at EMWB, prior participation is not necessary, and we encourage participation from all interested attendees at the National Forum. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: SNAP work registrants are subject to the Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents time limit and work requirement unless they meet an exception in federal law. ABAWDs can meet the ABAWD work requirement in several ways, including participation in SNAP E&T. FNS will detail the different ways that ABAWDs can meet the ABAWD work requirement and discuss how SNAP State agencies and providers can work together to support ABAWDs. Speaker(s): Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: This session will inspire and equip attendees to apply research on self-regulation and implementation science to improve programs like SNAP E&T and the lives of individuals with low incomes. Attendees will learn about the foundational science of self-regulation, executive skills and goal pursuit in coaching participants to advance their economic mobility. While program leaders and staff are often trained in these areas, they struggle to implement these practices well. This session will describe and address common implementation challenges and strategies so that programs like SNAP E&T thrive. Speaker(s): 2:30 PM – 2:45 PM Networking Break 2:45 PM – 4:00 PM Breakout Sessions Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: This session will highlight partnerships between local anti-hunger advocates, employers and the State/county leaders responsible for designing and implementing effective SNAP E&T programs. The session will feature speakers from Ohio and West Virginia. Ohio has been a mandatory E&T state that is transitioning to a voluntary E&T model in Fiscal Year 2025 after a collaborative, year-long process to evaluate and redesign SNAP E&T to better meet the needs of employers. By contrast, West Virginia is a voluntary E&T State with existing SNAP E&T partnerships with employers that have been supported and defended by anti-hunger advocates over the past year. Speaker(s): Track: Strategic Partnerships for Sustainable Growth Description: Registered Apprenticeship is an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where employers can develop and prepare their future workforce, and individuals can obtain paid work experience, receive progressive wage increases, classroom instruction and a portable, nationally recognized credential. In this session, attendees will learn how to sponsor a Registered Apprenticeship program and/or participate as an apprentice and start building your career. Speaker(s): Track: Growing and Strengthening SNAP E&T Description: This session will explore how SNAP E&T providers and State agencies thoroughly assess participants to identify and address the multitude of barriers that can prohibit SNAP recipients from being successful in SNAP E&T. The session will highlight the importance of screening and referral, assessment, case management models and organizational and systemic collaboration. A State SNAP agency and several E&T providers will share their strategies for providing comprehensive wrap around services that result in successful program completions and transitions to fruitful careers. Speaker(s): Track: Program Policy, Monitoring, and Evaluation Description: In this session, attendees will learn how SNAP State agencies can leverage reporting flexibility to help their SNAP E&T program shine through their data. By using varying levels of outcomes, from measuring improvements in soft skills to employment gains and credentials, State agencies have the opportunity to celebrate SNAP E&T participants’ accomplishments, big and small. Join this session to hear from FNS, a SNAP State agency, and a SNAP E&T provider about how to use data to tell your program’s story, and measure the quality of your program. Speaker(s): Track: Empowering the Voices of Clients and Customers Description: In this hands-on, interactive session, participants will learn a case management strategy for helping clients feel more engaged and empowered to ask questions and participate in decisions that affect them. Participants in this session will learn the strategy, examine applications in the field, learn facilitation techniques and guidelines and discuss how to apply client empowerment principles in their work. The Right Question Institute is a nonprofit organization that specializes in designing simple, educational methods and tools to teach skills essential for self-advocacy, participation and agency. When direct service providers use RQI’s methods, the people they serve feel new agency and confidence as they navigate systems and advocate for themselves in a range of institutions. Providers, in turn, strengthen their ability to provide client-centered services and partner with SNAP E&T recipients to achieve recipients’ goals. Speaker(s):Connecting Rural Communities: The Role of Community Action Agencies in SNAP E&T
Screenings Optimized: Four State Approaches to SNAP E&T Referrals
Demystifying SNAP Student Eligibility
Panel Discussion: The Role of Philanthropy in SNAP E&T ▶️
Maximize Your Message: How to Use Focus Groups, User-Testing, Data Analytics and Real-Life Experience to Attract and Inform Participants
AI, Bots and Technology: What Does it Mean for SNAP E&T?
Scaling a Statewide Coaching and Case Management Model in Colorado
A Framework for the Effectiveness of SNAP E&T Program: Listening Session
Working Together to Serve Able-Bodied Adults Without Dependents (ABAWDs)
Implementing Executive Skills and Other Coaching Models to Improve Outcomes for Individuals with Low Incomes, Including SNAP E&T Participants ▶️
Partnerships with Advocates and Employers to Strengthen SNAP E&T Programs
Registered Apprenticeship for SNAP E&T
Breaking Down Barriers and Building Futures with SNAP E&T ▶️
Measuring What Matters: Making the Most of SNAP E&T Outcomes
Empowering Client Voices
