This blogpost draws upon assessments of the Housing Opportunities and Services Together Initiative and the Family Centered Community Change program and presents four key elements that made their two-generation initiatives successful. These elements include employing engaged coaches or case managers to help families, providing “glue” money to support service partnerships and staff time for program coordination, developing strong partnerships focused on a common goal of supporting families, and selecting an effective backbone organization to provide for or raise funds to ensure the two-generation initiative’s sustainability.

This report, a review of the current state of the two-generation model, explains the components for two-generation approaches, including physical and mental health, early childhood development, K-12 education, postsecondary education and employment pathways, economic asset building, social capital, and the assumptions behind designing programs that simultaneously improve outcomes for children and families. Also, the report identifies the impacts of implementing two-generation approaches, lessons learned, and recommendations for future action.

Kinship navigator programs offer information, referrals, and follow-up services to kin caregivers to link them to benefits and services that can support them and the children they raise. Some of these programs are over twenty-five years old and provide robust case management, concrete goods, and other supportive services for the families, while others may be limited to information and referral.

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network webpage offers a list of known kinship navigator programs, organized in alphabetical order by state and territory with tribes listed separately at the end. Each entry notes which families the program serves, in addition to providing basic service information and a website link.

The Family First Prevention Services Act enacted as part of Public Law 115 -123 amended Title IV-E to allow Title IV-E agencies the option to receive funding for evidence-based kinship navigator programs that meet certain criteria. Kinship navigator programs help relatives and kin caregivers learn about and access programs and services to meet their own needs and the needs of the children they are raising.

This Children Bureau’s resource outlines the requirements Title IV-E agencies must meet to apply to the Kinship Navigator Program.

This Casey Family Programs webpage offers videos and resources that highlight data and research that support the benefits to child safety, permanency and well-being that kinship care can provide. This webpage also notes specific policies – federal, state and agency-specific – that help to build a kin-first culture.

To help ensure that children have safe and permanent homes, the federal government provides states with funding for child welfare programs. Some sources of federal funding, such as Title IV-E and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, are dedicated to child welfare. Under Title IV-E, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services reimburses states for providing foster care to eligible children, among other things. States may use funds provided under Title IV-B for a variety of services to prevent and address child abuse and neglect. Other funding sources can be used for child welfare, among other purposes. The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) grant funds a wide range of benefits and services for low-income families. Some of these benefits and services may be administered by state child welfare agencies.

This U.S. Government Accountability Office report examines states’ use of Title IV-E, Title IV-B, and TANF funds for child welfare purposes.

This brief describes the American Public Human Services Association and Chapin Hall’s partnership to build momentum and consensus for child welfare system transformation by bringing together human services agency leadership, experts with lived experience, and national partner organizations to advance cross-sector recommendations for shared responsibility across public health and human services to prevent child maltreatment and unnecessary involvement with the child welfare system. This approach expands access to economic and concrete supports as protective factors and promotes family stability, integrity, and well-being at the individual and population level.

Helplines provide referrals to community and government resources that support parents and other caregivers in raising their children safely and successfully. By connecting children and families to upstream services, helplines can be an effective strategy in efforts to prevent child welfare system involvement. These helplines are intended to be proactive, providing immediate upstream support to families experiencing a crisis or an unmet need, therefore preventing potential child maltreatment down the road.

This Casey Family Programs brief highlights various helplines implemented across the country but focuses on helplines intended to prevent child welfare system involvement. However, some helplines are designed specifically to provide targeted support to families and older youth already involved in the child welfare system.

In the child welfare system, where families often face compounding challenges, coordinated efforts can prevent deeper system involvement and promote family stability. Every role contributes a distinct and essential piece to achieving these outcomes. This ZERO TO THREE webpage offers several strategies to illustrate how collaboration across programs and sectors can improve family outcomes, including: 

1. Centering families through Family Team Meetings;
2. Community coordination to bridge support;
3. Judicial leadership sets a collaborative tone;
4. Legal advocacy to elevate support;
5. Child welfare leadership drives systems change;
6. Building a network with Active Community Teams;
7. Driving sustained impact with Site Implementation Teams; and
8. Scaling success through policy and funding.

In American Indian/Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian communities, Elders are highly respected and are referred to as the community’s leaders, teachers, keepers of knowledge, and role models to all. Elders ensure the continuation of traditional native customs. Research confirms that connections between Elders and children protect and support the well-being of both groups. For children, benefits of these intergenerational connections include social-emotional gains, such as increased self-awareness, improved relationship skills, and better decision-making. Intergenerational connections also have been shown to contribute to greater academic success, better self-esteem and mood, and healthier habits. Even though intergenerational connections benefit children, very few child welfare programs include intergenerational services.

The Elder Connections Project was designed to better understand how American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian Elders’ knowledge, experience, and observations are helpful in developing strategies, resources, and culturally safe and appropriate practices to prevent children from entering foster care. This Casey Family Programs brief offers a summary of those findings, which are applicable to children and families of all communities.