Ensuring Secure Futures for Millions of Americans

July 25, 2016
Smaller version of ACF 25th Anniversary Word Cloud with human services terms

By Rachel Maisler, Office of Communications

Reflecting back on the last 25 years, it’s easy to see the footprint left by ACF’S programs. Millions of Americans from across the country have been helped, through education, job training, assistance achieving self-sufficiency, and other ways of supporting strong, healthy families.

Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)

ACF has focused on strategies to improve the effectiveness of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program as both a safety net and springboard for economic mobility. The TANF Emergency Fund, created as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, provided nearly $5 billion in federal funds to 52 states and territories and 25 tribes for basic assistance, non-recurrent short-term benefits, and for subsidized employment. With these funds, states placed 262,520 unemployed people in subsidized jobs, including 138,050 youth.

Health Profession Opportunity Grants

Over a five-year period, more than 38,800 individuals enrolled in the Health Profession Opportunity Grants program, more than 25,100 completed a healthcare training, nearly 17,500 gained employment in the healthcare sector.

Individual Development Accounts Improving Lives

Using Individual Development Accounts, a matched savings program established in 1999, nearly 15,500 participants were able to purchase their first home, more than 16,700 participants have pursued a post-secondary education, and 12,570 participants funded a new small business.

Taking Time to be a Dad

The Fatherhood.gov media campaign brought the “Take time to be a dad today” campaign to national attention and spurred high-profile involvement and partnerships with the motion picture and television industries, including recent movies like Despicable Me 2 and Kung Fu Panda 3.

Shifting focus of Child Support

The child support program has shifted its primary mission from welfare cost recovery to family support, collecting more than $28 million in child support payments for almost 10 million children per year by using a variety of traditional enforcement tools and early intervention strategies, including strategies to increase parental employment and involvement in their children’s lives.

Thanks to programs like these, the future is brighter. Here’s to another 25 years assisting American families to grow strong and healthy!

Program Office:
Types:
Topics: