Skill development and job or educational training are essential tools for low-income or low-skilled workers to increase their labor market prospects and decrease their unemployment rates, so Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDBs) provide these…

Living in safe “opportunity neighborhoods” that provide quality services, employment, and schools is a recognized way for children and families to increase their economic opportunities and class mobility. The authors of this Urban Institute paper…

In response to several proposed federal changes to safety net program requirements, the Urban Institute developed a Well Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) and published a report on the status of individual and family health and well-being. The…

In an ongoing project that seeks to improve a home-visiting programs for teenage mothers, preliminary results suggest some improvements in uptake of long-acting reversible contraceptives and lower rates of unprotected sex. Repeated, close-together…

This report comments on the effectiveness of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund (TANF EF) in creating subsidized employment and suggests more subsidized job creation to aid low-income families and weather economic downturns.…

This brief provides a graphical overview of selected state policy differences for TANF cash assistance. The Welfare Rules Database (WRD), a database maintained by the Urban Institute and funded by the OPRE and ACF, provides the information for this…

This National Association of Counties (NACo) report discusses counties’ role in funding and administering the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Program. The report also identifies counties’ challenges, including restraints by states…

Recent causal research shows that people’s earnings are directly linked to the neighborhoods where they grew up, with impoverished and underserved communities at the bottom end of the earning scale. Johns Hopkins’ 21st Century Cities Initiative…

In accordance with federal interests, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation funded a report on the challenges of and potential solutions for measuring TANF employment outcomes. Creating national standards would be a significant challenge…