Chapin Hall

Providing Flexible Funds for Concrete Supports to Families as a Child Welfare Prevention Strategy

 The Issue

Jurisdictions are increasingly using funding in innovative ways to meet the economic and concrete needs of families as a child welfare prevention strategy. Several states include flexible funds for concrete supports as part of family preservation programs that aim to keep children who have come to the attention of child welfare safely at home with their families. Concrete supports are also provided further upstream to families at risk for child welfare involvement. While there is variation in when and how these flexible dollars are used by child welfare agencies to strengthen families, this policy brief highlights efforts in Kentucky, Indiana, and Wisconsin to integrate and expand flexible funds are a core component of their prevention continuum.

The Evidence

The central role of economic insecurity and material hardship as drivers of child welfare system involvement underscores the importance of addressing the concrete needs of families. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the effects of a broad array of economic and concrete supports to reduce risk for child maltreatment and child welfare involvement. This evidence includes providing flexible funds to meet families’ concrete needs, which has shown promising results in preventing subsequent child welfare involvement. (See this complete list of references.)

The Way Forward

Expanding economic and concrete support services to families as a comprehensive child welfare prevention strategy will require a policy framework for shared responsibility and accountability across the public health and human service platform.

Key recommendations and future directions to expand economic and concrete support services to families include:

1. Elevate understanding of evidence on economic and concrete supports as a key child welfare prevention and race equity strategy to inform policy decision making and system transformation.
2. Provide direct cash assistance to families at risk of child welfare involvement to promote family dignity and agency, address racial inequities, streamline deployment of funds, and reduce administrative burdens for both recipients and agency staff.
3. Develop and fully deploy dedicated funding for economic and concrete support services to families in their communities. This includes leveraging TANF funds to align with the first statutory purpose of TANF: to provide assistance to needy families so that children can be cared for in their own homes or with relatives.
4. Engage communities and experts with lived experience to co-develop pathways for families to equitably access economic and concrete support services in their communities.
5. Develop state policies and procedures to ensure consistent and equitable delivery of economic and concrete support services across communities, while allowing for flexibility of use to meet the unique needs of children and families.
6. Evaluate the impact of economic and concrete support services to families at risk of child welfare involvement to build the evidence base for inclusion in the Title IV-E Prevention Services Clearinghouse
7. Revise the federal Family First Prevention Services Act to explicitly include economic and concrete support services as an allowable evidence-based program or services category.

For questions related to this brief, please contact Policy Fellow Yasmin Grewal-Kök. Learn more about Chapin Hall’s economic and concrete supports portfolio.

Read the brief