On June 27-28, 2012 the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, Region X hosted a Tribal TANF Institute in Seattle, Washington bringing together Tribal TANF stakeholders throughout the Region to engage in dialogue and action planning on a variety of topics. The Institute featured presenters from the Tanana Chiefs Conference and their coaches from the Promising Pathways Initiative who led Institute attendees in sessions on data collection and TANF staff collaboration, developing process maps and logic models, and connecting Information Systems/Information Technology and TANF. Other sessions included: a facilitated conversation with the Tribes on work participation in rural areas; a panel on Child Welfare and Tribal TANF collaboration that included representatives from the Region X Child Welfare office, Mark Kimball from the Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians, and Don Shircel from the Tanana Chiefs Conference; Pamela Panther from the South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency and Ilene Stohl from the Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence who presented on the Family Violence Option and how to successfully develop and implement a comprehensive response to domestic violence; and Christy Finsel, a consultant, and Karen "Jack" Granberg who led a session on creating an Individual Development Account (IDA) program within Tribal TANF programs.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation released a working paper on the Federal child welfare financing system and its need to be supported by best practices in order to ensure that all children have the opportunity to grow up in strong families. This paper outlines a policy framework and recommendations to encourage best practices in four areas: permanence and well-being; quality family foster care; a capable, supported child welfare workforce; and better access to services.

The Department of Workforce Services for Utah released their second annual report discussing intergenerational poverty, welfare dependency, and the use of public assistance. This report offers data and analysis to address themes presented by policymakers represented by the Intergenerational Welfare Report Commission and the Intergenerational Poverty Advisory Committee. This report also offers detailed analysis on labor force attachment, public assistance programs from the Division of Child and Family Services (DCFS), and a lifetime use of public assistance.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the 2013 Tribal TANF--Child Welfare Coordination Projects Annual Grantee Meeting on August 14-15, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The meeting provided Tribal TANF--Child Welfare Coordination Project grantees with the opportunity to share information with their peers regarding their program structure and performance. The meeting also addressed grant requirements for Year Two of the projects, strategies for building coalitions in Native American communities, home visiting programs, program sustainability, and approaches for documenting cross-agency coordination and collaboration.

Survey found 22.3 percent of children in families investigated for maltreatment were placed out of home at least once in the 18 months following the close of investigation.

Through secondary analysis, this study examines which benefits and financial supports low-income families access, with a particular focus on child support. The aim is to explore how families create their own economic safety net package from among the existing benefit programs. It was found that higher levels of child support receipt corresponded with higher levels of work, however that child support did not replace any type of welfare benefit but rather, complements it.

Child support has steadily evolved over the decades from a welfare cost-recovery model to a major family support program in a technologically savvy environment.

This presentation from Kathy Deserly of the National Resource Center for Tribes was given at the Region X Tribal TANF Conference in September of 2011. The presentation focuses on the different types of kinship care, how it is used in the child welfare and TANF systems, and advantages and challenges of kinship care. Ms. Deserly highlights characteristics of child-only cases within the TANF caseload and makes suggestions for addressing the specific and unique needs of this population.

This report highlights the funding efforts of the Administration for Children, Youth and Families in fiscal year 2012. Of particular note to TANF and Tribal TANF programs are the Family Connections Grants which fund seven programs designed to increase collaboration between TANF and child welfare agencies and increase awareness about Kinship Navigator programs. Kinship Navigator programs provide information and direction to relatives (often grandparents) who are caring for a child about programs and services that may be available to assist the family. The programs funded through the Family Connections Grants will last a period of three years.

On August 14 and 15, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII convened the 2012 Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII Tribal TANF Workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. Designed to bring together Tribal TANF program directors and other key stakeholders, this workshop focused on the dual issues of effectively providing services to Tribal families in a recovering economy and helping TANF participants achieve self-sufficiency. Workshop attendees were provided with opportunities to strategically engage with their peers in order to share promising practices and the latest research, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families. Over the course of the day and a half workshop a number of specific topics were covered including: Dialogue with the OFA Division of Tribal TANF Management; Youth Programming and Summer Youth Employment; Subsidized Employment Programs and Employer Engagement; Use of Skill-Building Activities; Audits, Financial and Grants Management, and Data Reporting; Collaboration with Child Support Enforcement and Child Welfare; and Financial Literacy and Asset Building. The wide reach of the workshop was evident with 24 Tribes represented from four OFA Regions. During the workshop, Tribal TANF program representatives also spent time networking and dialoguing on their program strengths, challenges, partnerships, and program policies/integrity, to garner new and innovative ideas from others for serving their TANF participants.