This toolkit from the Indiana Youth Institute showcases best practices in mentoring as a strategy to prepare students for career and college success. The toolkit provides step-by-step instructions on designing a successful program, recruiting and supporting mentors, and engaging the surrounding community.

This video from the New York Times reflects on the first 20 years of TANF and how poverty rates have fluctuated over that time. It poses various questions and issues for policymakers and other stakeholders to address in the coming months and years, in order to reduce poverty rates and improve the United States welfare system.

The Uncertain Hour is a podcast series from National Public Radio focused on the uncertainties of today’s economy. Each season looks in-depth at one topic. The first season, which began on April 28th and currently has six episodes airing every other week, asks: “20 years after we ’ended welfare as we know it’ in the U.S., what is welfare today?”

For many families, the end of the school year can mean losing access to important sources of food and nutrition. Though some programs operate during the summer to provide free and reduced-price meals for children, they typically serve fewer children than the National School Lunch Program does during the academic year. This article from Child Trends examines ways to address this gap.

This short 40-second video from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) shows how Cuyahoga County, Ohio partnered with OPRE and MDRC to explore using behavioral science insights to increase child support collections. The findings suggest that low-cost, low-effort interventions, such as mailings and text messages informed by behavioral science, can improve child support outcomes.

The Office of Family Assistance developed this guide to help state TANF agencies recognize the important role they have in identifying and serving families experiencing homelessness and families at risk of homelessness. It is intended to help states better assess for homelessness and housing instability during intake and formulate cohesive strategies with state and local homelessness providers and systems, such as the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)-funded Continuums of Care (CoC).

This Congressional Research Service report explains the differences in work requirements, work incentives, and time limits between TANF, SNAP, and housing assistance. Federal law requires most able-bodied adults receiving SNAP to participate in work activities, and has a time limit of 3 months for every 36-month period for able-bodied adults without dependents who do not work at least 20 hours a week. SNAP also has a work incentive for employed participants to deduct some of their earned income, which results in slightly higher benefits. One key difference between SNAP and TANF is that SNAP work requirements apply to individuals, while in TANF, states have the discretion to determine whether work requirements apply to individuals or families.

This USDA/FNS report details the results of a study that allowed six state SNAP agencies to receive waivers to implement Community Partner Interviewer demonstration projects between 2009 and 2010. The waivers allowed nonprofit organizations, such as food banks, to conduct SNAP interviews, collect verifications, and submit clients’ application materials to state SNAP agencies for eligibility determination. Overall, SNAP office directors and workers involved in the study cited improved access, better customer service, and satisfaction among applicants as the most significant successes of the demonstration projects. Challenges cited by SNAP representatives and community-based organization (CBO) workers included technology-related processing delays, keeping outreach workers up to date on frequent policy and procedural changes, and ensuring adequate training for all CBO workers who conducted SNAP interviews.

The Center for Law and Social Policy describes the challenges that workers with volatile schedules face in accessing public benefits, such as SNAP, TANF, Medicaid, and child care assistance. Many low wage workers now have volatile schedules, meaning they receive one week or less advance notice of their upcoming work schedule. These workers also experience fluctuations in the number of hours worked each week. Workers with volatile schedules often need public benefits to supplement their income, but such schedules can make it difficult to access these benefits. After analyzing how volatile schedules impact access to benefits, this brief provides best practices for policymakers to consider to help workers access SNAP, TANF, and other public assistance support. For example, states can request a waiver to allow workers to average their hours across the month, which can reduce the need for clients to participate in employment and training programs for working less than 30 hours a week.