A press release will come out soon announcing that Alaska will receive over $6.3 million in Federal TANF High Performance Bonuses for federal fiscal years 2001 and 2002. In FFY01 Alaska placed first in the nation for Job Entry and received a bonus of over $3.1 million for that achievement. For FFY02 Alaska was 6th in the nation for Job Entry and was awarded about $2.3 million. Bonus payments were also made for Success in the Work Force ($590,000) and for enrollment in Medicaid ($258,000). Alaska received the maximum bonus payment (5% of our TANF block grant for each fiscal year). These bonus payments must be directed toward cash assistance for the families we serve and will help relieve some of the pressure caused by the budgetary challenges we are currently facing.

Alaska's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program in the Dept. of Health & Social Services, Div. of Public Assistance was notified recently that they were awarded performance achievement bonuses totaling $6.36 million. Alaska received $3.18 million for FY 01, the maximum bonus allowed for ranking first in the nation in the "job entry" category -- the percent of people placed in jobs. Alaska also received $3.18 million for FY 02 for successful performance in job entry, success in the workforce, and Medicaid enrollment

Greetings All -
I would like to announce the kickoff of our "Better Than Average!" campaign to improve our Food Stamp Program payment accuracy. I know that you've already put a lot of work toward this goal.

I have traveled to many of our offices lately and been impressed with the efforts underway to "scrub" cases, and build the quality of our casework. This gives me great confidence in our collective ability to achieve our campaign goal of having Alaska's Food Stamp error rate be under the national average.

There is some confusion with the online version of the Report of Claim Determination form (gen95). The form is currently under revision and a new version that will allow you to send it by email will be available soon.

The Kenai Peninsula Economic Development District Inc. has completed an analysis of the Peninsula's work force development and an action plan that identifies private-sector needs and job opportunities, the group said. The report concludes that trainers/educators and employers have not communicated well enough on how they can help each other.

The industries expected to grow most include health services; food, beverage and hospitality services; human services; construction and maintenance; information technology and transportation services, the report said.