This is an updated brief from the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) 2018 TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series that described collaboration strategies between Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) programs to serve populations with low incomes. These updated briefs were developed through follow-up outreach and interviews to explore how TANF/WIOA collaborations have been sustained over time and have evolved as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Each brief features a success story and includes snapshot infographics depicting TANF and WIOA data.

The Missouri Workforce Centers (WFC) in Kansas City and vicinity and the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan regions provide TANF/WIOA customers with an array of services through Missouri Work Assistance (MWA). The customer flow from TANF to WIOA differs between Kansas City and the Greater St. Louis Metropolitan regions. However, both sites have a similar process where each MWA contractor and its partners assist TANF/WIOA customers at the WFC to support job entry, skills gain, and work experience. The brief highlights key elements that made the collaboration successful, including strengthening community connections, rapidly responding to changes in the labor market, sharing resources, prioritizing team sharing, and implementing a two-generation approach.

Many families struggle to meet their basic needs, a challenge that may be exacerbated by increased costs of living, widening income inequality, and ongoing economic uncertainty. Upward economic mobility across generations remains limited; children who grow up in the United States today are much less likely than children born in the 1940s to earn more income than their parents. Research suggests that two-generation (2Gen) approaches can help interrupt the economic and social barriers to many families’ economic mobility and increased well-being and carry long-term benefits. This report provides a current data snapshot of some families in the United States who may be eligible for and benefit from 2Gen supports and services.

The Aspen Institute’s Ascend initiative will host a national briefing on March 2, 2023 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET which will cover an analysis of families with low incomes across the country. Looking at children and the adults in their lives together, this new comparative analysis of 2011 and 2021 Census data will illuminate the diversity of families, examining single and dual parent households and families with young children and ones with at least one child under the age of 18, as well as young parent and multigenerational households.

During the continued recovery from and ongoing response to the COVID-19 epidemic, every member of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) families has experienced a growing set of challenges to their mental well-being. Amplified socioeconomic issues such as the rising cost of daily expenses, especially food, gas, and housing; difficulties with finding quality and long-term employment; and challenges with access to healthcare continue to place an increased mental burden on low-income families. In addition, children who previously found stability at school, even when it was not present at home, have had to endure constant changes in school closures, learning styles, and staff fluctuations and shortages.

Due to the heightened need of mental health services for all members of the family, it is vital that health and human service departments and community organizations consider mental health promotion as part of a comprehensive approach to service delivery. TANF programs provide an important touchpoint to low-income families facing mental health challenges and can improve access and utilization of mental health services for parents and children.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on January 26, 2023 where speakers discussed the intersection between poverty, trauma, and mental health and shared strategies that could help improve long-term mental health outcomes for low-income families. Webinar attendees engaged with speakers and peers in dialogue focused on building mental health service strategies for TANF families impacted by various traumas.

This podcast features Anne Mosle, Executive Director of the Aspen Institute’s Ascend initiative, where she discusses how community dialogue plays a significant role in restoring trust. The podcast also covers her belief that we must reevaluate how we build social capital, the access to relationships and networks that unlock opportunities. The overall theme of the podcast reflects how listening to people and honoring their lived experiences is the most valuable tool in the pursuit of prosperity and well-being for all families.

More than 3,000 Family Resource Centers (FRCs) in 36 states and the District of Columbia work with more than 2 million people annually, and because they have emerged organically without dedicated federal funding, they are often described as "America’s best kept secret." FRCs work with families in a strengths-based, multi-generational, family-centered approach to enhance parenting skills, foster the healthy development and well-being of children, youth, and families, prevent child abuse, increase school readiness, connect families to resources, develop parent and community leadership, engage males and fathers, support healthy marital and couples relationships, and promote family economic success.

The National Family Support Network will hold a webinar on December 14, 2022 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:45 p.m. ET and will address the following three questions:

• What are FRCs and how are they networked across the country?
• What does research show about the positive outcomes FRCs have achieved for children and families?
• Why are so many public and private funders at the state, county, city, and community levels choosing to invest in FRCs?

There are more than 2.5 million children in the U.S. growing up in “grandfamilies,” meaning they are being raised by relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc.) or close family friends without their parents in the home. Research shows grandfamilies are the best option for children who cannot be raised by their parents. This report includes the latest findings on grandfamilies facing high rates of hunger and food insecurity, as well as policy recommendations to help feed grandfamilies.

This brief describes how two-generation initiatives participating in the Next Steps for Rigorous Research on Two-Generation Approaches (NS2G) project developed and refined a two-generation logic model to help them identify the right mix of services for primary caregivers and their children. The brief is intended for practitioners who provide two-generation services and seek to develop a logic model. The two-generation logic model describes the characteristics of the families served, the core services offered to each generation to support family economic security and child development, and how those services are intentionally coordinated and mutually reinforcing. Appendix A in the brief includes a blank logic model template designed to help practitioners identify core components for their own initiative.

Nearly 20 million children (almost 1 in 4) live in a home without a resident father. These children are more likely to have social-emotional adjustment problems and failing grades at school, and to become involved in the juvenile justice system. To address the problems that arise from fathers’ physical or psychological absence from children’s lives, the U.S. Congress authorized in 2006 the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) initiative, allocating $150 million per year to two separate programs: Healthy Marriage (HM) programs to strengthen married and unmarried couple relationships; and Responsible Fatherhood (RF) programs to increase the active engagement of non-residential and residential fathers as parents, partners, and economic providers. While almost all RF programs offer group programs attended and led by men, with a focus on parenting and men’s mental health, this brief presents evidence which shows that fatherhood programs that include both parenting partners and expand the curriculum to cover multiple domains of family functioning not only increase father involvement and collaboration between parents, but also reduce harsh parenting and support children’s development. The brief also illustrates evidence to support a greater integration of RF and HM programs, the use of expanded curricula that cover multiple aspects of family life, and where more attention is to be paid when assessing the impact of these programs on parents and children.