Families participating in Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) may face challenges that extend beyond financial hardship. This guide helps Tribal TANF staff recognize family strengths, connect caregivers with supportive services, and respond early to concerns before they become crises. Tribal TANF programs can use the guide to strengthen case management, improve collaboration with child welfare partners, and better support families working toward long-term stability. It offers practical strategies that help TANF caseworkers build trust, keep children safely connected to their families, and reduce the need for more intensive interventions.

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.

Resources You Can Access Now:

• Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) Toolkit: Strategies to Improve Family Outcomes for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Participants
• Roadmap to Success: Lessons from the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) Learning Community

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.

From the Wheatley Institute at BYU, this report examines how economic shifts, education gaps, and digital engagement patterns are influencing men’s participation in work, relationships, and family life. The resource connects broader structural trends to challenges in marriage formation and father engagement. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, it provides context for understanding barriers men face in employment and family roles, and it informs efforts to strengthen fatherhood supports, workforce engagement, and family stability strategies.

This research from the Institute for Family Studies highlights differences in reported relationship satisfaction depending on how couples meet, suggesting that in-person connections may be associated with stronger long-term outcomes. It adds nuance to how relationship formation pathways can shape family experiences. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can use it to support discussions about healthy relationship development and the factors that contribute to stable partnerships and families over time.

This resource from the Institute for Family Studies explores how online dating is changing the way relationships begin and the potential implications for commitment and long-term family formation. It raises questions about how modern relationship patterns influence stability and partner selection. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) settings, it can be used to inform relationship education discussions that focus on intentionality, communication, and the broader context shaping the successful development of families today.

This Institute for Family Studies resource looks at how job stability for men and flexible work arrangements for mothers influence decisions around forming and sustaining families. It brings attention to how work conditions shape family life in practical ways, not just financial ones. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, it can help frame policy and service discussions around employment supports that recognize caregiving responsibilities while also strengthening pathways to economic stability.

The Urban Institute’s Marriage Calculator shows how marriage can change a household’s income, taxes, and benefit eligibility. It helps surface the often complex financial consequences of family structure decisions. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, it can be used as a neutral, educational tool in coaching conversations to help participants better understand how relationships and financial systems interact as well as the financial benefits that marriage can offer.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this Institute for Family Studies resource offers a relatable way to introduce communication and relationship skills without relying on technical language. It centers on a practical idea: relationships are strengthened not by avoiding conflict, but by how people handle it and reconnect afterward. This resource addresses a common gap—many TANF clients may receive guidance on employment or finances, but not always on maintaining healthy relationships under stress. TANF practitioners can incorporate these soft skill concepts into workshops, case management conversations, or family-focused services to help participants build stronger connections, manage work and home challenges more effectively, and create more stable family environments.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) will host the National Fatherhood Summit from August 3 to August 5, 2026, providing a forum for stakeholders interested in sharing and discovering ways to support and promote responsible fatherhood. OFA encourages stakeholders from a variety of vocations and walks of life to help shape the Summit agenda by submitting workshop proposals that align with the Summit theme, “The Fatherhood Mandate: Building Families, Building America,” and one of their five concurrent Summit learning tracks:

1. Strengthening Marriage and Family Stability in the Context of Fatherhood
2. Fathers, Child Welfare, and the Path Beyond Foster Care
3. Workforce Readiness and Economic Mobility for Fathers
4. Fathers as Leaders in Faith-Based and Civic Institutions in Their Communities
5. Data-Driven Fatherhood Programming

If you are interested in presenting, OFA is welcoming submissions until April 24, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET. 

For more information on participating as an attendee, please check out The 2026 National Fatherhood Summit webpage.