Toolkit: Elevating Family Input in TANF and Child Support Programs: Resources for Program Staff, Leaders, and Families

Publication Date: March 22, 2023

 

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This expansive toolkit provides guidance, real world examples, and resources to help TANF and child support programs engage the families they serve in improving service delivery, policy, and program operations.

TANF cash assistance and child support programs, with their restrictive policy environments and historically compliance-focused cultures, have opportunities for growth in how they engage families during continuous quality improvement efforts. These resources are designed to encourage and make it easier for TANF and child support program staff and leaders to actively seek to hear the opinions and perspectives of families they have served, are currently serving, or could serve in the future as they improve their services, processes, operations, service delivery, program spaces, or policies.

The study team collected and created these resources for a variety of audiences in TANF and child support programs:

  • Program staff, including staff and managers at the state, regional, and frontline levels, who work with families daily and who may make decisions about and implement local service delivery and program operations.
  • Program administrators, who set local policies, performance measures, and expectations for service delivery.
  • Families whom TANF and child support programs have served, currently serve, and aim to serve. We include resources that support a deeper understanding of the programs, describe the ways in which families might be involved in improving the programs, and offer ideas for how to advocate for change. 

Although most of the examples and considerations included in the resources focus on TANF and child support, other human services program administrators and staff may also find these resources useful.

Toolkit Sections

Program leaders and staff using these resources should consider what they want to learn about engaging families in the program improvement process, then navigate to the section that best aligns with their starting point and goals. Many of these resources are designed to stand alone, so you likely do not need to read everything. Alternatively, readers may download the full toolkit of resources above.

Human services programs and the communities they serve are diverse, so we encourage you to adapt these resources for your specific community and program context.

1. Navigation Tips

Navigation Tips (PDF) — These tips can help you quickly find relevant information, based on your program or role.

2: What Do We Mean by Program Improvement?

What Do We Mean By Program Improvement? (Section 2) (PDF) — This section will help you gain a better understanding of program or continuous improvement processes.

3. Why Engage Families in Your Program Improvement Efforts?

Why Engage Families in Your Program Improvement Efforts? (Section 3) (PDF) — This section will help you make the case for gathering input from families to improve your program.

4. An Overview of Family Engagement in Program Improvement

An Overview of Family Engagement in Program Improvement (Section 4) (PDF) — This section explains what family engagement looks like in program improvement.

5. Building and Maintaining Trust with Families

Building and Maintaining Trust with Families (Section 5) (PDF) — This section explains how to restore, build, or maintain trust with the families you engage.

6. Preparing for Change

Preparing for Change (Section 6 (PDF)) — This section describes how to get your program ready to include families in program improvement

7. Getting Started on Gathering and Using Family Input

Getting Started on Gathering and Using Family Input (Section 7) (PDF) — This section is targeted for those who are new to gathering family input for program improvement and are not sure where to start.

8. Integrating Family Input Throughout Program Improvement

Integrating Family Input Throughout Program Improvement (Section 8) (PDF) — This section is targeted for those who already gather input from families but want to formalize or deepen how you engage families.

9. Sharing Power with Families to Drive Continuous Improvement

Sharing Power with Families to Drive Continuous Improvement (Section 9) (PDF) — This section is targeted for those who want to start to share decision-making power with the families you engage in program improvement.

10. Family Input Toolbox

Family Input Toolbox (Section 10) (PDF) — This section lists tools and resources that can help you plan for, collect, and incorporate feedback from families in program improvement. All of the tools, resources, guides, and more that are referenced in Sections 2 — 9 are listed here.

Glossary

Family:
We use the term “family” throughout these resources to include people who might be eligible for, receive services from, or be past participants of TANF or child support programs. We use this person-centered term based on the guidance from the Expert Workgroup that informed the development of these resources. We believe it acknowledges the scope of impact that TANF and child support programs have beyond the person or people with whom the programs directly interact. The term “family” acknowledges the people involved but does not define them by their role in a system or program.
Program Improvement or Continuous Quality Improvement:
A systematic change process designed to lead to measurable improvements in program outcomes, effectiveness, efficiency, performance, and accountability

Methods

To develop these resources, the study team convened an Expert Workgroup consisting of members with diverse identities and experiences, including TANF, Tribal TANF, and child support program staff and people currently or previously served by those programs. Together, the study team and Expert Workgroup conceptualized and developed these resources. These resources were also informed by the study team’s prior knowledge development activities, including a targeted literature scan of academic and non-academic literature and consultations with TANF, Tribal TANF, child support, and human services program leaders, which are summarized in the brief Gathering and Using Family Input to Improve Child Support and Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Services: Approaches from the Human Services Field.

To ensure these resources are valuable, relevant, and actionable for TANF and child support programs, the study team will partner with eight TANF and child support programs to pilot test them between 2023 and 2024. Pilot sites will use these resources as they plan for and carry out a program improvement effort that engages families in the process. Administrators and staff from each pilot site will provide ongoing feedback about these resources to the study team during and after the 12-month pilot period. The study team will use the experiences and feedback from the pilot sites to revise these resources and expects to share an updated, final version in 2025.

Citation

Holdbrook, Jeanette, Lisa Rau, Bethany Boland, Shaun Stevenson, Mark Ezzo, and Imani Hutchinson (2022). Elevating Family Input in TANF and Child Support Programs: Resources for Program Staff, Leaders, and Families, OPRE Report # 2023-024, Washington, DC: Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, Administration for Children and Families, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.