The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network hosted a webinar in May 2023 to cover strategies for tribal programs wishing to engage in collaborative services to support kinship and grandfamilies. The webinar addressed how government or private organizations can best prepare for collaboration with tribes. Additionally, the webinar helped participants be able to discuss why grandfamilies and relative care providers can benefit from collaborative approaches among tribes, or between tribes and non-Native government or private service providers; become familiar with principles that support successful cross-cultural and cross-jurisdiction collaboration; and be able to explore and weigh several issues when planning a collaboration. The recording and presentation are available for review.

The Office of Family Assistance partnered with the Children’s Bureau to develop the Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community (FAST-LC), which focused on preventing family involvement in the child welfare system through developing, implementing, and enhancing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)–Child Welfare (CW) partnerships and innovations. FAST-LC was a one-year initiative that involved 10 Tribal and state TANF and CW agencies. 

This tip sheet accompanies a video on Strengthening Connections: Leveraging Existing Networks for Integrated Prevention Services, which highlights lessons from the FAST-LC. These resources feature representatives from the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and the California Tribal TANF Partnership, who discuss how they cultivated partnerships with agencies to plan and implement integrated prevention services.

The Office of Family Assistance partnered with the Children’s Bureau to develop the Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community (FAST-LC), which focused on preventing family involvement in the child welfare system through developing, implementing, and enhancing Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)–Child Welfare (CW) partnerships and innovations. FAST-LC was a one-year initiative that involved 10 Tribal and state TANF and CW agencies. 

This video accompanies a reflection guide and tip sheet, Strengthening Connections: Leveraging Existing Networks for Integrated Prevention Services, which highlights lessons from the FAST-LC. The video features representatives from the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe, and the California Tribal TANF Partnership, who discuss how they cultivated partnerships with agencies to plan and implement integrated prevention services.

The Administration for Children and Families announced the launch of “A Home for Every Child,” a national initiative aimed at right-sizing the ratio of foster homes to the number of kids in the foster care system. The initiative will focus on both sides of the equation — increasing the availability of safe homes through diligent recruitment, prioritizing kin, and improving retention of existing caregivers while reducing entries into foster care through effective prevention and faster pathways to permanency. ACF plans to leverage all $11.4 billion of its annual federal funding for foster care and child welfare to advance this mission and will come alongside state agencies to give broad latitude, flexibility, and technical support to reimagine community-specific interventions. ACF will eliminate outdated bureaucratic barriers that discourage families from stepping forward, including streamlining foster family licensing, supporting kinship caregivers, and encouraging faith-based partnerships to expand the network of caring families.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on December 11, 2025 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to help Tribes who operate kinship support service programs, including kinship navigation programs, know about and understand how they can prepare to take advantage of new resources afforded under the Supporting America’s Children and Families Act. This new law reauthorizes and updates Title IV-B of the Social Security Act, a critical child welfare law that provides funding to Tribes, states, and territories, to create and operate coordinated child and family services programs.

Alex J. Adams, PharmD, MPH, serves as Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families. Assistant Secretary Adams brings years of health, human services, education, and regulatory expertise to advance President Trump and Secretary Kennedy’s broader vision to Make America Healthy Again. Prior to leading ACF, Dr. Adams spent more than ten years in Idaho State Government. He led the Governor’s zero-based regulation initiative, which resulted in Idaho becoming the least regulated state in the nation. Dr. Adams also made significant efforts to improve Idaho’s child welfare system, enacting kin-specific licensing standards, announcing paid family leave for foster parents, extending foster care to age 23, and overseeing record recruitment and retention of foster homes. This webpage showcases resources that support the priorities identified by Assistant Secretary Adams.

Kinship navigator programs offer information, referrals, and follow-up services to kin caregivers to link them to benefits and services that can support them and the children they raise. Some of these programs are over twenty-five years old and provide robust case management, concrete goods, and other supportive services for the families, while others may be limited to information and referral.

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network webpage offers a list of known kinship navigator programs, organized in alphabetical order by state and territory with tribes listed separately at the end. Each entry notes which families the program serves, in addition to providing basic service information and a website link.

Research shows that separating children from their families causes lasting trauma. Child protection agencies should exhaust all means to ensure children and families receive essential support to safely remain together. In instances when temporary out-of-home placement is necessary, finding the best possible family-based setting helps to mitigate trauma. Placement preferably should be with kin, but when kinship care is not possible, placing children in a safe family setting with a resource caregiver in their community is essential.

To ensure family-based placements meet the differing needs of children in the child welfare system, child protection agencies should actively recruit and retain resource caregivers from varied backgrounds. This Casey Family Programs brief highlights a menu of strategies for recruitment and retention of resource families, as well as a selection of tools and resources to help develop comprehensive, integrated recruitment and retention plans.

The transition from adolescence to adulthood is a critical period and can be particularly difficult for youth aging out of foster care. Administered by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program supports youth in or formerly in foster care as they transition to adulthood. Selected state officials told the U.S. Government Accountability Office that they decide on their service array by using data, participant feedback, and information from other states. These officials also reported offering youth services based on individual skills and needs. The most widely used services in selected states are related to education, health, and housing.

This U.S. Government Accountability Office report addresses: (1) how selected states support youth transitioning from foster care to adulthood, (2) ACF resources for states on effective Chafee services, and (3) the extent that state and federal funds are used to support services for older youth.