Young people are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of natural disasters, and those who are involved in the child welfare system are at particularly high risk for experiencing disaster-related traumatic stress and other challenges. But when provided with the right types of support, all children and youth have the capacity for resilience and healing. This Child Trends toolkit provides resources that aim to support child welfare staff and administrators in their efforts to enhance state, tribal, territory, and county-led efforts to promote healing and resilience among system-involved children.

The Administration for Children and Families’ Children’s Bureau and the Capacity Building Center for States will host the Child Welfare Virtual Expo (CWVE) on September 21, 2023 from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. With a theme of “Recruit, Retain, and Support: Strategies for Strengthening the Child Welfare Workforce,” the 2023 CWVE will focus on how child welfare agencies are addressing today’s unique workforce challenges and adapting to recruit and retain child welfare professionals. Speakers will present concrete strategies as well as explore innovative practices to strengthen child welfare workforce and design equitable workplaces.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, announces a new TANF-Child Welfare Learning Community. The “Families Are Stronger Together: TANF & Child Welfare Partnering for Prevention Learning Community (FAST-LC)” will center on innovative prevention strategies to strengthen families and mitigate and reduce their involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC is a one-year initiative slated to launch in September 2023 and conclude in September 2024. An August 10, 2023 webinar discussed the self-nomination process and benefits of the FAST-LC.

Self-nomination packages are due by Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 6:00 pm ET and can be obtained by emailing TANF-CWLearningCommunity@blhtech.com.

Research shows that economic supports are critical to family well-being and prevention; programs including child support, SNAP, Medicaid, and TANF play a pivotal role. These programs intersect in complex ways impacting the lives of children and families. In 2022, the American Public Human Services Association partnered with the National Child Support Engagement Association and the National Council of Child Support Directors to establish a forum for TANF administrators and child support directors to improve collaborative ties across programs. Since the initial creation, this forum has expanded to a Technical Working Group of administrators in child support, TANF, SNAP, and child welfare, parents, and other national partners to identify foundational principles for coordination and collaboration in economic supports inclusive of child support programs. This publication highlights key practices and policy levers that can better support the families they serve.

In support of the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) mission and strategic plan, ACF has developed a set of materials intended to provide guidance to hard-to-reach populations to increase their awareness and understanding of the array of resources that may be able to assist them. These resources are explicitly designed to be user-friendly and easy to digest. The materials include resources for transition-age youth exiting foster care, families with children ages 0-12, prospective Head Start participants, survivors of domestic violence looking to find and keep housing, fathers looking for benefits programs or parenting tips, and providers supporting those seeking post-disaster housing.

The number of children living in multigenerational households has been increasing steadily since the 1980s, and as of 2021, more than 10% of children share a home with two or more generations. About 30% of children will live in a multigenerational or skipped-generation household at some point during their childhood. This is even more common for children of color and for those whose adult family members are low income. The Institute for Research on Poverty will host a virtual session on September 6, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to examine the scope of the issue and its implications for child wellbeing and security, as well as opportunities in policy and practice to support these household members.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, announces a new TANF-Child Welfare Learning Community. The “Families Are Stronger Together: TANF & Child Welfare Partnering for Prevention Learning Community (FAST-LC)” will center on innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system. The FAST-LC is a one-year initiative slated to launch in September 2023 and conclude in September 2024 and will involve up to 10 state and tribal TANF programs.

A self-nomination package to participate in the FAST-LC can be requested and questions can be submitted at any time by contacting TANF-CWLearningCommunity@blhtech.com. An interest webinar was held on August 10, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to provide additional information about the FAST-LC and the self-nomination process as well as answer live questions. All steps needed to complete self-nomination submissions must be completed by September 7, 2023 at 6:00 p.m. ET.

Family economic well-being — including financial, material, and related socio-emotional resources — can support a family’s long-term stability, a positive home environment, and children’s healthy development. Yet, 1 in 10 families with children live below the poverty line. Early childhood home visiting (ECHV) has the potential to support families’ economic well-being. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation in collaboration with the Health Resources and Services Administration initiated the Supporting Family Economic Well-Being through Home Visiting project to better understand how to define and measure family economic well-being and to learn how ECHV agencies have supported or could support it. This report summarizes the findings from targeted reviews of literature and practice documents from ECHV and related fields, such as social work, child welfare, and employment- and income-focused supports.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) will host a virtual training on anxiety and depression in children and youth designed for parents and caregivers on July 19, 2023, from 6:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m. ET. This training will provide:

• Information on anxiety and depression in children and youth from parents, caregivers, and behavioral health professionals;
• Useful skills to recognize and respond to children and youth managing anxiety and depression;
• Information on how to access mental health resources and guidance to help children and families; and 
• An overview of resources available to support parents and caregivers.

The training is a continuation of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' efforts to provide important and useful information an resources about child, youth, and family mental health and includes remarks from ACF Assistant Secretary January Contreras and SAMHSA Assistant Secretary Miriam Delphin-Rittmon. For additional information, see this flyer.

The New Jersey Keeping Families Together (KFT) program is a supportive housing program that combines subsidized housing with voluntary supportive services for child welfare-involved families at risk of homelessness. Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of New Jersey’s KFT program, including the interviews of staff members representing all eight service providers as well as local departments involved in the development and implementation of the program to examine the program model. This report explores the findings of their evaluation, which can be helpful at both the policy and programmatic levels in developing program changes to most effectively ensure consistent and standard models of practice across KFT service providers.