Associate Commissioner Joo Yeun Chang of the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, Children's Bureau released a letter to Child Welfare Agencies and providers highlighting the importance of financial capability. This letter also identifies resources available to support financial capability work with children, youth, families, and the child welfare workforce.

On Tuesday, April 21, 2015, the Office of Family Assistance, in partnership with the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Early Childhood Development, hosted a webinar for Tribal TANF and Tribal TANF-Child Welfare Partnerships grantees titled “Addressing Toxic Stress and Trauma in Native Communities: The Promise of Tribal Home Visiting.” Toxic stress results from exposure to strong, excessive, and/or prolonged adversity in childhood without the buffer of stable environment and supportive relationships with caring adults. American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) children face unique circumstances and disproportionate exposure to adverse childhood experiences, necessitating a discussion of how best to address toxic stress, trauma, and detrimental health effects to promote resilience among AIAN children. The webinar included an overview of toxic stress and how it affects AIAN child health, followed by an overview of the Tribal Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) program, and a presentation from a Tribal Home Visiting grantee that is actively working to address toxic stress in one tribal community.

In January 2014, Ms. Gwen Gua, SPIPA’s Social Services Manager, submitted a TA Request to the Welfare Peer TA (WPTA) Network seeking onsite training on wraparound services; SPIPA hoped to enhance its case management services for the three Tribes currently operating Tribal TANF/Child Welfare coordination grants by incorporating the principles of wraparound services into its service delivery. SPIPA requested that the Native American Training Institute (NATI) conduct a five-day culture-based wraparound training session titled: “Wraparound in Indian Country: The Ways of the People Are Who We Are.” OFA PeerTA provided technical assistance by facilitating a five-day onsite Wraparound Services training for SPIPA staff that are a part of the wraparound process or are supervising individuals that are implementing the process. The training was designed to prepare the participating Tribes to implement a wraparound care framework that defines agency roles, identifies areas for resource sharing to strengthen services, and establishes a common language to facilitate collaboration. Outcomes included understanding the wraparound process and how it can enhance service delivery for multiple complex needs individuals and their families, and learning the skills necessary for the implementation of wraparound services, including facilitating the wraparound process and conducting wraparound meetings.

The Family Engagement Inventory (FEI) is an interactive web-based tool aimed at familiarizing professionals in child welfare, juvenile justice, behavioral health, and other professions with the competencies for family engagement as it relates across the different fields of practice. The primary purpose of the FEI is to combine knowledge in a way that supports professionals in engaging with families.

The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians (CTSI) requested TA from the PeerTA Network to assist in training their TANF and child welfare staff on the wraparound case management process – an intensive, individualized care management process for individuals with complex behavioral needs and/or significant work barriers. CTSI requested a site visit in which an outside trainer visited the Tribal agency to provide wraparound training. OFA PeerTA supported a facilitated site visit for the Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services, School of Social Work, Portland State University to provide CTSI with a 3-4 day onsite training focusing on wraparound case management.

In December 2011, representatives from the Jefferson County Department of Human Services, Career and Family Support Services, Colorado Works and Child Care Assistance Program contacted the Welfare Peer TA (WPTA) Network for assistance in determining the optimal number of cases each TANF caseworker should maintain, so that an appropriate amount of time and attention can be paid to all participants to assist them in achieving higher levels of economic self-sufficiency. In response to Jefferson County’s TA Request, the WPTA team conducted information gathering outreach to 10 of the largest cities in the country (New York, New York; Los Angeles, California; Chicago, Illinois; Houston, Texas; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; Phoenix, Arizona; San Antonio, Texas; San Diego, California; Dallas, Texas; and San Jose, California). This data provided Colorado and other States a greater understanding of optimal caseload sizes for TANF offices, and of caseload sizes per TANF eligibility workers versus case managers. The Technical Assistance Summary associated with this effort provides a high-level overview of TANF caseload sizes among the 10 highlighted metropolitan areas. It also provides insight into staffing structure, caseload size designation, characteristics of staff and participants, caseload manageability, caseload assignments, caseload demographic information, workload and responsibilities of staff, curricula and training, as well as barriers and challenges faced by the TANF programs.

This data report from Child Trends provides updated information and recent data related to TANF and its outcomes for children. A summary of trends is provided as well as a series of graphs offering both longitudinal data and point in time data from fiscal year 2010. Various studies are cited which offer both mixed results when examining TANF’s effect on child poverty.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released a spotlight report that explores the high rates of sexual activity and pregnancy among teenage girls in the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway released a fact sheet that outlines the process by which federal legislative actions and policy changes influence State and Tribal child welfare systems and service delivery.

This statute ended the Aid to Families with Dependent Children welfare entitlement program, replacing it with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block grant program, which provides cash assistance to needy families and requires families to make verifiable work efforts to leave welfare. It also allowed funds to be used to encourage the maintenance and formation of two-parent families. A second block grant under the statute provided funds to states to subsidize child care for low-income families.