This webpage highlights KANSASWORKS’ mobile workforce center that brings employment services to rural and underserved communities. This is a practical example of how workforce agencies can meet people where they are. Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can use the model to explore joint outreach events, job fairs, skills workshops, and other collaborative activities that make employment services more accessible to participants.

This webpage from Washington State demonstrates how a state agency can use mobile offices to deliver public services directly to communities. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, the resource offers a real-world model for expanding access to applications, case management, and support services in underserved areas. It can help TANF programs think through how mobile outreach can reduce missed appointments, improve engagement, and connect families with assistance without requiring long-distance travel.

When families cannot easily travel to a service office, bringing services directly into communities can make a significant difference. The model from Rural Health Information Hub shows how agencies, including Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, can use mobile offices to provide care coordination, enrollment assistance, and other support in rural or underserved areas.

TANF agencies can use this resource to explore ways to reach participants who face transportation barriers, live far from service centers, or have difficulty attending in-person appointments.

Families in rural areas often need help from multiple programs, but transportation, distance, and limited staffing can make it difficult to access services in one place. The Rural Health Information Hub toolkit offers practical strategies for bringing health, workforce, education, and social services together so families can receive more coordinated support. The toolkit provides examples of partnerships, service coordination approaches, and outreach strategies that can improve access for families with complex needs.

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this toolkit is valuable because it can be used to reduce the burden on rural participants who may otherwise need to visit several offices to get assistance. 

To increase participant engagement, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs must create and offer programming that reflects community needs. This Chapin Hall resources describes how New Mexico strengthened their vital services across the state by drawing on local input. Researchers from Chapin Hall and the Anna, Age Eight Institute conducted town halls and focus groups in seven counties with providers and residents to gather firsthand accounts of barriers preventing families from accessing medical care, childcare, housing, food, transportation, and behavioral health services. Residents described systems that were fragmented, under-resourced, and difficult to navigate, and reported staff interactions that increased their feelings of shame and stigma while seeking help. For TANF practitioners, this report is both a mirror and a roadmap. It reflects what families across the country commonly experience, and it offers concrete, community-generated solutions. It is also a strong model for how to conduct meaningful community listening, a skill all TANF program staff can use as they work to improve client engagement and outcomes.

Transportation challenges can create significant barriers for kinship caregivers trying to access services, employment, and school. These case profiles from the Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network highlight real-world strategies communities are using to address transportation needs for kinship and grandfamilies. TANF programs can use these examples to explore partnerships and practical solutions that improve access to benefits, case management, and workforce opportunities.

Families that receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance are often in a state of crisis. They face immediate material needs, and these unmet basic needs put families at an increased risk for investigations in the child welfare system. Addressing unmet material needs among TANF participants, through providing concrete supports, can help prevent child maltreatment and ultimately keep children in their homes.

This tipsheet is intended for state, county, and Tribal TANF leaders who make program-level decisions about the types of resources and services that their programs offer to TANF participants.

In December 1995, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) asked the President’s Council on Integrity and Efficiency (PCIE) to determine if there were sufficient provisions for accountability in Federal block grant programs. This PCIE resource responds to the original OMB request primarily by focusing on the statutes of 13 Federal programs commonly referred to as block grants. It concentrates on the statutes because of their fundamental significance in establishing a framework for accountability.

The New York State Fiscal Year 2024-2025 Budget appropriated $55 million in TANF funds to support the 2024 New York State Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP). The SYEP is an important platform to introduce youth into the workforce and help them acquire skills that can be used to improve school performance and become responsible adults. Since many low-income youths face the prospect of a challenging transition to work, constructive workforce experiences can provide great benefits. This Office of Temporary and Disability Assistance resource highlights allocation information and program guidance, including participant eligibility and allowable activities and services such as work subsidies for youth; supportive services such as transportation; case management; incentive payments; and education and training.