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.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau have announced the 10 sites selected to participate in the FAST-LC. The FAST-LC is a 12-month initiative operating from September 2023 through September 2024. The Learning Community will focus on promoting innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. Site teams will benefit from a robust suite of individualized training, technical assistance, and coaching support, as well as regular opportunities for collaborative learning and sharing across site teams.

The states and tribes participating in the FAST-LC are:
• Arizona Department of Child Safety and Department of Economic Security;
• Arkansas Department of Human Services;
• California Department of Social Services;
• Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Reservation (Montana),
• Iowa Department of Health and Human Services;
• Kentucky Department for Community Based Services;
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services;
• Oregon Department of Human Services;
• Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Arizona); and
• West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The Office of Family Assistance initiative, “Leveraging America’s Social and Economic Resilience TANF Learning Community” (LASER TLC), supported ten TANF Programs across the country as they worked to address the challenges of human service delivery in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and focused on improving and delivering more responsive services to their TANF families. This document shares the Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Reservation’s journey during their participation in the 18-month learning community. The site journey conveys how their LASER TLC site team, along with support from their dedicated coaching team and application of the LI2 framework, contributed to developing their action plan and strategizing the implementation of their change agenda to benefit TANF families.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions IX and X hosted the Tribal Technical Assistance Meeting on July 25‐27, 2016 at the Isleta Resort and Casino in Albuquerque, New Mexico. The meeting brought together Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) stakeholders to discuss innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well‐being for individuals, families, and tribal communities. During the meeting, tribal representatives engaged in listening sessions, shared best practices, and participated in workshops in order to more successfully serve the program participants in their communities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII hosted the Tribal Technical Assistance Meeting on May 3‐5, 2016 at the Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The meeting brought together Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Native Employment Works (NEW) stakeholders to discuss innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well‐being for individuals, families, and tribal communities. During the meeting, tribal representatives engaged in talking circles and listening sessions, shared best practices, and participated in workshops and action planning in order to more successfully serve the program participants in their communities.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Division of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Management hosted the Tribal TANF Summit (Summit) on August 31-September 1, 2015 at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Downtown Hotel. The Summit brought together Tribal TANF program administrators and tribal leaders to dialogue about key issues facing Tribal TANF programs. The Summit provided attendees with opportunities to engage with their peers and experts from the field, to discuss best practices and the latest research, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families in their communities.

On August 5-6, 2014 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the Tribal TANF Leadership Symposium in Washington, District of Columbia. This Symposium brought together Tribal Council members and leaders from the 65 tribes operating Tribal TANF programs across the United States, along with experts from the field, to share innovative strategies and updates related to Tribal TANF program implementation and collaboration. Over the course of the two-day meeting, participants had the opportunity to attend plenary sessions and workshops, dialogue with ACF and OFA leadership, and network with peers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted the 2013 Tribal TANF--Child Welfare Coordination Projects Annual Grantee Meeting on August 14-15, 2013 in Denver, Colorado. The meeting provided Tribal TANF--Child Welfare Coordination Project grantees with the opportunity to share information with their peers regarding their program structure and performance. The meeting also addressed grant requirements for Year Two of the projects, strategies for building coalitions in Native American communities, home visiting programs, program sustainability, and approaches for documenting cross-agency coordination and collaboration.

On August 14 and 15, 2012, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII convened the 2012 Regions V, VI, VII, and VIII Tribal TANF Workshop in St. Paul, Minnesota. Designed to bring together Tribal TANF program directors and other key stakeholders, this workshop focused on the dual issues of effectively providing services to Tribal families in a recovering economy and helping TANF participants achieve self-sufficiency. Workshop attendees were provided with opportunities to strategically engage with their peers in order to share promising practices and the latest research, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families. Over the course of the day and a half workshop a number of specific topics were covered including: Dialogue with the OFA Division of Tribal TANF Management; Youth Programming and Summer Youth Employment; Subsidized Employment Programs and Employer Engagement; Use of Skill-Building Activities; Audits, Financial and Grants Management, and Data Reporting; Collaboration with Child Support Enforcement and Child Welfare; and Financial Literacy and Asset Building. The wide reach of the workshop was evident with 24 Tribes represented from four OFA Regions. During the workshop, Tribal TANF program representatives also spent time networking and dialoguing on their program strengths, challenges, partnerships, and program policies/integrity, to garner new and innovative ideas from others for serving their TANF participants.

The Chippewa Cree Tribal TANF Program, operating on the Rocky Boy Reservation in Montana, submitted a Technical Assistance Request through the Welfare Peer Technical Assistance Network (Welfare PeerTA), stating their interest in integrating an official wraparound case management and intervention process for Tribal TANF participants who need services across many agencies. To support this intervention process, the Welfare PeerTA Network, a technical assistance initiative sponsored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance, approached these objectives through a three phase technical assistance process: 1) Wraparound Services Training Event; 2) a Tribal TANF Case Review Teleconference; and 3) a Wraparound Case Management Services Webinar. Together, the phases of technical assistance contributed to the fostering of collaborations within Chippewa Cree's various social services agencies, as well as equipped Chippewa Cree staff with the tools and skills necessary to move forward on their own.