Public benefits agencies can use public data and simple analytic techniques to make decisions about program design and service delivery to ensure they are reaching the people they are trying to serve. This Urban Institute report provides six recommendations for using public data for the goal of understanding more about populations of interest and access challenges. The report also describes the process of conducting these analyses and key considerations for other agencies, researchers, and advocates who wish to implement this approach.

With the significant increase in the cost of food, some grandfamilies and kinship families, especially those on fixed incomes, may not have ample food to feed their growing family.  Federal nutrition programs can help kin caregivers stretch limited budgets, and ensure their families thrive. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on September 10, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. ET to explore the array of federal nutrition programs, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), school meals, and afterschool and summer food programs, that are available to help kinship/grandfamilies get the nutrition they need. This webinar will equip attendees with practical information and resources that can be used to connect families to these nutrition programs. 

When the school year ends, millions of children lose access to the school breakfasts and lunches they rely on during the school year. This can exacerbate summertime food insecurity for those children in kinship. The Summer Nutrition Programs are designed to replace school breakfast and lunch and can help lower food costs for families. These programs ensure that children have consistent access to healthy meals during the summer months, which is critical for their health and well-being. This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network tipsheet explains Summer Nutrition Programs along with benefits and eligibility.

This assessment provides a foundation to understand the scope of the childhood chronic disease crisis, the conditions that created it, and the mechanisms through which it continues to grow. Without this foundation, interventions risk being reactive, fragmented, or ineffective. The assessment identifies four potential drivers behind the rise in childhood chronic disease that present the clearest opportunities for progress.

This HeadStart.gov webpage discusses the benefits of support groups and activities for fathers to build parenting skills and connect with other fathers. It provides tips for organizing support groups and offers a practice scenario.

Maryland’s Combined Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) State Plan partners worked collaboratively to bolster the workforce system. There are multiple entry points to services, and Maryland subscribes to a “no wrong door” philosophy for customer access to services. Weekly orientations, walk-ins, partner referrals, the Reemployment Opportunities Workshop, and the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment program are typical entry points for new customers. As Maryland seeks to strengthen and enhance its practices through the implementation of this revised State Plan, success will require a commitment to innovation and collaboration, and a cohesive approach among partners. In 2022, Maryland added the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) program as a Core Partner. Recognizing that no single entity can exclusively provide all services to a customer, this more inclusive approach will diversify services and invest in new, integrated practices that surpass the traditional expectations of a workforce system.

On March 24, 2025, the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Administration for Children and Families shared a letter with TANF Administrators to ensure TANF agencies are aligned with Executive Order 14218 “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders” and are not providing federal public benefits to illegal aliens, per statutory requirements. In this Information Memorandum, the Office of Family Assistance provides additional details on the applicable laws and enforcement mechanisms regarding restrictions on federal public benefits for non-qualified aliens.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has released the new request for applications for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) pilot. The pilot will select up to five states to test innovative approaches aimed at promoting work and reducing government dependency.

The pilot is authorized under the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 and reflects the Administration’s commitment to reshaping welfare programs to encourage employment, personal responsibility, and strong, stable two-parent families. States are encouraged to propose alternative performance measures to the work participation rate that prioritize rapid employment outcomes, earnings progression, and reduced dependency on TANF, Medicaid, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, and other welfare. 

ACF encourages all states and territories to apply. The application period will close at 11:59 PM ET on August 15, 2025. The pilot program for the selected states will begin on October 1, 2025.

Further information on the TANF pilot program can be found on the Office of Family Assistance Fiscal Responsibility Act implementation page. If questions remain, please contact TANFquestions@acf.hhs.gov. 

A benefit integrity program is meant to maintain program integrity by providing methods to ensure that benefit amounts provided to recipients in the TANF or Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program are accurate according to federal and state policies and based on the recipient's circumstances, and that misuses of program benefits are detected, prevented and ultimately deterred. This South Carolina Department of Social Services manual contains policy for the detection, investigation, establishment, and collection of payments made in error or due to fraud.

The Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance (DTA) offers a comprehensive system of programs and supports to help individuals and families achieve greater economic self-sufficiency, including food and nutritional assistance, economic assistance, and employment supports through programs such as Transitional Aid to Families with Dependent Children and Emergency Aid to the Elderly, Disabled, and Children. The DTA works to prevent fraud, waste, and abuse as part of their core functions. The DTA’s Program Integrity (PI) Division uses advanced data analytics and a variety of fraud detection practices to promote PI. This DTA report describes the efforts of their PI division.