To give all residents the opportunity to succeed, the City of Roanoke offers a variety of programs to ensure that the city’s economic assets are distributed equitably. Roanoke’s Department of Social Services provides a wide array of mandated and non-mandated services to its citizens including protective, supportive, and temporary financial services that assist citizens with achieving a realistic and attainable level of self-sufficiency. These services include:

• Benefit (Eligibility) programs that provide temporary financial assistance to eligible families
  and individuals through such programs as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF),
  Food Stamps, Medicaid, Auxiliary Grants, General Relief, State-Local Hospitalization, and
  Fuel Assistance. To address the needs of TANF recipients who are medically exempt from
  seeking employment, the City of Roanoke has partnered with four surrounding localities
  to find employment for TANF recipients with disabilities or provide Social Security if TANF
  benefits expire and recipients are unable to work.

• Service programs that provide protective, preventive, and supportive services to families
  and individuals through such programs as Child and Adult Protective Services, Foster Care
  and Adoptions, Prevention Services, Court Services, Day Care Services, and Foster and
  Adoptive Home Recruitment. These programs also provide financial help for emergency
  prescriptions and to prevent eviction, utility cutoffs, etc.

• Employment services to help residents find and keep jobs as well as financial assistance
  for child care, transportation, car repair, tools, uniforms, etc.

• Training services for all social services employees throughout the Blue Ridge Region to
  ensure they offer thoughtful, efficient and effective service to everyone in the community.