Rebuilding American Families
The Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program is designed to help families achieve stability and move toward long-term self-sufficiency. TANF purposes emphasize strengthening family formation, supporting healthy relationships, and promoting long-term economic security for parents and children.
This webpage provides resources to help state TANF agency staff translate these priorities into practice. The materials are organized around key areas of focus, including marriage and family formation supports, household stability skills, community and faith-based partnerships, family growth and economic planning, maternal and family wellness, youth preparation for family life, and emerging approaches. Each section highlights ways TANF programs can expand beyond basic assistance to offer tools that help practitioners engage families more broadly, address underlying barriers, and support stronger, more stable households. Together, these topics reflect a broader effort to not only meet immediate needs, but to equip families with the foundation for strong relationships and stable homes.
Marriage and Family Formation Supports
Reliable childcare can be an important factor in a family’s ability to work, train, or pursue education. This Child Trends brief examines the experiences of 107 Maryland families who received Child Care Scholarships in 2025. Before receiving a…
Family engagement can be challenging at every stage of home visiting from initial outreach and enrollment to continued participation. This brief from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation identifies seven evidence-informed factors that…
This I Am Dad podcast examines a practical question for fatherhood programs: what helps fathers participate consistently enough to benefit from services? The conversation explores the difference between incentives and supports, the barriers that…
Want practical ways to boost your program’s employment outcomes and help advance core purposes of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)? The Office of Family Assistance is sponsoring The Family Routes Initiative (FRI) to assist…
This vignette features a Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program that participated in the Family Routes Initiative Learning Community and expanded their Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) services. This…
This toolkit contains a collection of four one-page resources designed to facilitate strong, collaborative relationships with families. The toolkit includes flyers that can navigate Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners…
Household Stability Skills
The National Youth Employment Coalition will host a webinar on May 14, 2026 at 2:30 p.m. to assist workforce development professionals with better understanding and responding to the emotional experiences of young people. For Temporary Assistance…
Self Esteem Boston Educational Institute offers practical tools that help individuals communicate more clearly, listen with intent, and express their needs in a respectful, confident way. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)…
For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, this Institute for Family Studies resource offers a relatable way to introduce communication and relationship skills without relying on technical language. It centers on a practical…
Using Active Listening to Build Stronger Two-Parent Households and Improve TANF Participant Outcomes
This is the first video in a three-part series that aims to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs incorporate communication skill-building techniques from Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs that can…
This is the second video in a three-part series that aims to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs incorporate communication skill-building techniques from Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs that…
This is the final video in a three-part series that aims to help Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs incorporate communication skill-building techniques from Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs that can…
Community and Faith-Based Partnerships
Families often need more than a single service to achieve lasting economic mobility. As a facilitation model for building long-term collaboration between communities, public systems, and nonprofit partners, the Blue Sky Possibilities Framework…
This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network tipsheet focuses on how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can support children living with relatives or caregivers who are not receiving full family benefits. It fills a key…
This webpage offers a comprehensive approach to empowering parents and serves as an example of how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs can think more intentionally about family formation as part of their services. It shows how…
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops provides education and guidance on Natural Family Planning, a fertility awareness-based approach that helps individuals understand reproductive cycles to support either pregnancy planning or…
Families thrive when their communities are strong and connected. Yet too often, families face barriers to resources that support well-being, like lack of affordable childcare, safe housing, mental health supports, or job opportunities—barriers…
This report from the Sutherland Institute explores how religious involvement and faith communities can support family stability by fostering commitment, shared values, and social support networks. It reviews evidence suggesting that participation…
Family Growth and Economic Planning
The MIT Living Wage Calculator estimates the income families need to cover basic expenses based on where they live and family size. It helps clarify a common disconnect in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) work—employment alone does…
This Congressional Research Service report explains how Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) interacts with pregnancy centers and the role these organizations can play in providing services to pregnant women and families. It provides…
Research from SmartAsset explores what it takes financially for one parent to stay home and the other to support the household. It adds context to the tradeoffs families face when making caregiving and work decisions. Within Temporary Assistance…
This Executive Order by the Trump-Vance administration announces that they will dedicate Federal support, technology, and strategic partnerships to provide young Americans in or transitioning out of the foster care system with the tools they need…
Maternal and Family Wellness Supports
FACTS About Fertility provides education on fertility awareness and reproductive health, helping individuals better understand how fertility works and how it can be tracked over time. It helps address gaps in reproductive health knowledge that…
This evidence-based home visiting model pairs first-time parents with registered nurses who provide ongoing support during pregnancy and children’s early years. The Nurse-Family Partnership addresses a critical gap in early family support—…
This resource outlines financial assistance options that help reduce the cost of fertility medications and related care. The EMD Serono resource speaks to a need that is often overlooked in safety-net systems: access to reproductive health…
Youth Preparation for Family Life
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…
Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs frequently serve youth who are moving into adulthood without stable family support; basic planning around housing, money, and daily decision-making can determine whether they stabilize or…
This Pittsburgh-area workforce development program focuses on helping young people move from instability into real career direction. For youth exiting foster care, that transition can be especially abrupt—suddenly they are expected to manage work…
This curriculum by Making a Difference focuses on helping young people build decision-making skills, understand consequences, and reduce behaviors that increase risk of unintended pregnancy. The resource addresses a key prevention gap by reaching…
This One Key Question® tool introduces a simple but structured way for individuals to reflect on whether they want to become parents and when. The resource creates space for intentional decision-making at moments when family planning…
This resource explains the foundations of sexual risk avoidance education and how it is designed to support youth in making intentional, long-term healthy choices. It helps clarify how prevention-based approaches fit into broader adolescent…
Emerging Approaches
This Administration for Children and Families’ webpage serves as a timely outreach tool for explaining child support in a way families can use. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practitioners, it offers ready-made materials that…
Steady employment benefits both parents and children. This National Conference of State Legislatures resource highlights how child support agencies are partnering with workforce programs to connect parents with employment services that can…
Young adults ages 18 to 29 are often expected to make major decisions about work, education, housing, and relationships while they are still figuring out what they want their lives to look like. This Annie E. Casey Foundation podcast introduces…
Transitioning from foster care into adulthood can be challenging for any young person, but Native youth may also be navigating questions of culture, community, identity, and connection. This resource from the National Tribal Child Welfare Center…
Supportive services—such as childcare, transportation, housing assistance, and career coaching—can make the difference between participating in employment services and successfully reaching long-term goals. This National Skills Coalition resource…