Be A Good Dad Today!

Record Description

Positive father involvement can strengthen families, support child well-being, and improve outcomes for children. This National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse webpage highlights its public awareness campaign, which offers videos, messages, and outreach materials that encourage fathers to remain active and engaged in their children's lives. The campaign also features firsthand accounts from fathers with lived experience, providing authentic perspectives on the challenges, successes, and rewards of remaining actively involved in their children's lives. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can use this webpage to support responsible fatherhood initiatives, spark conversations with parents, and reinforce the important role fathers play in family stability. The materials are easy to share through workshops, social media, community events, and participant communications.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-24T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-24

Opportunity Passport: Financial Capacity for Young People Who Experience Foster Care

Record Description

Young people leaving foster care often face financial challenges as they transition to adulthood, including managing money, securing housing, and planning for future goals. This Annie E. Casey Foundation brief introduces their financial curriculum that helps young people build financial knowledge, develop savings habits, and strengthen their long-term economic stability. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can review this introductory brief and share the curriculum with young adults, former foster youth, and kinship families to encourage financial capability education and asset-building. By connecting participants to this curriculum, TANF practitioners can help them develop the skills and confidence needed to pursue education, employment, housing, and other pathways to self-sufficiency.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-14T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-14

Leveraging TANF to Support Trump Accounts: A New Opportunity to Strengthen Family Economic Security

Record Description

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs have long supported families in building economic stability. This Dear Colleague Letter by the Office of Family Assistance explores how TANF funds may now be used to support Trump Accounts, which are federally backed, tax-advantaged savings accounts for children, creating new opportunities to help children and families build assets for the future. For TANF practitioners, the guidance shares how these accounts can fit within broader strategies that promote financial well-being and long-term self-sufficiency. TANF programs may use this guidance to consider innovative approaches that help families move beyond immediate needs and build a stronger financial foundation.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-12T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-12

The Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program (GAP): Use of Guardianship Is Growing, but Lags Adoption Assistance and Is Unevenly Used Across States

Record Description

Children that require out-of-home care still need stable, permanent home connections. This Administration for Children and Families brief examines how states are using the Title IV-E Guardianship Assistance Program to support relatives and caregivers who assume legal guardianship of children in foster care. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this brief offers valuable insight into the needs of kinship caregivers who may also rely on TANF supports to help meet a child's basic needs. TANF practitioners can use this information to better understand permanency options, strengthen partnerships with child welfare agencies, and identify opportunities to connect caregivers with financial assistance, employment services, and other supports that promote long-term family stability.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-05-27T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-05-27

U.S. Department of Labor Recovers Over $512M in Fraudulent Unemployment Claims to U.S. Treasury

Record Description

The U.S. Department of Labor announced that it has recovered more than $512 million in fraudulent unemployment insurance claims and returned those funds to the U.S. Treasury. This release highlights this ongoing federal effort to identify improper payments after they occur while also improving systems to prevent fraud in future claims. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, the value lies in the approaches being used to identify and freeze suspicious funds—data matching, audits, and recovery mechanisms that demonstrate how large-scale program integrity systems operate in practice. These strategies offer useful reference points for TANF agencies working to strengthen oversight, improve payment accuracy, and coordinate more effectively with workforce and unemployment insurance systems.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-17T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-17

U.S. Department of Labor Demands Immediate Action from Governors on Unemployment Insurance Fraud

Record Description

The Acting Secretary for the U.S. Department of Labor is urging governors to take immediate steps to address ongoing risks of unemployment insurance (UI) fraud, signaling continued concern about vulnerabilities in state-administered benefit systems. This release underscores the expectation that states must strengthen oversight, improve identity verification, and act quickly when suspicious activity is identified.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this reinforces a broader shift toward tighter program integrity practices across interconnected public benefits systems. Many TANF agencies rely on shared eligibility data and cross-program verification tools, so improvements in UI fraud controls can strengthen the reliability of information used to determine eligibility and reduce improper payments across programs serving similar populations.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-17T00:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-17

Strategies for Using Data to Prioritize Kinship Care

Record Description

When a child can't safely stay with their parents, the next best option is almost always a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or close family friend who already knows and loves them. Keeping that connection intact can make a profound difference in a child's long-term stability, but many agencies struggle to identify and engage kinship caregivers consistently, in part because they don't have clear systems for tracking who those caregivers are or reaching them. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on June 24, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to share how to use data in prioritizing kinship care. With presenters drawing on experience working with states across the country, they will discuss first steps for collecting and understanding kinship data and using it to engage kin caregivers wherever possible. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, kinship families are a significant part of the caseload, including grandparents raising grandchildren, relatives who stepped in without a formal plan, and caregivers who may not even know they're eligible for support. Better data on kinship placement means better coordination between child welfare and TANF, and ultimately better outcomes for families who are already doing the hard work of keeping children connected to their roots.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-24T14:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-24

Creating Extended Foster Care That Works for All: Insights, Youth Voice, and Action for Systems Change

Record Description

When a young person turns 18 in foster care, the system too often just disappears. Extended foster care (EFC) programs exist to bridge that gap, keeping older youth connected to support as they transition into adulthood. But not all extended care programs are equally accessible or effective, and youth themselves are rarely centered in decisions about how these programs are designed. The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) will host a webinar on June 24, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to highlight the work of the National Collaborative for Transition-Age Youth, a partnership among APHSA, FosterClub, and Youth Villages, and discuss EFC outcomes.

These organizations co-developed guidance with young people, child welfare leaders, and policymakers to strengthen services for youth turning 18 in foster care. Research shows that when extended care is available and inclusive, anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of young people in care at age 17½ will remain in the program at 19, and roughly half will still be enrolled at 21, with benefits that persist well into adulthood. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners working with transition-age youth, this session will offer both evidence and strategy to understand why extended care matters and how to better connect young people to the services that can make it work.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-24T14:00:00
Source
OFA Initiatives
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-24

2026 ACF OHSEPR National Challenge Announcement: Two Tracks. One Goal: Building Disaster-Ready Human Services Systems

Record Description

The Office of Human Services Emergency Preparedness and Response (OHSEPR) within the Administration for Children and Families will host a webinar on June 22, 2026 at 3:00 p.m. ET to introduce a new opportunity for human services agencies and partners to share innovative solutions that strengthen human services systems before, during, and after disasters. This session will overview two challenge tracks, one focused on supporting foster and kinship families during disasters and the other focused on building coordinated human services responses that can quickly connect families to assistance. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs, this offers an opportunity to explore strategies for strengthening emergency preparedness, building partnerships, and ensuring families can continue accessing critical supports when disasters disrupt communities. Participants will also learn about eligibility requirements, submission timelines, and the challenge application process.

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-22T15:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-22

Designing with Community in Mind: Shaping San Francisco’s Mobile Benefits Center

Record Description

Too often, accessing public benefits requires families to travel to offices during business hours, wait in long lines, and navigate systems that were designed around administrative convenience rather than client need. The San Francisco Human Services Agency decided to try something different. Their Mobile Benefits Center was built around a simple idea of bringing human services directly to communities that face barriers getting to agency buildings and was designed in close partnership with clients of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences, as well as frontline staff and community partners. This American Public Human Services Association practical case study covers what it means to design with communities rather than for them. It raises important questions worth asking about your own Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program: Where are clients actually located? What barriers are we asking them to overcome before they even walk in the door? And what would it look like to meet them there instead?

Record Type
Combined Date
2026-06-10T00:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2026-06-10