The Urban Institute’s Marriage Calculator shows how marriage can change a household’s income, taxes, and benefit eligibility. It helps surface the often complex financial consequences of family structure decisions. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, it can be used as a neutral, educational tool in coaching conversations to help participants better understand how relationships and financial systems interact as well as the financial benefits that marriage can offer.

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 idea: relationships are strengthened not by avoiding conflict, but by how people handle it and reconnect afterward. This resource addresses a common gap—many TANF clients may receive guidance on employment or finances, but not always on maintaining healthy relationships under stress. TANF practitioners can incorporate these soft skill concepts into workshops, case management conversations, or family-focused services to help participants build stronger connections, manage work and home challenges more effectively, and create more stable family environments.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) will host the National Fatherhood Summit from August 3 to August 5, 2026, providing a forum for stakeholders interested in sharing and discovering ways to support and promote responsible fatherhood. OFA encourages stakeholders from a variety of vocations and walks of life to help shape the Summit agenda by submitting workshop proposals that align with the Summit theme, “The Fatherhood Mandate: Building Families, Building America,” and one of their five concurrent Summit learning tracks:

1. Strengthening Marriage and Family Stability in the Context of Fatherhood
2. Fathers, Child Welfare, and the Path Beyond Foster Care
3. Workforce Readiness and Economic Mobility for Fathers
4. Fathers as Leaders in Faith-Based and Civic Institutions in Their Communities
5. Data-Driven Fatherhood Programming

If you are interested in presenting, OFA is welcoming submissions until April 24, 2026 at 11:59 p.m. ET. 

For more information on participating as an attendee, please check out The 2026 National Fatherhood Summit webpage. 

This podcast, featuring representatives from the Institute for Family Studies and Marriage Foundation, explores the role of marriage in promoting family stability and economic outcomes. TANF programs can use the podcast topics as conversation starters for building and integrating healthy relationship skills that support two-parent engagement and long-term family success.

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse offers a comprehensive compendium of fatherhood curricula designed to support responsible parenting, healthy relationships, and economic stability. These evidence-informed and promising program models can help TANF agencies and partners strengthen father engagement strategies, offer parenting and relationship education, and better support noncustodial parents in contributing to family well-being.

Coordinating services across multiple public benefit programs can significantly improve how families access supports and navigate human services systems. This toolkit, funded by the Administration for Children and Families, was designed to help state and local agencies better align programs and services to support whole families.

The resource provides practical tools and structured guidance for identifying coordination challenges, developing shared goals across agencies, implementing cross-program strategies, and tracking progress over time. By helping agencies move away from siloed service delivery and toward integrated approaches, the toolkit aims to reduce administrative barriers, improve the experiences families have when seeking multiple benefits, and strengthen outcomes for children and parents. For TANF programs, these strategies can support stronger coordination with programs such as workforce services, SNAP, childcare, and child welfare — helping families access the full range of supports needed to achieve long-term stability and economic mobility.

Strong relationships and communication skills can play an important role in family stability and long-term success. These short eCourses and quick lessons from Utah State University Extension offer practical tools on relationship skills, communication, and conflict resolution. TANF programs may find these resources helpful for integrating healthy relationship education into case management, workshops, or participant supports.

This Institute for Family Studies resource focuses specifically on marriage penalties within the federal tax code. The piece outlines arguments for reform and discusses how tax policy interacts with means-tested benefits.

Hosted by American Enterprise Institute, this event convened in November 2024 to discuss how marriage and work penalties may emerge in tax and transfer systems. The discussions explore the relationship between earned income, benefit phase-outs, and household structure.