Communications & Workforce Technology

We are pleased to announce a new and improved online Food Stamp Manual!

The PDF version of the Food Stamp Manual currently on DPAweb will be phased out in six months after everyone is up to speed on this new manual.

Here are some basic instructions for how to use the manual. A group of 21 "test drivers" representing every office statewide and the Policy and Program Development section recently gave the manual their enthusiastic stamp of approval. The response was so positive, we are going to convert our other manuals to this new technology. Watch for the next installment, the new APA-related and Long Term Care Medicaid Manual, scheduled to appear this September.

When this month's DPA star isn't sailing on his boat in Mexico, you'll probably find him knee-deep in meetings or flying back and forth between Juneau and Anchorage. This star has a resume of helping those in need and he will soon be helping them from the Commissioner's Office. He has degrees from UAF and Willamette Law School, and while people joke that lawyers are long-winded, this DPA star gets right to the point. He's taken a pie in the face for our division, but rumor has it he much prefers chocolate. Who is our DPA star?

On May 19, the Urban Institute released a new brief, Recent Trends in Food Stamp Participation: Have New Policies Made a Difference? Using data from the 1997, 1999, and 2002 rounds of the National Survey of America’s Families, the report attributes increasing Food Stamp Program (FSP) participation rates to recent changes in FSP policies.

The questions were fired in rapid succession.
What's the law of supply and demand?
What's the goal of any business?
How can profits be increased?

Though it sounded like an introductory economics class, it's the latest effort in Lucas County's welfare-to-work transition. It's called business boot camp, and it's designed to teach longtime recipients of welfare benefits how their behavior on the job affects the bottom line.

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate on Tuesday voted an additional $6 billion for child care for welfare recipients and the working poor as part of a bill to renew the landmark 1996 welfare reform law.
The measure easily won Senate passage, 78-20. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and 30 other Republicans voted for it, but the Bush administration opposes the provision and House Republicans did not include it in the version of the legislation that passed the House last year.

WASHINGTON, March 21 - In a trend that has surprised many experts, the federal welfare rolls have declined over the last three years, even as unemployment, poverty and the number of food stamp recipients have surged in a weak economy.

After Congress overhauled the nation's welfare system in 1996, the number of families receiving benefits dropped much faster than federal and state officials had expected. Even more remarkable, officials say, the rolls did not grow during the recession of 2001 or the sluggish economy since.

WASHINGTON - Sunshine and warm temperatures aren't the only lures for retirees. They also want cheaper housing and some elbow room, and that has made places like Colorado, Idaho, Utah and New Mexico increasingly attractive to the over-65 set.

Each of those states saw its senior population grow by at least 6 percent between 2000 and 2003, placing them among the 10 fastest-growing states for that age group, according to Census Bureau figures being released Wednesday.