Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF)
Advisory Council to the Strategic Planning

"Families are stable, able to work, and financially secure"

The TANF program supports many efforts in Montana, targeting needy families including cash assistance, work support, and child care help; as well as a variety of community services including support to teen parents, youth development programs, training and work support, family economic security, etc. The strategic planning process will advise the Department of Public Health and Human Services in establishing a 5 year plan addressing the following:

• Developing an overarching purpose statement for use of TANF funds that expresses the core value and purpose for the use of TANF block grant funds.
   
• Proposing a framework that will ensure that projects funded with TANF block grant funds are complementary, integrated, interdependent, and designed to strategically achieve the overarching purpose for the funds.
   
• Prioritizing this integrated framework by emphasizing evidence-based practices
   
• Recommending strategies to collect outcome data for future evidence-based decision-making.
   
• Designing a long-range strategy on the management of "carryover" funds to ensure the proper balance between meeting immediate needs while preserving "rainy day" funds for periods of economic downturn.
   
• Providing a public input opportunity to the Department in the prioritization of use of TANF block grant funds
   
• Learning from and informing constituent groups, stakeholders, and the legislature of how this integrated and prioritized strategic plan for use of TANF block grant funds will improve efficiencies and effectiveness in the use of those funds, with focus on support and self-sufficiency for needy families.