The ACF Strategic Plan consists of five overarching goals — equity, upstream prevention, whole-family approaches, resilience and recovery, and innovation—that, together, seek to strengthen the economic and social well-being of the children, youth, families, individuals, and communities we serve. Our Strategic Plan prevention goal aims to promote proactive approaches to ensuring well-being, including by increasing access to resources and services and improving outreach to those who may be eligible for ACF programs but are not currently participating in them. Today, as part of our ongoing work toward this goal, I am pleased to announce the release of a set of resources that are tailored for prospective participants and are deployed so partners like you can help us reach especially hard-to-reach individuals in the communities where they live.

The aim of these materials is to provide tailored guidance to hard-to-reach populations to increase their awareness and understanding of the array of programs and resources that may be able to assist them. These resources are explicitly designed to be user-friendly, easy to digest, and short — each one is either one or two pages long. These materials also directly align with the President’s Executive Order on Transforming Federal Customer Experience and Service Delivery to Rebuild Trust in Government, as they seek to facilitate access to services and save the public time in searching for resources and identifying programs for which they qualify.

The materials we are releasing today include resources for:

• Transition-age youth exiting foster care
• Families with children ages 0-12
• Head Start programs, including a resource that can be customized with local program information
• Survivors of domestic violence looking to find and keep housing
• Fathers looking for benefits programs
• Fathers looking for parenting tips
• Emergency managers and service providers supporting families and individuals seeking post-disaster housing

All of these can be accessed on ACF’s webpage. We encourage you to share these widely with individuals and organizations that might find them useful in getting needed support or helping others get support. In line with ACF’s ongoing commitment to language access, this page includes versions translated into various languages. As well, for additional information on government programs that may help those in need find support for food, housing, health care, and other living expenses, visit usa.gov/benefits.

I am proud of ACF’s robust and focused efforts toward strengthening the well-being of children, youth, families, individuals, and communities. We know that access to critical services can make a difference in the lives of people in your own backyard. We are committed to improving the quality of interactions with government provided ACF services — and more broadly, toward achieving the goals and objectives set out in our Strategic Plan. We will continue to drive priorities that center equity, upstream prevention, whole-family approaches, resilience and recovery, and innovation because we know this is how we best carry out our mission for the children and families we serve.

January Contreras, ACF Assistant Secretary

Last Updated: August 21, 2023