TANF surplus provides an opportunity to improve children’s lives, curb the cycle of poverty in Tennessee
Not having enough to eat, a consistent place to call home, or access to medical care are just some of the major stresses experienced by those living in poverty. These challenges can be overwhelming for an adult. But imagine what they’re like to experience as a child, when you have no ability to control any of these factors. Living in poverty increases the likelihood that children will experience toxic stress. Early exposure to toxic stress can negatively affect normal child development and impede their ability to learn.
By making the best use of an available surplus of federal funds, Tennessee can increase the number of safe and healthy households for children and, by doing so, create enduring improvements in our communities. The state’s annual allotment of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) hasn’t been fully utilized for the last several years, and Tennessee has accumulated an unused stockpile of $732 million.
Evidence-based home visiting, a service we provide, helps those in the greatest need of assistance from TANF—vulnerable families living in poverty. Most importantly, the impact of home visiting is proven and long-lasting. It helps change the course of people’s lives.
Poverty and health risks that lead to poverty are generational; they are passed down from parents to their children and so on. Evidence-based home visiting helps disrupt this cycle by giving children in low-income homes a better chance to succeed in life. We do this by equipping parents with the skills and knowledge to create safe, stable, and nurturing environments for their children. Children that are raised in stable families do better academically, are more financially successful, and contribute more to society. The immediate and longer-term outcomes of home visiting include keeping children out of foster care and the juvenile justice system, ensuring children have access to proper medical care, and enabling families to become self-sufficient, among others.
State lawmakers convened a special taskforce to study how the surplus TANF funds should be used. We’re grateful that the committee has indicated that a portion of the TANF funds should go toward expanding access to home visiting services across the state. The bi-partisan House Bill 2509 / Senate Bill 2797, recently presented by Rep. David Hawk (R-Greeneville) and Sen. Raumesh Akbari (D-Memphis), would distribute surplus TANF funds to different counties based on the percentage of the population in poverty, with $75 million to be invested in home visiting. We hope their colleagues in the Tennessee General Assembly support this effort.
If we want to curb the cycle of poverty in our communities, we must start by giving those most likely to experience generational poverty a better chance at life. We must start by improving the lives of children.