The Office of Family Assistance’s (OFA) Systems to Family Stability National Policy Academy (Policy Academy) was an 18-month intensive technical assistance (TA) initiative in 2015–2016 for seven states and one county interested in modernizing and improving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) practice. During the initiative, sites received dedicated coaches, onsite strategic planning, access to expert consultants, and tailored written resources. Additionally, they participated in several in-person convenings, peer exchanges, and virtual training. These state profiles detail the journey and lessons learned of the 8 teams that participated in the Policy Academy.

This Urban Institute brief examines the experiences of clients applying for work supports, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Medicaid, and child care assistance. Applying for these benefits can be a daunting process for low-income families, so six states participated in the Work Support Strategies initiative to streamline and improve the application and service delivery process. The authors describe the experiences of families applying for work supports, then they identify three areas where the process could be improved. Those areas include minimizing wait times so families can receive their benefits sooner, improving customer service so families applying for benefits are treated with respect, and providing clearer information about the process of applying for benefits. The authors recommend that states provide a range of options for applying for benefits and aim for providing benefits on the same day that a client applies.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP) and the LEAD Center published training materials to help create a Customized Employment program for individuals with disabilities. These trainings use a Guided Group Discovery approach, which helps jobseekers find employment that would matches both their skills and interests and an employer’s needs. The materials available include a facilitator manual, a PowerPoint introduction and course, and a participant workbook.

This MDRC brief is part of a series that documents the implementation of the Change Capital Fund, an economic mobility initiative in New York City. The Change Capital Fund was a consortium of donors who invested in local community development corporations that were pursuing antipoverty strategies that integrated housing, education, and employment services. In this brief, the authors focus on how the Change Capital fund used program data as a tool for continuous learning and improvement, including the specific assistance that grantees received to build their capacity to use data for performance management.

Under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), public workforce programs were encouraged to make stronger partnerships with TANF. In this report, the Center on Law and Social Policy detailed the findings of a survey conducted in 2016 on the degree of coordination between TANF and workforce programs during the early implementation of WIOA. According to the survey results, state officials were very interested in improving coordination between WIOA and TANF, but only modest changes had taken place. The coordination strategies that states used most often were shared job resource rooms and braided funding, and they used team case management least often.

This toolkit from the Heartland Alliance provides resources targeted toward organizations wanting to engage employers for transitional jobs or subsidized employment programs. These resources will help organizations plan and implement effective job development strategies, build relationships with employers, and serve participants with barriers to employment. The toolkit includes research briefs on six different topics, videos of employers describing how partnering with transitional jobs programs was good for business, and links to additional information by subtopic.

While low-income parents face challenges, many manage to raise children with socio-emotional competence. This policy report from the National Center for Children in Poverty describes what can be learned from these resilient parents, and analyzes programs and policies that promote parents’ and children’s resiliency. The authors find that policies such as increasing access to health and mental health care, providing training in evidence-based parenting skills, and strengthening key safety net programs all contribute to strengthening resiliency in both parents and children.

Nearly 12% of American children will spend at least half of their lives from birth to age 17 living in poverty. This report from the Urban Institute analyzes factors that have helped these persistently poor children achieve economic success. Some of those factors include spending more years in an employed family, spending fewer years in a family headed by someone with a disability, and living in less segregated and disadvantaged neighborhoods. The researchers recommend several strategies to help more persistently poor children achieve economic success, such as subsidized employment for parents and programs to help families move out of disadvantaged neighborhoods.

Utah Department of Workforce Services commissioned the Public Consulting Group to develop two videos about executive functioning to be used in employment counselor trainings. The short videos can be used with employment counselors or case workers in any human services program that want to develop their capacity to recognize and respond to executive functioning challenges among their customers.

The first video, An Overview of Executive Functioning (10 minutes), provides a short primer on the brain science of executive functioning and explains how the concept pertains to the lives of adults in poverty. The video seeks to normalize executive functioning challenges, helping viewers recognize their own weaknesses and strengths, and encourages employment counselors to think about how they can help customers navigate rough situations.

The second video, How to Build Executive Functioning Skills (13 minutes), provides employment counselors with ideas about how to help customers. It explains how to build executive functioning through strategies that many employment counselors are already using, (e.g., coaching, Motivational Interviewing, and trauma-informed care). It offers advice on how to talk to customers about executive functioning challenges and motivate them to improve, and then natural exercises to build skills. It concludes with examples from human services agencies across the country that are implementing executive function-informed models.

Career One Stop, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Labor, provides a directory of Website links to state and national career and labor market information offices. Users can search by state to find a state profile with employment trends data, employment-related resources, and the website link to the state’s labor market information office, if available.