This Child Welfare Playbook strategy emphasizes the importance of engaging extended family and kin caregivers early when children are at risk of removal to explore options for support and safety within the family network. This strategy reinforces the value of early engagement and family-centered approaches. TANF case managers can consider how involving a broader support network can strengthen family stability, reduce crisis escalation, and connect participants to supports that align with their goals.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on March 25, 2026 at 2:00 p.m. ET to showcase six different Family Resource Center (FRC) models that are creatively supporting kin caregivers and grandfamilies across the country, from rural and urban hubs to school-based, faith-based, and mobile programs. FRCs serve as community anchors that offer wraparound supports like parenting education, benefits navigation, peer groups, and concrete resources that help families thrive.

This Institute for Family Studies resource outlines seven policy approaches states can use to support marriage, family stability, and economic wellbeing — including relationship education, shared parenting supports, income policies, and community-based initiatives. For TANF programs, this resource offers concrete ideas that can inform program design, partnerships, and policy alignment, such as integrating relationship skills into employment services, coordinating with child support and parenting programs, and considering how benefits and work policies affect family stability. TANF leaders can use this perspective to identify opportunities where family-strengthening strategies and economic supports reinforce one another to improve outcomes for parents and children.

This Imprint resource was co-authored by Assistant Secretary Alex Adams and highlights the importance of prevention-focused strategies in supporting families and keeping children out of more intensive systems like foster care. He argues that building strong entry points into supportive services, rather than waiting for crises, leads to better outcomes and less system involvement. The resource reinforces the value of early engagement with families, cross-system referrals, and collaboration across child welfare and community partners to help families thrive before deep instability occurs.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) announced the appointment of Wendy Horman as Director of the Office of Child Care (OCC) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. For Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, leadership within the OCC is closely connected to TANF’s statutory focus on work preparation, employment, and family economic improvement. Access to stable childcare remains a critical support that enables parents to participate in job search, training, and employment activities. As director, Horman will lead the OCC within the Office of Early Childhood Education and work to strengthen the Child Care Development Fund, the United States’ largest national voucher program, which provides states with funding to help low-income families access childcare. Her work will focus on supporting families and improving child outcomes, empowering states and programs to improve alignment with local approaches to services, and eliminating unnecessary bureaucracy to deliver maximum benefit to the families ACF serves.

This toolkit from National Marriage Week offers free downloadable materials to help communities highlight healthy, committed relationships. It includes promotional graphics, sample social media posts, print ads, radio scripts, and a guide with ideas for community events and awareness building activities. These resources can be a helpful addition for programs that incorporate relationship skills, family support, or partner engagement into case management or workshops, giving staff approachable tools to encourage strong interpersonal connections that contribute to family stability and economic wellbeing.

The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on February 11 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to focus on how kinship and family support programs are building and sustaining multi-state navigator initiatives. The session will share real-world lessons about effective partnership structures, staffing strategies, data sharing, and funding approaches as well as examples of promising models that have expanded across regions. This is a chance to learn how navigator services can expand for broader reach, strengthen cross-state collaboration, and help connect families to benefits and supports.

The Annie E. Casey Foundation is hosting a webinar on February 25, 2026 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to introduce Functional Family Therapy (FFT) and its use in foster care to improve outcomes for children, youth, and foster parents. FFT is an evidence-based, family-centered approach that helps strengthen relationships and increase placement stability, with research suggesting it can lead to better experiences for kids in care and higher satisfaction for caregivers. For TANF programs, understanding FFT can be useful when considering cross-system partnerships with child welfare and behavioral health providers, especially where family engagement and stability connect to participants’ broader economic and social well-being.