Families are experts in their own experiences, and their perspectives can help improve programs. This Office for Planning, Research and Evaluation toolkit provides practical strategies, tools, and resources for gathering and using family feedback to strengthen Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child support services. TANF program leaders, frontline staff, and partners can use these resources to meaningfully engage families, improve service delivery, and ensure programs better reflect the needs and priorities of the communities they serve.

In June 2026, the Office of Family Assistance launched a series to guide TANF programs in building strong families and promoting economic independence in Tribal communities. This series was designed to provide flexible, practice-informed technical assistance and compliance support to Tribal TANF programs. Attendees can exchange ideas, discuss common challenges, and explore practical approaches that align with TANF requirements and can be adapted to meet the needs of their own communities.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is awarding $2.2 million to modernize child welfare licensing infrastructure. The funding will support efforts to improve the systems states use to license and monitor foster care providers, with the goal of strengthening the processes that help ensure children and families receive safe, effective care.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this announcement offers a look at how improvements to child welfare systems can support stronger coordination across programs serving families. Modernized licensing systems can make it easier for child welfare agencies to maintain provider information, streamline processes, and strengthen connections with other family-serving systems. TANF programs can use this as an opportunity to consider how they coordinate with child welfare partners, particularly when serving families involved with or at risk of involvement with the child welfare system.

How can human services programs make sure families have a meaningful role in shaping the services they receive? This Chapin Hall report explores that question through the Opportunities for Prevention & Transformation Initiative, or OPT-In for Families, which connects families with voluntary community supports and financial assistance. Researchers used zines—creative, participant-generated booklets—to learn how people with lived experience viewed the co-design process.

The findings offer a practical lesson for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs: engaging clients means more than asking for feedback. Participants emphasized the importance of trust, transparency, clear roles, and showing how their input actually influenced decisions. TANF practitioners can use the resource when designing advisory groups, client-feedback processes, or new services. It is a creative approach that also provides an example of how programs can offer participants different ways to share their experiences beyond traditional surveys and meetings.

Relatives often step in to raise children when parents cannot, but kinship families can face significant financial, caregiving, transportation, and service-access challenges. This guide from the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network examines how Title VI Native American Aging Programs are supporting older relative caregivers and the children they raise. A national survey found that 84% of Title VI programs provide at least one service specifically for older kin caregivers.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, the guide offers practical examples of how programs can work across systems to reach kinship families. Services such as information and referral, assistance accessing benefits, caregiver education, respite, counseling, and support groups can complement the economic assistance TANF agencies provide. The guide can also help practitioners identify potential partners, particularly when serving Native families and older caregivers who may not initially identify themselves as part of a "kinship" system.

The NRFC Virtual Collaborative Community (VCC) offers human service providers a place to learn more about engaging fathers and strengthening fatherhood-focused services. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners can connect with others in the field, explore resources, participate in discussions and groups, and learn from webinars and shared experiences.

For TANF programs looking to strengthen father engagement, the VCC can provide practical ideas for reaching fathers, building stronger relationships with them, and creating services that recognize fathers as an important part of their children’s and families’ well-being. It can also help TANF practitioners learn from organizations already focusing on fatherhood and identify approaches they could adapt to their own programs. Whether your program is developing a fatherhood initiative or looking for ways to make existing services more inclusive of fathers, the VCC provides opportunities to learn from the fatherhood field and bring those ideas back to practice.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) is investing $7.3 million in 10 states to strengthen the systems and services that help families address challenges before they lead to foster care entry. The Prevention Accelerator Grants will support activities such as improving referral pathways, training staff in Motivational Interviewing, strengthening data and claiming systems, and expanding evidence-based family supports.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this ACF announcement offers a useful look at how states are building stronger prevention systems around families. The announcement outlines the 10 jurisdictions’ plans to improve their services, including better referrals, shared data, and sustainable funding structures that can help families connect with the right support earlier. TANF programs can draw lessons from these approaches when considering partnerships with child welfare, community providers, and other family-serving programs.

The Director’s Corner provides a regularly updated collection of resources selected or highlighted by the Director of the Office of Family Assistance, David Swegle. Recent resources address timely Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) issues such as safeguarding benefits, TANF and work, caseload reduction credits, and child-only cases.

For TANF practitioners, this page is a quick entry point into current policy and practice discussions. Rather than searching across multiple sources for new OFA materials, TANF practitioners can use the page to identify research-to-practice briefs and other resources that may help inform policy decisions, program administration, and conversations about how TANF is serving families.

Aspen Institute released this financial capability toolkit designed for opportunity youth, or young people ages 16–24 who are disconnected from school and work. The toolkit helps practitioners bring financial education into programs through activities focused on money management, goal setting, savings, credit, and planning for the future.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, the toolkit offers practical activities that can complement employment and education services for young adults. Rather than treating financial capability as a separate topic, it helps TANF practitioners connect money skills to younger participants’ immediate goals and longer-term plans. The resource can support conversations about building financial stability as young people move toward employment, independence, and economic security.

The Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Coordination (TTCW) program funds demonstration projects administered by the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) Office of Family Assistance. These projects examine how Tribal governments and Tribal consortia can coordinate TANF, child welfare, and related supportive services for Tribal families at risk of child abuse or neglect. Because families with low incomes who qualify for TANF may be more likely to experience child maltreatment and interact with both TANF and child welfare systems, stronger coordination can help promote family safety and stability.

For Tribal TANF practitioners, this ACF case study provides specific examples of how TTCW projects are improving communication, coordinating case planning, sharing resources, and connecting families with services across systems. The approaches can help TANF programs move beyond one-time referrals and develop stronger partnerships with child welfare staff. The resource is especially useful for Tribal TANF programs seeking practical strategies to identify families’ needs, reduce service gaps, and coordinate supports that address both economic stability and child and family well-being.