October Newsletter
Economic Mobility Alliance Ohio
October 2025 | News and Updates
Webinar: Is Poverty a Policy Choice?
Join EMAO on Thursday, November 6th at 2:00pm for a webinar featuring a great panel of Community Action Agency leaders discussing, Is Poverty a Policy Choice?
Speakers:
Yvonne Cherell, Ohio Urban Community Action Network
Bo Chilton, IMPACT Community Action
Erin Jeffries, Miami Valley Community Action Partnership
Megan Riddlebarger, Corporation for Ohio Appalachian Development
Watch our last webinar - Addressing Economic Barriers: The Social Determinants of Work
In case you missed it, EMAO’s last webinar on the Social Determinants of Work can be accessed on our website here.
Thank you to our speakers:
Yvonne Cherell, Ohio Urban Community Action Network
Renee Timberlake, Greater Cleveland Works
Cariss Smith, United Way of Greater Cleveland
Samantha Shahid, Towards Employment
Ohio Chosen for the Redesigned Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Pilot
Governor DeWine and Lt. Gov Tressel announced on September 25th that Ohio was chosen to participate in the new federal TANF pilot. The Ohio Department of Job and Family Services will be responsible for the administration of the pilot program, which is aimed at providing wraparound, individualized services to help Ohio Works First enrollees address barriers to employment and increase family stability, rather than only measuring OWF success through the current work participation rate.
The pilot began implementation on October 1st of this year and will be measured in all counties. There is no additional federal funding awarded for the pilot. The pilot will last 6 years, with the first year for baseline data collection and 5 years for evidence building.
Built Environment Collaborative: Barrier Removal Fund
In an effort to get more Cleveland residents into construction, clean energy, and infrastructure jobs, the Built Environment Collaborative provides free and low-cost job training. In addition to training, they provide financial support to trainees to help them stay in the program through their Barrier Removal Fund. The fund covers a range of supports such as financial support for childcare, car repairs, and equipment.
After seeing the success of the Built Environment Collaborative, Greater Cleveland Works, the nonprofit that runs OhioMeansJobs in Cleveland, has started a similar fund to support residents. Read this recent Signal Cleveland article and hear the story of a participant here.
Join Our Work!
Economic Mobility Alliance Ohio is proud to invite direct service, research, advocacy, workforce development, and business development organizations, companies, professionals, funders, and more to join our efforts to collaborate, educate, and advocate for public policy solutions that foster economic mobility.
With incredible work happening across the state to support low-income working families on the journey to economic stability, we know we’re stronger when we advocate together.
Explore our website, view our current partners, and submit an interest form on our website for more information and to get involved:
Ohio Children & Youth Fiscal Map
Learn to Earn Dayton and Children's Funding Project launched an interactive Ohio Children and Youth Fiscal Map. The map offers various ways to view and use the funding data presented, including an age analysis and a state budget comparison. The map can be adjusted to the needs of you and your organization to generate relevant reports. A video is available right above the map that walks you through how it can be used.
Beyond the Cliff Policy Recommendations
Beyond the Cliff has released their policy recommendations in this October 2025 report. The report covers six policy recommendations, such as fixing benefit reduction rates and coordinating and innovating across public benefits.
Beyond the Cliff is a network of practitioners focused on eliminating the benefits cliff through policy and innovative solutions that ensure all individuals and their families have the resources and opportunity to work and advance economically. From Ohio, the Ohio Workforce Coalition and Towards Employment are BTC members.
Economic Mobility Alliance Ohio, 175 S. Third Street, Suite 350, Columbus, OH 43215, USA