ACF Supports Resiliency and Recovery through the American Rescue Plan

One year ago today, President Biden signed into law the American Rescue Plan (ARP) , a bold step forward in the fight for our children’s future and the largest infusion of federal resources for families in 60 years. With an ambitious goal to cut child poverty in half, the ARP has funded critical services delivering immediate relief for workers, families, children, and communities. The Administration for Children and Families (ACF) issued $47.5 billion (PDF) in ARP funds to improve the lives of those we serve by funding essential services such as child care, Head Start, energy assistance, and short-term pandemic emergency relief, and by fostering resiliency to weather challenges in the future.  

From the outset, we knew that listening to our partners and beneficiaries would be vital to ensuring that this historic support was as transformational as possible. We asked ourselves several key questions including: How could we enable grant recipients to pursue innovative solutions while also getting funds quickly out the door in their communities? How could we draw connections and share best practices among our grant recipients across the country? How could we support grant recipients to direct these ACF investments in ways that would help to address systemic inequities? How could we facilitate collaboration across funding streams, including from other federal agencies, such as the Department of Treasury’s ARP Emergency Rental Assistance program , which provides billions of dollars in rental and utility assistance to help keep families in their homes? How could we ensure that ARP not only promotes recovery, but also helps the children and families we serve to build resiliency?

To help answer these questions, ACF closely collaborated with grant recipients across states, counties, territories, and tribal nations to provide critical support to children and families when they needed it the most. For instance, in August, ACF hosted a national virtual convening bringing state and county leaders together for a learning exchange about promising strategies and approaches to fully harness available resources.  We heard from Washington State’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families about how they formed a poverty reduction workgroup and used it as a venue to empower individuals with lived experiences to drive the development of their 10-year strategic plan. The Alabama Department of Human Resources told us about the significant investments they made to their TANF and child care programs with the goal of stabilizing families before “climbing the ladder” to economic mobility, in order to ensure that families could sustain and build on their progress. And Ramsey County, Minnesota explained how their Equity Action Circle built trust within the community by partnering with community members to decide which data to collect to measure equity outcomes and focus on the issues most important to the community. We have also heard countless stories from families about the types of services they need to support a path to a promising future and all the ways ARP has provided essential resources during a trying time. 

In response to what we learned, we tailored our technical assistance and support to our states, tribes, territories, counties, and other grant recipients. For example, ACF has offered over 265 ARP technical assistance resources in the forms of program instructions, Dear Colleague Letters, manuals, fact sheets, issue briefs, policy guidance, webinars, conferences, virtual meetings, and office hours in addition to ongoing technical assistance to individual grant recipients on an as-needed basis. We have also helped to draw connections between different funding streams.

There are countless stories about innovative ways that our grant recipients have used this historic investment. For example, the Family and Youth Services Bureau awarded $1 billion to Family Violence Prevention and Services Act (FVPSA) programs to bolster violence and sexual assault prevention and support services, particularly for Indigenous peoples. Supported by these funds, the Domestic Violence and Housing Technical Assistance Consortium is building capacity among providers to increase services for individuals at the nexus of domestic violence and homelessness. Improving housing options for communities impacted by violence mitigates the risks of re-traumatization and advances long-term safety and well-being. As well, the Office of Head Start awarded $1 billion to Head Start programs nationwide to promote school readiness among children in families experiencing financial instability. Baldwin Park Unified School District’s Early Childhood Education Program in California used additional funds to provide telehealth well-child exams, nutritional screenings, growth assessments, and other services determined by community needs for children who would otherwise not be able to receive medical care due to COVID-19.

These examples—combining significant investments in prevention with immediate relief to children and families who need it the most—represent just a few of the many ways ARP funds are helping American communities. While we celebrate these accomplishments, we will continue to build partnerships to support the children and families impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and grow resiliency for future generations to bring to the obstacles they confront.