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April 2014Vol. 15, No. 4Tribal TANF and Child Welfare Services

In 2011, the Office of Family Assistance awarded demonstration grants to 14 Tribes and Tribal organizations for the Coordination of Tribal Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Child Welfare Services to Tribal Families at Risk of Child Abuse or Neglect. In November 2013, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) released a report detailing the first-year implementation activities of the 14 grantees.  

Grantees served families enrolled or eligible for TANF and at-risk for child abuse or neglect, families already involved with Indian child welfare, and families with a child in foster care. Grantee goals were specific to the needs of the children and families in their respective communities and, therefore, grantee activities and services implemented during the first year were designed to respond to those specific needs. According to the report, system coordination activities were more difficult to implement than grantee direct services activities; however, most grantees implemented their proposed system coordination and services activities in the first year. The most common services provided were family violence prevention, substance abuse and mental health services, and parenting education.

The OPRE report describes the following: 

  • An overview of Coordination of Tribal TANF and Child Welfare Services grants and grantees
  • Grantee approaches to address coordinated service delivery
  • Services implemented by grantees
  • Project partners
  • Grantee first-year progress

Coordination of Tribal TANF and Child Welfare Services: Early Implementation is available on the OPRE website:

http://www.acf.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/opre/initial_findings_rprt_final.pdf (1 MB)