The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse’s Dadication is the idea that involved fathers make essential contributions to their children’s wellbeing, even when they are parenting during tough times and circumstances. This 2024 National Fatherhood Summit session included a viewing of the DADication documentary, followed by a compelling panel discussion focusing on the transformative campaign. This session delved into the significant achievements and learning experiences derived from the campaign’s efforts to promote responsible fatherhood. Panelists, including key contributors and experts from the campaign, shared their firsthand experiences, discussed the challenges faced, and explored the strategies that led to successful outcomes. Participants gained valuable insights into how targeted initiatives can effectively support and engage fathers, thereby enriching family dynamics and community well-being. This discussion aimed to inspire other organizations and individuals by showcasing actionable models and practices that can be adapted to their own fatherhood support efforts.

This 2024 National Fatherhood Summit session included leadership from the federal Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) programs who reflected on some of the important lessons learned over the past five years and discussed potential fruitful directions for the next five years. Then leadership engaged in a Q&A with the audience to answer attendees' questions and hear ideas on how HMRF programming can be adapted to contexts across the country. Federal HMRF programs will use discussions like this to inform the anticipated 2025 Notices of Funding Opportunity.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) sponsors the National Responsible Fatherhood Alliance (NRFA), an initiative aimed at equipping exemplary participants in OFA-funded responsible fatherhood programs to transition successfully to the role of fatherhood practitioners and emerging leaders in the field. Once fathers are selected for participation in the NRFA, they undergo capacity building and training, receive individualized training from highly qualified coaches, and gain opportunities to contribute to national practice, policy, and research discussions. Attendees of this 2024 National Fatherhood Summit session learned more about this initiative from fatherhood practitioners who span the spectrum of program roles.

Earlier this year, the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) convened in Georgia for the 2024 National Fatherhood Summit and brought together fathers; fatherhood practitioners and advocates; federal, state, and local government leaders; tribal representatives; social services agency representatives; researchers; and representatives from institutions of higher learning from across the nation to share knowledge, best practices, and innovative strategies for engaging and supporting dads. Over two and a half days, participants immersed themselves in a community of passionate changemakers as they explored cutting-edge research, impactful program models, and policy recommendations. Participants uncovered ways to enhance services and systems that empower fathers to be an active, loving presence in their children's lives and pillars of strength in their communities.

OFA has released this webpage that reflects the agenda for the 2024 Summit and contains materials and recordings (as available, with permission) for sessions

This 2024 National Fatherhood Summit workshop shared the story of the Michigan Action Plan for Father Involvement (MAP-FI) and the collaboration between fatherhood practitioners and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services. MAP-FI is a model for other locations interested in expanding support for father involvement and establishing permanent structures that support policies and programs benefiting fathers and their families. This session offered ideas and guidance about how to create similar coalitions in other localities, what initiatives these coalitions can take on, and the impact and importance of bringing these groups together.

Incentive-based strategies can significantly enhance participation in fatherhood programs, particularly when they are tailored to meet the specific needs of the program’s target population. However, these strategies must be carefully designed to combine immediate rewards with strategies that balance the use of incentives with efforts to foster intrinsic motivation and personal autonomy. This National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse resource discusses the impact of fatherhood programs that integrate incentives into program activities and regular assessments of the incentive strategies.

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.

In September 2024, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) continued its investment in economic mobility with a gathering of state government officials from across ACF’s Region V. This gathering emphasized the role states can play in engaging families in the policy process, including working with philanthropy to ensure funding for creative solutions to problems confronting parents, and actively collaborating with state legislators to ensure the actionability of legislative solutions. This ACF resource provides a recap of the Region V summit, including an overview of each state’s innovative strategies to support expectant parents and the parents of young children. Strategies highlighted include the creation of a Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) engagement unit in Illinois, expansion of Medicaid coverage for 12 months postpartum in Indiana, the launching of Family Connects in Ohio and Family Impacts Teams project in Michigan, standing up of the newly created Department of Children, Youth, and Families in Minnesota, and the creation of the Wisconsin Child Support Parent Advisory Group.

The Administration for Children and Families promotes the economic and social well-being of families, children, individuals, and communities by providing federal leadership, partnership, and resources for the delivery of a range of human services. Many state, local, and tribal human services programs have a similar mission to support the well-being of the populations they serve. Traditionally, earnings and employment outcomes have served as some of the primary indicators to assess the success of services and programs in advancing family well-being. However, increasingly there is recognition among policymakers, practitioners, researchers, and the broader field that well-being is a complex and multi-faceted concept. One’s well-being can encompass a range of non-economic outcome domains; be influenced by structural, household, social, and individual factors; and look different across cultures, communities, and contexts. To explore this complexity, this 2024 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency plenary session features research on how well-being is conceptualized in three different human services settings that support individuals and families—Indigenous communities, welfare and self-sufficiency programs, and home visiting programs—and from the perspective of an individual with lived experience as a human services program participant and as a current practitioner in an early childhood education program.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance hosted the Regions IX and X State Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Technical Assistance Meeting from August 29 to August 30, 2024 in Portland, Oregon. This meeting was designed to amplify programs’ wisdom in the room by fostering peer-to-peer learning and collaborative planning that will help jurisdictions innovate solutions that improve outcomes for families.