This initiative highlights the importance of coordinated, community-based approaches to supporting families and preventing child welfare involvement. TANF programs can use this model to strengthen cross-system partnerships and align services across child welfare, community organizations, and other supports. By leveraging collaborative approaches, TANF agencies can expand access to prevention-focused services that promote stability, safety, and family well-being.

This resource page from the Mississippi Department of Child Protection Services highlights state-level prevention strategies, including in-home family support and kinship navigator programs. TANF programs can use these models to expand prevention-focused services and strengthen partnerships with child welfare and community organizations. These approaches demonstrate how coordinated, family-centered strategies can reduce risk factors and support child safety while keeping families together.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention resource provides evidence-based strategies and tools to help prevent child abuse and neglect, including the Prevention Resource for Action. The resource highlights practical approaches that strengthen families, reduce risk factors, and promote safe, stable environments for children.

For TANF programs, these strategies align with efforts to support families through economic assistance and work-focused services that help reduce stressors impacting caregiving. Programs can use this resource to inform service delivery, strengthen coordination with public health, child welfare, and community partners, and reinforce approaches that support family stability and continuity.

This guide from the Child Welfare Information Gateway provides a protective factors framework along with practical strategies for strengthening families. TANF programs can use this resource to design prevention-focused services that build on family strengths while coordinating with child welfare and behavioral health partners. By integrating protective factors into program design, TANF agencies can support resilience, reduce risk, and promote long-term family stability.

This resource from the Children’s Safety Network highlights data, strategies, and cross-sector approaches to preventing child abuse and neglect. It offers practical insight into how coordinated efforts across systems can better support families and reduce risk factors early.

TANF programs can use this guide to strengthen prevention-focused services by aligning with child welfare, public health, and community partners. By using data and evidence-informed strategies, programs can improve coordination, target supports more effectively, and reinforce stable, family-based environments.

This Child Welfare Information Gateway podcast highlights how TANF can play a critical role in preventing child welfare involvement by addressing economic hardship and reducing stressors on families. It reinforces the connection between economic supports and family stability, an area where TANF programs are uniquely positioned to make an impact.

TANF programs can use this resource to strengthen coordination with child welfare partners and better align services that support families before challenges escalate. By taking a more connected, cross-system approach, programs can help stabilize caregiving environments and support safe, nurturing conditions for children.

A resource from the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network highlights how agencies are prioritizing placement with relatives or trusted caregivers when children cannot remain with their parents. These approaches help maintain family connections, reduce disruptions, and support more stable caregiving arrangements.

TANF programs can support this work by reinforcing care in the home or with relatives, including efforts that help stabilize caregiving arrangements, reduce placement changes, and support caregivers in meeting the day-to-day needs of children. This may also include coordinating with partner systems and aligning services to strengthen family-based care and promote continuity.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on April 22, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to explain how family dynamics in kinship families differ from those in other families. TANF programs working with kinship families can use this information to tailor supports that recognize complex family dynamics while promoting stability and continuity of care for children.

New federal efforts like A Home for Every Child, updated CFSRs, and emerging performance dashboards signal a shift in direction that raises new questions about how systems can better support children, families, and the workforce. At the center of the conversation is a shared goal: helping every child grow up in a safe, stable home. The American Public Human Services Association will host a webinar on April 9, 2026 at 1:00 p.m. ET to discuss what this evolving landscape means in practice.

This Institute for Family Studies report examines the challenges many parents face in balancing economic pressures, caregiving responsibilities, and overall well-being. Findings highlight how financial stress, limited supports, and caregiving demands can affect family stability and long-term outcomes. For TANF programs, the report reinforces the importance of two-generation strategies that address both parental needs and child well-being, ensuring that supports such as child care, employment services, and mental health resources are aligned to strengthen the entire family unit.