The Fathers & Families Coalition of America will host its 23rd Annual National Conference as a hybrid event from March 8 to March 11, 2022 in Los Angeles, California. The conference will feature a Roundtable Series covering child support, engaging families, child welfare, disparities in education, and local to national policy impacting practices; 10 Workshop Strands; and Fireside General Sessions. Also included are credential or certificate programs and networking opportunities. Conference registration includes a fee for in-person and virtual participants.

Want practical ways to boost your program’s employment outcomes and help advance core purposes of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)? The Office of Family Assistance is sponsoring The Family Routes Initiative (FRI) to assist TANF programs in achieving employment, two-parent family formation, and responsible fathering goals, and invites TANF program staff of all levels to join us for a special Office Hours session on July 30th, 2026, from 2:00-3:00 PM ET.

Why Attend? 

The Administration for Children and Families launched the FRI to facilitate the transfer of practical Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) tools to help human services programs improve practical skills of TANF program staff and enhance the experience of families and participants engaged in TANF services. Participation in the initiative is intended to strengthen key skills and program capacities. 

Drawing from proven HMRF research and practices, this interactive, open forum will provide peer-to-peer and expert facilitated training, ideation, and design support focused on improving practical relational and employment-related skills, while linking participating programs with tailored technical assistance for strengthening employment and social outcomes for TANF participants.

Key Takeaways for Your Program:

• Emotional Regulation: Model emotional self-regulation and co-regulation skills with participants to manage daily stressors.
• Healthy Communication: Integrate practical communication skill-building directly into your existing employment and family services to strengthen participant engagement and improve employment outcomes.
• Advance TANF Purposes: Gain actionable strategies to help your program build economically stable and intact families.

When a parent can't care for their child, a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or close family friend often steps in without a second thought, even when it stretches their own household thin. These kinship caregivers are doing something remarkable, and the research confirms it makes a real difference. Children raised by kin experience fewer school disruptions, fewer placement changes, and better mental health outcomes than their peers in traditional foster care. Yet despite this, fewer than 12% of eligible kinship caregivers ever receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits.

This Chapin Hall resource highlights the positive outcomes associated with kinship care and examines the barriers that can prevent caregivers from receiving needed assistance. For TANF practitioners, it offers practical insights into the unique needs of kinship families and strategies for improving outreach, coordination, and service delivery. Whether you're strengthening partnerships with community-based organizations, developing referral processes, or helping families connect to benefits, this research provides evidence-based approaches to better support kinship caregivers and the children in their care.

The core mission of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) is helping families reach self-sufficiency, but that goal is much harder when a parent is trying to go to school, raise children, and hold a job at the same time, all without reliable childcare or transportation. A two-generation (2Gen) approach tries to solve for the whole family at once by supporting parents' education and careers while investing in children's development. This report from Jobs for the Future examines Rising Futures Maine, an initiative that invests in community-based organizations as local 2Gen leaders that connect student parents to education and career pathways. The work spans three counties and includes models focused on cohort-based coaching, barrier removal, industry credentials, and even a father-focused pilot addressing long-standing gaps in engaging noncustodial parents. For TANF practitioners, this resource looks at what it takes, operationally and relationally, to support parents as both caregivers and students. The recommendations the report offers on sustaining funding, protecting income supports, and using data on student parents are directly applicable to how TANF programs are designed and prioritized.

Many families do not enter the child welfare system all at once; they arrive there after a series of crises that no one stepped in to address early enough. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can be a part of that early intervention, providing income support, employment services, and family stability before situations escalate.

The Administration for Children and Families has now added new evidence-based interventions to the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse, a federal list of proven programs states can fund to keep families together and reduce unnecessary foster care entries. For TANF practitioners, this resource signals where federal child welfare investment is heading and opens opportunities to align TANF-funded services with approved prevention strategies. If your agency is already providing parenting support, substance use navigation, or family counseling, these new interventions may mean new pathways to coordinate funding and recognition for that work.

Many children in rural communities are being raised by grandparents or other relatives, yet these caregivers often face unique challenges accessing services and support. This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network guide highlights strategies for reaching and engaging kinship and grandfamilies, helping practitioners better understand the barriers these families may encounter. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, the resource offers practical ideas for connecting families to benefits, strengthening family stability, and ensuring caregivers know where to turn for assistance. It can help TANF staff identify gaps in outreach and develop approaches that better meet the needs of rural families.

The most effective father-engagement programs listen, adapt, and improve over time. The Fathers and Continuous Learning project explored exactly that, and researched how organizations can build feedback loops so they're learning from fathers' experiences rather than guessing what they need. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, this is a model worth considering. Asking fathers what is working versus what is not and what they need, and then acting on those answers, is one of the most powerful things a program can do to increase engagement and improve outcomes for the whole family.

Many fathers enter child welfare involvement feeling confused, sidelined, or even afraid. They may not know their rights, aren't sure who to talk to, or don't understand how their involvement, or lack of it, affects their child's case. This Child Welfare Information Gateway resource was written for fathers to help them find their footing. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners can share it as a first step in building trust with a father who is uncertain about his role. When fathers understand the social services (TANF, child welfare, etc.) system, they are better equipped to show up, and when they show up, families have a stronger foundation for lasting stability.

Saying "fathers are welcome" is not the same as actually engaging them. This toolkit from the University of California, Davis offers concrete activities and approaches that help social services organizations make fathers feel like genuine partners, not afterthoughts. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can use it to audit their current practices, spot the gaps, and try new strategies for outreach and involvement. The toolkit is especially useful for TANF teams who want to be more father-inclusive but aren't sure where to start. It turns intentions into practical steps.

Fathers are often the missing piece in family service plans — not because they don't want to be involved, but because systems were not built with them in mind. This Child Welfare Information Gateway webpage addresses that directly, offering strategies for locating fathers, building relationships with them, and keeping them engaged through the ups and downs of child welfare involvement. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this is a call to examine your own practices: Are fathers being contacted? Are they being welcomed? Are they being offered services that meet their needs? The resources here can help TANF teams start answering those questions.