The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s initiative, “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC), supported ten TANF and child welfare programs across the country as they worked to promote innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC Site Journeys capture and convey the participating states’ and tribes’ motivation for change, the partnership and prevention innovations they developed and implemented, and the lessons they learned from their journey experiences. This site journey features Arizona’s FAST-LC story.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s initiative, “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC), supported ten TANF and child welfare programs across the country as they worked to promote innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC Site Journeys capture and convey the participating states’ and tribes’ motivation for change, the partnership and prevention innovations they developed and implemented, and the lessons they learned from their journey experiences. This site journey features Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s FAST-LC story.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s initiative, “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC), supported ten TANF and child welfare programs across the country as they worked to promote innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC Site Journeys capture and convey the participating states’ and tribes’ motivation for change, the partnership and prevention innovations they developed and implemented, and the lessons they learned from their journey experiences. This site journey features Chippewa Cree Tribe’s FAST-LC story.

This brief synthesizes the work the states and tribes participating in the Office for Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s joint-initiative “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC) accomplished. It highlights implementation issues and the strategies the participating states and tribes employed in their partnership efforts and their prevention-oriented activities. The brief also identifies sustainability issues the sites confronted and addressed.

This brief describes a human-centered design approach that any state, Tribal, or local agency can use to strengthen partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare with the goal of lowering families’ risk of involvement with the Child Welfare system. It offers several example activities, including building empathy for families, mapping partners serving families, and exploring families' program experiences.

Based on input from state TANF programs during the 2023 National TANF Directors’ Meeting, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) developed five virtual Learning Collaboratives (LCs) on topics best addressed through a cohort-based, peer learning format. These LCs were designed to be a progressive series of interactive meetings that facilitated reflection, peer sharing, connection with experts, and human-centered design and planning activities to deeply explore facets of the collaborative topic. Sessions were held monthly from March to August 2024 for 60-90 minutes.

The Building Strategic Partnerships with Child Welfare Services LC was connected TANF professionals interested in building strategic partnerships with child welfare partners with experts and one another. It was designed to prepare states to partner with child welfare services to jointly explore a key area for upstream prevention, given the growing body of evidence demonstrating how the concrete and economic supports available through TANF can prevent and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system. Participating states included Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, Alabama, North Carolina, and Wisconsin.

This OFA resource highlights the Building Strategic Partnerships with Child Welfare Services LC, including key takeaways and resources from each session as well as overall themes and future considerations for follow-up.

In recent years, local, state, and federal child support offices started reexamining how their enforcement and collection roles can be paired with services that foster meaningful parental engagement and invest in the social and economic well-being of parents paying child support. In examining child support services, it is important to understand the reach they have throughout federal benefits. Across the continuum of human services programs, rules related to child support can impact whether someone qualifies for benefits, what amount they can receive, or the amount of child support they owe – including but not limited to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, Medicaid, childcare, and child welfare. Often, federal and state policies’ options regarding child support practices are made by individual programs in distinct silos from each other. This American Public Human Services Association resource discusses strategies that can help create the enabling conditions for continued progress in re-centering state and local child support collaborations with other human services program areas.

Head Start is a national program that helps young children from families with low incomes prepare to succeed in school by promoting their early learning and health as well as their families’ well-being. Head Start connects families with medical, dental, and mental health services to be sure that children are receiving the services they need to develop well. Head Start involves parents in their children’s learning and development and helps parents make progress on their own goals, such as housing stability, continuing education, and financial security. Head Start programs are organized into 12 regions and unlike the other regions that are determined geographically, Region XI serves children and families in programs operated by federally recognized American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) tribes. Understanding that communities have unique needs and priorities, Region XI programs offer a variety of services related to children’s home language or Native language and culture. This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation study is a result of an evaluation on the family and staff experiences in AI/AN Head Start in Region XI that focused on family and staff well-being, including:

1. Children’s characteristics, family background, and home environment;
2. Children’s social-emotional and learning skills;
3. Children’s disability status and physical health; and
4. Characteristics of children’s lead teachers.

The University of California, Davis is hosting a webinar on November 19, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. PT, focusing on the integration of tribal engagement within California’s Child and Family Team (CFT) practice. This webinar will explore best practices outlined in the 2024 CFT Tribal Engagement Guide, which highlights the essential role of culturally responsive, trauma-informed practices for Indian children, families and Tribes. Participants will learn about the legal requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act in the CFT process, strategies for fostering collaboration between child welfare services and tribal governments, and methods for supporting cultural connections for children and families.

In the U.S., 1 in 10 young adults experience homelessness each year, with disproportionate impacts on American Indian and Alaska Native, Black, multiracial, and Hispanic youth and youth who have been involved with the child welfare or juvenile justice systems. Current housing solutions for youth homelessness often lack flexibility or are not readily available, leaving many young adults waiting long periods of time without stable housing. However, the Cash Plus Model offers a promising alternative — pairing direct cash transfers with youth-driven supportive services to empower young adults in securing safe, stable housing. Chapin Hall has developed two briefs: one describing the Cash Plus Model and the second evaluating the Cash Plus Model implementation in New York City and San Francisco.