When a child can't safely stay with their parents, the next best option is almost always a grandparent, aunt, uncle, or close family friend who already knows and loves them. Keeping that connection intact can make a profound difference in a child's long-term stability, but many agencies struggle to identify and engage kinship caregivers consistently, in part because they don't have clear systems for tracking who those caregivers are or reaching them. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on June 24, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to share how to use data in prioritizing kinship care. With presenters drawing on experience working with states across the country, they will discuss first steps for collecting and understanding kinship data and using it to engage kin caregivers wherever possible. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, kinship families are a significant part of the caseload, including grandparents raising grandchildren, relatives who stepped in without a formal plan, and caregivers who may not even know they're eligible for support. Better data on kinship placement means better coordination between child welfare and TANF, and ultimately better outcomes for families who are already doing the hard work of keeping children connected to their roots.

When a young person turns 18 in foster care, the system too often just disappears. Extended foster care (EFC) programs exist to bridge that gap, keeping older youth connected to support as they transition into adulthood. But not all extended care programs are equally accessible or effective, and youth themselves are rarely centered in decisions about how these programs are designed. The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) will host a webinar on June 24, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to highlight the work of the National Collaborative for Transition-Age Youth, a partnership among APHSA, FosterClub, and Youth Villages, and discuss EFC outcomes.

These organizations co-developed guidance with young people, child welfare leaders, and policymakers to strengthen services for youth turning 18 in foster care. Research shows that when extended care is available and inclusive, anywhere from 70 to 80 percent of young people in care at age 17½ will remain in the program at 19, and roughly half will still be enrolled at 21, with benefits that persist well into adulthood. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners working with transition-age youth, this session will offer both evidence and strategy to understand why extended care matters and how to better connect young people to the services that can make it work.

Too often, accessing public benefits requires families to travel to offices during business hours, wait in long lines, and navigate systems that were designed around administrative convenience rather than client need. The San Francisco Human Services Agency decided to try something different. Their Mobile Benefits Center was built around a simple idea of bringing human services directly to communities that face barriers getting to agency buildings and was designed in close partnership with clients of different ages, backgrounds, and experiences, as well as frontline staff and community partners. This American Public Human Services Association practical case study covers what it means to design with communities rather than for them. It raises important questions worth asking about your own Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program: Where are clients actually located? What barriers are we asking them to overcome before they even walk in the door? And what would it look like to meet them there instead?

Young people aging out of foster care may face a stark reality. They leave the system at 18 with little financial cushion and few of the family safety nets on which most young adults rely. To address this, federal guidance has been issued by the Administration for Children and Families at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the U.S. Department of the Treasury enabling state, territorial, and Tribal child welfare agencies to open dedicated savings and investment accounts called “Fostering the Future Accounts” for children and youth in their care. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, this is a critical moment to understand how these accounts fit into the broader picture of economic security for families you serve. Youth in or aging out of foster care are a population TANF programs frequently encounter; understanding how to help youth access and benefit from this new financial tool will position your program to be a more informed connector of services.

This MDRC report explores how two workforce programs in Los Angeles adapted employment services to better meet the needs of young people. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners serving youth and young parents, this resource offers insight into why flexible, individualized approaches matter. The resource highlights strategies such as personalized coaching, relationship-building, and responsive support services that help young people stay engaged and move toward employment goals. Programs looking to improve participation, reduce barriers, and better connect with younger clients may find useful ideas for strengthening their own service delivery models.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced a new $7 million innovation challenge aimed at helping more children and youth find safe, stable, and permanent homes. The “A Home for Every Child Innovation Challenge” will reward child welfare agencies that achieve the highest foster home-to-child ratios, as well as those demonstrating the greatest improvement over a one-year period beginning in October 2026. These performance-based bonuses reflect ACF’s broader goal of achieving a 1:1 ratio of foster homes to children in foster care nationwide. 

Under the challenge, the state with the highest foster home-to-child ratio will receive $3 million, while the second-place state will receive $2 million. Two additional states showing the most improvement will each receive $1 million. Registration for the challenge opens May 14, 2026, and closes June 30, 2026. The competition period will run from October 1, 2026, through September 30, 2027, with winners expected to be announced in November 2027. 

To participate, child welfare jurisdictions must be part of ACF’s “A Home for Every Child” initiative and formally opt into the new Program Improvement Plan pilot announced through Child and Family Services Review Technical Bulletin #14. 

For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this challenge highlights the importance of strengthening family stability before crises escalate. TANF agencies can use this opportunity to explore partnerships and innovative approaches that connect economic mobility, workforce services, and child well-being efforts.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs often serve young people who are expected to move toward independence while still developing basic skills needed for adulthood, such as managing money, maintaining housing, or making informed health and education decisions. This curriculum by the Virginia Department of Social Services offers a structured way to support that work through practical, ready-to-use workshops organized around key life domains like career preparation, money management, housing, education, health and nutrition, and risk prevention.

For TANF practitioners, the value is in the curriculum’s usability. Each topic includes multiple workshops with facilitator guides and supporting materials, which reduces the burden on staff to design programming from scratch. It can be used flexibly across settings: case management, group workshops, or partner-led programming.

Instead of relying on informal coaching or uneven program content, staff can use a shared curriculum that supports repeatable instruction across participants and sites. This helps create more continuity in services, especially for youth who need reinforcement over time rather than single-touch interventions.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners often need a clear way to identify what a participant can already do independently and where support is still needed, especially when working with youth and young adults. This Casey Family Programs toolkit provides that structure in a straightforward way for use in everyday case management. It helps translate broad goals like “become self-sufficient” into specific skill areas such as budgeting, communication, and managing daily responsibilities. The value for TANF work is that it creates a shared language between staff and participants, making progress easier to see and track. It also helps engage clients by turning abstract expectations into visible, achievable steps.