Tribal TANF & Child Welfare Services Coordination Study
Challenge
The ACF needed data on the outcomes and impact of a tribal grant program.
To address family risk factors for child abuse and neglect in tribes, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) Office of Family Assistance awarded grants to 14 tribes and tribal organizations to coordinate tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and child welfare (CW) services. A condition of the grant was that recipients agreed to participate in a study assessing the outcomes and impact of their grant-funded programs.
Solution
NORC and partners studied grantee programming using a relational approach.
We worked closely with the Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Health at the University of Colorado, Denver, and James Bell Associates—which led the project—and the 14 grantees themselves to document how they were creating and adapting culturally relevant and appropriate approaches, systems, and programs to increase coordination and enhance delivery of services that address child abuse and neglect.
Borrowing from the participatory research approach, our project team constantly communicated with grantees, working to create research partnerships that collaboratively built the knowledge base. Data collection involved annual grantee site visits to interview tribal leaders, elders, program staff, TANF and CW staff and supervisors, and community partners. These visits included observation of interventions and document reviews. In addition, grantees reviewed and commented on our reports. Project staff also provided evaluation technical assistance to the grantees.
Result
Practitioners, policymakers, and ACF have new insights on grantee successes and challenges.
Our study’s relational research approach successfully established the trust and positive working relationships needed to collect data that can help improve grants and programming. Notably, we found that ACF’s grants supported the development of new tribal and non-tribal relationships and resources grounded in the tribal tradition of consensus building. We also identified program facilitators—including grant flexibility and committed leaders, staff, and partners—and challenges, such as the complex needs of families and limited community resources to address them.
By the end of the grant, some grantees had integrated elements of their projects into other tribal programs, co-located staff, established policies and procedures to sustain practices, and established partnerships with other agencies to maintain key services. However, many grantees continued to rely on grant funding and did not have formal structures in place to sustain their projects.
Overall, grantees made substantial progress at implementing system-level changes to improve coordination and collaboration.
