On June 3, 2023, the Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 was signed into law, a legislative package previously agreed upon by the White House and House Speaker to suspend the national debt ceiling limit through January 1, 2025 in exchange for a package of spending cuts and policy changes, including changes to work requirements in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and TANF. The American Public Human Services Association has developed a summary of relevant human services provisions and the corresponding effective dates.

The New Jersey Keeping Families Together (KFT) program is a supportive housing program that combines subsidized housing with voluntary supportive services for child welfare-involved families at risk of homelessness. Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of New Jersey’s KFT program, including the interviews of staff members representing all eight service providers as well as local departments involved in the development and implementation of the program to examine the program model. This report explores the findings of their evaluation, which can be helpful at both the policy and programmatic levels in developing program changes to most effectively ensure consistent and standard models of practice across KFT service providers.

Stable and reliable childcare enables parents and caregivers to work, attend school, or pursue other opportunities that support family economic growth. The Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) is the primary source of federal funding that helps families with low incomes access childcare. This Center for Law and Social Policy brief offers states ways to improve childcare access within the confines of the current system. It focuses on policies surrounding financial assistance for childcare and notes that states can choose to use funds from the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program for childcare.

A shift to skills-based hiring instead of degree-based hiring is not only a sensible public sector reform to find qualified workers in a tight labor market but can also unlock economic mobility for millions of workers who have been overlooked for decades. Numerous states are reviewing roles to determine which ones have unnecessary degree requirements, while others have already removed degree requirements from 90% of state jobs. This Brookings blogpost explores these low-cost actions as pathways to open state hiring processes to more applicants and improve economic mobility for qualified workers who have been excluded from state hiring systems.

Regardless of their size, agencies and organizations need to demonstrate the success of their kinship programs to their funders and other stakeholders. Showing success requires a strategic approach and an understanding of general principles that support effective data collection and evaluation. The Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network will host a webinar on July 17, 2023 from 2:00 to 3:30 p.m. ET which will explore the foundational principles and strategies to demonstrate success. 

An estimated 80% of the people served by workforce programs are trauma survivors. Trauma changes the physical elements of the brain in ways that create barriers for survivors to participate in their programs and impact motivation, the job search, employment, and job retention. The National Associate of Workforce Development Professionals is hosting a webinar on July 25, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. CDT where participants will be provided with ways to assist people eliminate this powerful hidden barrier to employment. There is a registration fee for participation.

Nearly one in five jobs in the United States are in the service sector, including in retail, grocery, pharmacy, fast food, and fulfillment, but there are countervailing views on who works these jobs and to what end. One assumption is that service sector employment is dominated by workers who are temporarily in this line of work and using it as a source of extra income or as a first rung on a ladder towards career growth and economic opportunity. The alternative belief is that service sector workers rely on this work to get by in supporting their families, and that these jobs may be more poverty traps than mobility ladders. This Shift Project brief draws on data from surveying 2,601 workers in these sectors to examine their experiences of material hardship, economic security, and their expectations for future upward mobility, and how job quality shapes those forecasts. This data provides an unprecedented view into the personal histories, economic realities, and career trajectories of service sector workers.

When schools closed in March 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, 30 million children lost access to the free and reduced-price school meals that help reduce hunger, support health, and ease the pressure on household food budgets. Congress created the Pandemic EBT Program to replace the school breakfasts and lunches families lost when schools closed. The program provides an EBT card with grocery benefits to families whose children are eligible for free or reduced-price school meals. This report by the Food Research & Action Center explains the impact of providing grocery benefits to families when their children lose access to free or reduced-price school meals and the experience families had in accessing benefits.