This visual guide, developed in alignment with GAO recommendations, focuses on key TANF fraud risks organized by the type of individual potentially involved in committing fraud (e.g., beneficiary, agency employee, subrecipient, contractor) and outlines clear risk indicators, prevention strategies, and detection methods. The guide is designed to support TANF agencies in strengthening program integrity through a user-centered, accessible format that promotes transparency and accountability.

The entirety of the TANF Fraud Risk Management: Visual Resources for TANF Agencies can be accessed here: https://peerta.acf.hhs.gov/content/tanf-fraud-risk-management-visual-resources-tanf-agencies.

These visual guides support TANF agencies in proactively identifying, preventing, and mitigating fraud risks before they escalate to federal oversight. Grounded in the findings of GAO Report 25-107290, these resources address specific vulnerabilities in TANF fraud risk management and translate those insights into practical tools. By implementing these strategies, TANF agencies can strengthen program integrity, reduce inefficient spending, enhance accountability, and prevent the diversion of funds from their intended purpose, thereby upholding TANF’s core mission of assisting families in need.

Families that receive Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) cash assistance are often in a state of crisis. They face immediate material needs, and these unmet basic needs put families at an increased risk for investigations in the child welfare system. Addressing unmet material needs among TANF participants, through providing concrete supports, can help prevent child maltreatment and ultimately keep children in their homes.

This tipsheet is intended for state, county, and Tribal TANF leaders who make program-level decisions about the types of resources and services that their programs offer to TANF participants.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) has published these four Notices of Funding Opportunity (NOFOs) to support fathers, strengthen families, and empower youth across the nation.

• Family, Opportunity, Resilience, Grit, Engagement – Fatherhood (FORGE Fatherhood): ACF announced its plan to solicit applications for the competitive award of grants that support "activities to promote responsible fatherhood" under each of the three broad categories of promoting or sustaining marriage, responsible parenting, and economic stability activities authorized under Section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act. This funding will be targeted exclusively at projects designed for adult fathers, defined as fathers that are age 18 and older. Eligible fathers (or father figures) must have children who are age 24 or younger. Fathers will include those in the general population (or "community fathers"), as well as fathers who are returning, or have returned, to their families and communities, following incarceration. 

   

• Helping Every Area of Relationships Thrive - Adults (HEART): ACF announced its plan to solicit applications for the competitive award of grants that support "healthy marriage promotion" activities as authorized under Section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act. This funding will be targeted exclusively to projects designed for adult individuals or adult couples, defined as persons who are age 18 and older. Applicants will be asked to submit proposals that are designed to implement programs that include a broad array of service provision strategies. These include curriculum-based skills development and services designed to support family strengthening activities through one or more of seven activities specified under the authorizing legislation: marriage and relationship education/skills (MRES); pre-marital education; marriage enhancement; divorce reduction activities; marriage mentoring; public advertising campaigns; and activities to reduce the disincentives to marriage. 

   

• Relationships, Education, Advancement, and Development for Youth for Life (READY4Life): ACF announced its plan to solicit applications for the competitive award of grants that support healthy marriage and relationship education activities including parenting, and job and career advancement activities as authorized under Section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act. The Relationships, Education, Advancement, and Development for Youth for Life (READY4Life) grants will be targeted exclusively to projects designed to provide healthy marriage and relationship education skills, parenting (for young fathers and mothers as applicable), financial management, job and career advancement, and other activities, to youth that are high-school aged (grades 9-12) or in late adolescence and early adulthood (ages 14 to 24), including parenting and/or pregnant youth. Grants awarded will support family formation and healthy marriage promotion activities under the authorizing legislation, through marriage and relationship education/skills (MRES). Applicants must provide evidence of organizational capacity to implement their proposed project for the specified community.

   

• Grants for Coordination of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families at Risk of Child Abuse or Neglect: ACF announced the availability of funds under the Grants for Coordination of Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families at Risk of Child Abuse or Neglect. The purpose of this program, as prescribed by the statute (section 403(a)(2) of the Social Security Act, as amended), is "to fund demonstration projects designed to test the effectiveness of tribal governments or tribal consortia in coordinating the provision to tribal families at risk of child abuse and neglect of child welfare services and services under tribal programs funded under this part." 42 U.S.C. 603(a)(2)(B)(i). The award must be utilized for one or more purposes that are specifically outlined by statutorily-prescribed uses: (1) To improve case management for families eligible for assistance from a Tribal TANF program; (2) For supportive services and assistance to tribal children in out-of-home placements and the tribal families caring for such children, including families who adopt such children; (3) For prevention services and assistance to tribal families at risk of child abuse and neglect. In recent cohorts, recipients have engaged in activities such as revising intake and assessment procedures, developing informed consent documents that will allow staff to share information across program lines, providing cross-training for TANF and child welfare staff, developing joint case management procedures, and developing information technology systems to enhance coordination. Successful awardees will be required to articulate the methodology employed, as well as the anticipated deliverables and impacts. As this constitutes a pilot award, recipients are expected to disseminate key insights to the wider Tribal TANF and child welfare community.

   

All applications must be submitted electronically by Tuesday, July 29, 2025, at 11:59 p.m. ET. 

This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network primer was developed to offer service providers basic information about federal programs that can be used to finance kinship services and programs. Information for each source includes which federal agency administers the funding source, services the funding source can finance, and basic eligibility information. This funding primer is not intended to be an in-depth explanation of each source but, rather, a high-level overview that can be used to aid further research.

The Office of Family Assistance released these resources to aid grantees in data reporting for TANF, SSP-MOE, and Tribal TANF.

Early childhood development (ECD) investments are rarely considered an important part of economic development, yet they are deeply interconnected. When children have a healthy start in life, they are more likely to become the scholars, innovators, and entrepreneurs that drive economic development in their communities. This Administration for Children and Families resource highlights an important return on investment approach to investments in ECD that is uniquely augmented in Native communities.

The FAST-LC Initial Convening was hosted on October 18-19, 2023 in Bethesda, Maryland. The session “Overview of the LI2 Framework with a Focus on the Learn Phase” included a 20-minute plenary presentation on the Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2) framework and its roots in implementation science. The presenter also highlighted practical ways for the FAST-LC sites to get started with Learn phase activities.

The FAST-LC Initial Convening was hosted on October 18-19, 2023 in Bethesda, Maryland. This session was presented by Clare Anderson at Chapin Hall, who discussed the history of child welfare and its impact on the economic stability of families who are involved with the child welfare system.

FAST-LC held a virtual event in January 2024 that aimed to provide a better understanding of how TANF dollars are used in Child Welfare and operational considerations for aligning funding with prevention efforts. This session reinforced the ways in which TANF spending in Child Welfare is consistent with the statutory purposes of TANF (particularly the first purpose), to inform FAST-LC participating sites’ action plans, and to learn from peers about how they are utilizing TANF funds for prevention strategies upstream of and within child welfare.