New Guide Helps Leaders Advocate for SNAP E&T Programs

Seat­tle Jobs Ini­tia­tive, with sup­port from the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, has released The SNAP E&T Advo­cates Guide, which serves as a blue­print for lead­ers inter­est­ed in help­ing states devel­op and expand skills-based SNAP E&T programs.

SNAP E&T, which stands for Sup­ple­men­tal Nutri­tion Assis­tance Pro­gram Employ­ment and Train­ing, is admin­is­tered by the Unit­ed States Depart­ment of Agri­cul­ture (USDA) Food and Nutri­tion Ser­vice. Each of the 53 state SNAP agen­cies oper­ate an E&T pro­gram, which aims to assist mem­bers of SNAP house­holds in gain­ing the skills, train­ing and expe­ri­ence need­ed to help them obtain reg­u­lar employ­ment, accord­ing to the USDA.

Inter­est in devel­op­ing these pro­grams is high. Among the rea­sons why: More than half of all SNAP house­holds are led by some­one with a high-school diplo­ma or less, and E&T sup­port can play a vital role in help­ing these indi­vid­u­als com­pete for jobs in today’s rapid­ly chang­ing labor markets.

Because states can be hes­i­tant to build skill-based SNAP E&T pro­grams or may not know where to begin, advo­cates have an impor­tant role to play in advanc­ing these efforts. Lead­ers in pol­i­cy, phil­an­thropy, work­force devel­op­ment and oth­er sec­tors can part­ner with state SNAP agen­cies to sup­ply the infor­ma­tion and assis­tance need­ed to dri­ve E&T programming.

To help with this effort, The SNAP E&T Advo­cates Guide iden­ti­fies both advo­ca­cy strate­gies and com­mon road­blocks that may be pre­vent­ing states from grow­ing their SNAP E&T pro­gram­ing. Seat­tle Jobs Ini­tia­tive has also released a SNAP E&T Mes­sag­ing Tool, which is avail­able as a gener­ic ver­sion and one that states can cus­tomize. This tool out­lines key pro­gram mes­sages and helps advo­cates describe SNAP E&T to new audi­ences. In addi­tion, it describes the program’s need, how it works and how it ben­e­fits both par­tic­i­pants and employers.

Go to The SNAP E&T Advo­cates Guide