The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Strategic Plan includes five strategic goals that support the agency’s mission to promote the economic and social well-being of children, youth, families, individuals, and communities by providing federal leadership, partnership, and resources for the compassionate and effective delivery of human services. Strategic Goal 4 identifies the importance of supporting communities and families to respond to acute needs and facilitate recovery from a range of crises and emergency situations. To support this goal, ACF has developed this resource guide for ACF program staff and grant recipients to support children, youth, and families who are preparing for, responding to, or recovering from an emergency, disaster, or adversity.

This Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) provides information on four programs operated by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) whose funding may be used to provide post-disaster housing assistance following a natural disaster: Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), Community Services Block Grant (CSBG), Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), and Social Services Block Grant (SSBG). Funds can be used for temporary housing such as motels or hotels, minor home repairs, cooling centers during the day, or short-term rental or mortgage assistance.  A summary chart outlines the benefits, availability of assistance, eligibility, the form of benefits, and contact for more information for the TANF, CSBG, LIHEAP, and SSBG programs. 

This updated Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Emergency and Disaster Waivers and Flexibilities document contains programmatic and administrative information on each ACF program that has emergency waivers and flexibilities. It was developed by the Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR) in collaboration with ACF Program Offices to emphasize an all-hazards approach; this means the waivers and flexibilities may apply to any potential disaster (e.g., hurricanes, tornadoes, and wildfires) or public health emergency. Waivers refer to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ dispensations from rules or penalties that can assist grantees in preparing for or responding to an emergency or disaster. Flexibilities refer to authorities available to grantees under existing law or regulation that may be used to provide services or operate their federally funded programs to prepare for or respond to an emergency or disaster. Each program is the final authority on the application of its programs' waivers and flexibilities.

Recent disasters and emerging threats have illuminated the importance of understanding the relationship between disaster displacement and its effect on individuals, households, and communities. The Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response initiated a literature review with the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation to learn about studies on disaster displacement and its impact on human services delivery to inform its policy and operations. This blogpost summarizes the existing literature and available resources on displacement and human services that were identified in a February 2023 report and webinar. The findings can provide useful insights to policymakers, agencies, and organizations that provide human services to people displaced by disasters.

Young people are especially vulnerable to the negative effects of natural disasters, and those who are involved in the child welfare system are at particularly high risk for experiencing disaster-related traumatic stress and other challenges. But when provided with the right types of support, all children and youth have the capacity for resilience and healing. This Child Trends toolkit provides resources that aim to support child welfare staff and administrators in their efforts to enhance state, tribal, territory, and county-led efforts to promote healing and resilience among system-involved children.

Disasters do not differentiate between urban, suburban, and rural communities, but response efforts do. Rural and Native communities can get left out of all stages of preparing for disasters and recovering from them. Rural communities, particularly communities of color and those facing persistent poverty, are ill equipped for disasters and suffer through longer recovery processes. The Urban Institute hosted a webinar on April 19, 2022 to discuss how to improve support for rural and Native communities facing disasters. The conversation showcased examples of successful planning, response, and recovery initiatives and highlighted policy and program changes that can help rural communities.

Lack of access to food is a major concern when natural disasters strike. This blogpost outlines how the Disaster Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (D-SNAP) and other federal nutrition programs play a critical role in mitigating spikes in food insecurity during such challenging times. The discussion identifies how D-SNAP provides replacement benefits for SNAP households that lose food and extends benefits to many other households that would not ordinarily be eligible for SNAP. It also covers how SNAP waivers can be used to allow SNAP recipients to obtain replacement benefits, and identifies approaches to allow states to release commodity foods — used in the National School Lunch Program, The Emergency Food Assistance Program, and other federal programs — for mass feeding sites. Further, it notes how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) can play a crucial role in low-income communities with WIC food package and redemption flexibilities, benefit replacement, and simplified income eligibility.

The Office of Family Assistance initiative, “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” (LASER TLC), supported ten TANF Programs across the country as they worked to address the challenges of human service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and focused on improving and delivering more responsive services to their TANF families. This document shares the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Reservation’s journey during their participation in the 18-month learning community. The site journey conveys how their LASER TLC site team, along with support from their dedicated coaching team and application of the LI2 framework, contributed to developing their action plan and strategizing the implementation of their change agenda to benefit TANF families.

Children living in families with low incomes face an array of challenges that place them at much higher risk of experiencing poverty in adulthood as compared with other children. This cycle of intergenerational poverty poses an economic disadvantage to not only the children and their families but also the nation. The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) will host a webinar on September 21, 2023 from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. ET on the NASEM report entitled Reducing Intergenerational Poverty that examines the drivers of long-term, intergenerational poverty, identifies potential policies and programs to reduce it, addresses gaps in data and research, and highlights the disproportionate effect of disadvantage to different racial/ethnic groups. The webinar will include a discussion of the report's key findings and questions from webinar participants.