Dear Colleague,

It is my pleasure to inform you of the Administration for Children and Families’ Annual Welfare Research and Evaluation Conference to be held May 26th to 28th, 2004 at the Marriot Wardman Hotel in Washington, DC.

For the past six years, this conference has been a forum for States to learn about the latest findings in evaluations of welfare reform, strategize about ways to incorporate evaluation results into the design and implementation of programs and policies, and develop effective strategies to ensure sound evaluations of welfare reform. This year’s conference will continue to serve this purpose by featuring new research on a range of topics such as marriage and family structure in low-income populations, early impacts from projects to support employment, retention and advancement, and methodological advances in the measurement of social policy impact.

As we prepare this year's conference, I invite you to regularly visit this conference website. The site currently features last year’s agenda and presentations to illustrate the types of research typically presented. In the coming months, we will provide you with regular updates both via e-mail and on the site. These updates will include announcements, registration materials, hotel information and a copy of the agenda.

As we build this year’s conference we will once again make every effort to maximize the opportunity for interaction among the participants, while featuring up-to-date research results and the latest developments in the evaluation field. If you have sponsored, or are aware of, evaluation research that would make a valuable addition to the conference agenda, please contact Brendan Kelly by phone at (202) 401-5600 or via E-mail at bkelly@acf.hhs.gov.

I hope you or a representative will join us in May.

Sincerely,

Naomi Goldstein
Acting Director
Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation