The Center for Native Child and Family Resilience (CNCFR) worked alongside a group of experts in cultural resilience, Tribal child welfare, and trauma-informed practice to review the current trauma-informed care literature and existing programs with the intention of creating a trauma-informed training specifically for use in Tribal child welfare (TCW) programs. Through discussions on their research, the group noted many trauma-informed programs and practices were already in place. The workgroup decided that instead of centering on trauma, they wanted to create a training that centers and builds upon the resilience in the community. This CNCFR training promotes and centers the healing and wellness of individuals, families, and communities—and encourages the community to build their own vision for a resilience-oriented TCW organization.

This Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development video highlights an Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians elder explaining historical trauma and why child welfare workers must address historical trauma to be successful in their work.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s initiative, “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC), supported ten TANF and child welfare programs across the country as they worked to promote innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC Site Journeys capture and convey the participating states’ and tribes’ motivation for change, the partnership and prevention innovations they developed and implemented, and the lessons they learned from their journey experiences. This site journey features Pascua Yaqui Tribe’s FAST-LC story.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s initiative, “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC), supported ten TANF and child welfare programs across the country as they worked to promote innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. The FAST-LC Site Journeys capture and convey the participating states’ and tribes’ motivation for change, the partnership and prevention innovations they developed and implemented, and the lessons they learned from their journey experiences. This site journey features Chippewa Cree Tribe’s FAST-LC story.

This brief synthesizes the work the states and tribes participating in the Office for Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau’s joint-initiative “Families Are Stronger Together Learning Community” (FAST-LC) accomplished. It highlights implementation issues and the strategies the participating states and tribes employed in their partnership efforts and their prevention-oriented activities. The brief also identifies sustainability issues the sites confronted and addressed.

This brief describes a human-centered design approach that any state, Tribal, or local agency can use to strengthen partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare with the goal of lowering families’ risk of involvement with the Child Welfare system. It offers several example activities, including building empathy for families, mapping partners serving families, and exploring families' program experiences.

The University of California, Davis is hosting a webinar on November 19, 2024 at 1:00 p.m. PT, focusing on the integration of tribal engagement within California’s Child and Family Team (CFT) practice. This webinar will explore best practices outlined in the 2024 CFT Tribal Engagement Guide, which highlights the essential role of culturally responsive, trauma-informed practices for Indian children, families and Tribes. Participants will learn about the legal requirements of the Indian Child Welfare Act in the CFT process, strategies for fostering collaboration between child welfare services and tribal governments, and methods for supporting cultural connections for children and families.

This Grandfamilies and Kinship Support Network and National Indian Child Welfare Association tipsheet was developed for service providers to share with relatives/kin caring for Native children. It provides guidance to help caregivers access services, utilize the services effectively, and advocate for Native children in their care. This resource can support families to identify and connect to services such as childcare, behavioral health, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), TANF non-needy (child-only) grants, assistance with Social Security Income and other paperwork, and much more.

On July 8, 2024, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced $3 million in new awards to six tribal entities as part of the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, which develops and strengthens tribal capacity to support and promote the health and well-being of expectant families and families with young children in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) communities. This ACF announcement highlights the six tribal entities, which will build new capacity to provide critical early childhood home visiting services to AIAN families and children in communities where these services do not currently exist. The new grant recipients are: Southeast Alaska Regional Health Consortium, Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation (Connecticut), Jicarilla Apache Nation (New Mexico), Seneca Nation of Indians (New York), Future Generations Collaborative (Oregon), and Oglala Sioux Tribe (South Dakota).