One of the needs identified by the survey was interstate child support cases in which a court order was issued for an absent parent in another state. The development of TA efforts around this issue was led by Region III, where workshops were held with local staff. In addition to involving two regions working together on an issue, the project was expanded to include state and local staff. A second issue, collection of arrears, involved three regions and their state counterparts. They conducted a 2-day conference on problem solving and strategizing around the issue.
Many regions work together through state initiation.
One way to facilitate regional activity is to encourage the participation of regional program managers. Program managers periodically meet to discuss regional issues. They also have bi-weekly conference calls across regions and mass mailings are also used to facilitate information exchange. Their activities are local-state, etc, so that's how their TA activities are coordinated. NAWB periodically piggy backs onto DOL meetings and shares best practices across states.