About WorkFirst and this Handbook

Revised on: April 15, 2026

WorkFirst is Washington's welfare-to-work strategy supporting families eligible for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and State Family Assistance (SFA) with opportunities to move towards economic stability. WorkFirst provides access to training, other work-related activities and supports which help a family stabilize their circumstances and seek employment.

Program Flow

Every participant’s WorkFirst journey is different. A common flow includes orientation, evaluation, assessment, and activity engagement through development of an Individual Responsibility Plan. From there, participants are engaged in activities with a service partner. Not every participant follows the same path with WorkFirst, as the program provides situation specific supports and activity options, where possible. This handbook has information about every possible stage in the program – including all processes and activity options.

WorkFirst Partnership Model

WorkFirst is supported by a partnership between many organizations within Washington.  Each contributes to the program by offering services geared toward their area of expertise.

  • Community Services Division (part of Department of Social and Health Services’ Economic Services Administration) is the entry point and ongoing contact for WorkFirst participants. Once eligibility is established, CSD works towards engaging the participant in activities, leveraging evaluations and assessments to support their pathway plan.
  • Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) oversees the Working Connections Child Care and Seasonal Child Care programs, which help eligible families pay for child care, including parents who participate in WorkFirst who are working and/or participating in activities that prepare them for work. DCYF also oversees federal and state funded Home Visiting programming as well Child Welfare (including reunification planning) in Washington.
  • Employment Security Department assists participants throughout its local WorkSource offices to identify work skills, interests and abilities to determine an appropriate employment pathway. Participants can also access other resources like Job Fairs and Employer forums to increase their chances of making the best possible job connection. Skills strengthening workshops such as Strategies for Success, Success Prep and Financial Capabilities are also available through WorkSource offices.
  • State Board for Community and Technical Colleges assures that training and other education options are available throughout all of Washington’s community and technical colleges for participants. These colleges offer a range of options that support participants engaging in career pathways leading to economic stability and mobility.
  • Department of Commerce administers work experience activities to support participants in obtaining employment. This includes Community Jobs, a subsidized employment opportunity, that combines issue resolution with work-based learning to prepare WorkFirst families for employment.
  • Office of Refugee and Immigrant Assistance (part of DSHS) contracts with providers in specific communities throughout the state to provide employment services to Limited English Proficient (LEP) participants in their primary language and in culturally appropriate ways.
  • At the local level, all relevant and present partners coordinate services and supports  through their specific WorkFirst Local Planning Area partnership to support program coordination and service delivery. For contact info, see LPA Statewide Contact List.

WorkFirst Performance

DSHS measures outcomes for WorkFirst. This information is updated quarterly to assist program staff, administrators, and partners in managing program performance. For the latest information, please see the WorkFirst Performance Measures site. Performance Measures focus on Families and Adults Exiting the WorkFirst program. They include:

  • WorkFirst Families - Reasons for Exit
  • Number of WorkFirst Families Exiting due to the Earnings
  • WorkFirst Participants Employed at Exit
  • WorkFirst Participants Employment and Earnings, 2nd Quarter after Exit
  • WorkFirst Participants Employment Retention and Earnings, 4th Quarter after Exit
  • WorkFirst Participants with program Exits Lasting at Least One Year

This report also provides a breakdown of some of these measures by core partner, service pathway, as well as state-level service referral and enrollment counts.

These measures align with WorkFirst’s general performance goal of reducing returns to TANF by:

  • Increasing the number of participants in unsubsidized jobs.
  • Increasing the percentage of participants with earnings.
  • Increasing the earnings and other income of participants (including child support).

Using the WorkFirst Handbook

WorkFirst program staff within the Community Services Division (CSD) wrote this handbook with support from partners.  Revisions to the handbook are tracked by program staff within CSD. To see the latest revisions, refer to the Recent Handbook Revisions page.

Each section of the WorkFirst Handbook may have the following:

  • A legal reference list at the top of each section.
  • Clarifying information regarding program policies and practices to support service delivery.
  • Examples, scenarios, and notes in grayed out boxes to reinforce specific practices.
  • Policy in Practice sections, which provide a step by step look at how CSD or partner staff support a participant through a given program component or requirement.
  • A list of resources and cross links to other related sections.

The use of participant and parent/caregiver/individual are interchangeable throughout this handbook. 

The use of WorkFirst staff is used interchangeably throughout the WorkFirst Handbook to refer to either CSD Case Planners or Social Service Specialists, as many major program components are supported by both. For situations when a program component is handled solely by the Social Service Specialist, the term Case Manager is used.

eJAS is the case management system which supports the WorkFirst program within Washington. The eJAS WorkFirst Component Codes list is a resource available to staff and partners providing case management and service delivery support. For ease of reference, this list is linked at the bottom of every WorkFirst Handbook section, under “Resources”.