The Welfare and Family Self-Sufficiency Learning Agenda (WFSSLA) was developed by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s Division of Economic Independence and the Office of Family Assistance (OFA). It guides the development and execution of the Division and OFA’s activities to learn how TANF and other human services best support the self-sufficiency and economic well-being of children and families with low incomes. The WFSSLA includes briefs for workstreams, or focal domains, to build knowledge about effectively fostering family economic security, stability, and self-sufficiency. Each brief synthesizes learning to date in that area based on key Division of Economic Independence projects; discusses select remaining gaps in knowledge; lists learning questions to inform future learning activities; and includes a table listing current Division projects pertaining to the workstream.

The Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, in partnership with the Children’s Bureau, announces a new TANF-Child Welfare Learning Community. The “Families Are Stronger Together: TANF & Child Welfare Partnering for Prevention Learning Community (FAST-LC)” will center on innovative prevention strategies to strengthen families and mitigate and reduce their involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC is a one-year initiative slated to launch in September 2023 and conclude in September 2024. An August 10, 2023 webinar discussed the self-nomination process and benefits of the FAST-LC.

Self-nomination packages are due by Thursday, September 7, 2023, at 6:00 pm ET and can be obtained by emailing TANF-CWLearningCommunity@blhtech.com.

The Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 introduced changes that require states to report on specific employment and education outcomes for people after they stop receiving TANF cash assistance.  Mirroring the Department of Labor's Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act programs, these measures cover employment, employment retention, employment earnings, and attainment of a high school degree. This Urban Institute fact sheet is a resource for states, federal staff, and agency leaders implementing the new law.  Drawing insights from the 2018 report called Measuring Employment Outcomes in TANF, the fact sheet helps explain the challenges and opportunities of measuring and interpreting employment outcomes.

Over the past few years, Vermont’s Reach Up program has increasingly moved to a family-centered coaching model of supporting TANF participants and their families. This video provides a contextual overview of the merits of transitioning to a coaching model, highlights how this model works in Vermont, and provides an insider look into the various ways case managers can coach participants to achieve their own goals.

Over the past few years, Vermont’s Reach Up program has increasingly moved to a family-centered coaching model of supporting TANF participants and their families. This video provides a contextual overview of the merits of transitioning to a coaching model, highlights how this model works in Vermont, and provides an insider look into the various ways case managers can coach participants to achieve their own goals.

Many child support policies disproportionately harm families with low incomes in which nonresident parents have limited ability to pay support. This blogpost outlines six recommendations on how child support systems can equitably serve families with low incomes to emphasize healthy child development, encourage parental support in all forms, foster parent-child and co-parenting relationships, and assist parents who struggle to pay support. These recommendations include the need to emphasize support for the entire family; establish and modify child support orders according to parents’ ability to pay support; identify and address the causes of noncompliance and limit punitive enforcement; transfer all child support collected by the state to TANF families; collect a wider range of demographic and outcome data and evaluate policy impacts on diverse family types; and provide government support to children in poverty whose parents cannot provide meaningful financial support.

The Child Support Enforcement (CSE) program was enacted in 1975 as a federal-state program and served to reduce public expenditures for recipients of cash assistance by obtaining ongoing support from noncustodial parents that could be used to reimburse the state and federal governments for part of that assistance. Over the years, CSE has evolved into a multifaceted program. While public assistance cost recovery remains an important function of the program, its other aspects include service delivery and promotion of self-sufficiency and parental responsibility. This Congressional Research Service summary explores how the CSE program has different rules for assistance families (e.g., those receiving cash benefits under TANF) and non-assistance families. Additionally, the summary highlights each of the CSE program’s seven major services -- (1) parent location, (2) paternity establishment, (3) establishment of child support orders, (4) review and modification of child support orders, (5) collection of child support payments, (6) distribution of child support payments, and (7) establishment and enforcement of medical support – and discusses how they impact TANF families.

This interactive map explores the 32 states that operate child support-led employment programs for noncustodial parents. This resource highlights available programs in each of these states, including which states use TANF funding or offer TANF & Child Support Enforcement programs. It also offers program operation details to learn how 14 different states operate their employment programs.

This toolkit, a product from the TANF Data Innovation project, offers practical guidance to agencies on how to create a culture of evidence as a routine part of government operations. The material included was sourced from interviews with practitioners who have successfully built sustainable data use into their everyday practices. The tools were developed to help agencies build the culture and infrastructure needed to apply data analysis routinely, effectively, and accurately. While it was initially developed for State TANF agencies, many strategies may be useful for individuals in a range of agencies, where the challenges and impact are similar.