The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services, will host a webinar on October 6, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to showcase success stories of youth work experience providers and lessons learned from implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos covered in the webinar include Early Childhood Resource Center, an Ohio-based child care work experience provider; Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which offers summer youth employment; New Hampshire Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), which connects youth with health care providers; and the Virginia WIOA Youth Summer Program. The webinar will allow participants to interact with Division of Youth Services staff to learn more about work experience requirements.

In observance of National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, September 19-25, this compendium highlights nine practices that represent holistic approaches to delivering adult education programs. These programs represent approaches for modeling effective integrated education and training (IET) programs—transitioning adult learners from adult basic education to postsecondary education or training, and increasing access to adult education services. The practices are drawn from programs in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

This podcast highlights the SOAR Program at Tri-County OIC, which is affiliated with the Opportunities Industrialization Centers of America in the Harrisburg, Pennsylvania region. SOAR is a reentry program for young adults (ages 18 to 24) who have been involved in the criminal justice system. The comprehensive program offers customized academic training, vocational training, intense case management, and stackable/portable credentials training. Part of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Voice of Experience video series, the podcast is presented by SOAR Project Manager Christina Johnson.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a webinar on September 29, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT to discuss this fall’s emerging labor market as pandemic unemployment benefits are scheduled to end. This discussion-style webinar, led by Kirkland J. Murray of the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation in Maryland and Elisabeth Sanders-Park, author of “No One is Unemployable,” will offer participants a perspective on this new reality. The webinar will also include steps to help workforce development practitioners prepare for these changes, and what tools they can offer to job seekers in the evolving and expanded labor market.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) webpage includes CDC and partner resources and offers guidance in reducing stress children might encounter when transitioning back to in-person learning. Also included is the link to a CDC podcast entitled Transitioning Back to School or Early Child Education.

The third of a three-part series, this April 27, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reducing young children’s access to in-person early childhood and learning programs. Presentations covered approaches that states and communities might use to address development and learning needs as the children reenter early childhood and learning settings. Speakers included representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Health Benefits (Medicaid), and the Office of Head Start.

The second of a three-part series, this April 20, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies reviews challenges faced by families with young children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. Presentations covered opportunities to support families and connect them with community resources; strategies to increase parents’ knowledge of child development and communications skills while reducing their social isolation; mindfulness practices among staff at a supportive services agency; and the development of a virtual maternal-infant home visiting program. Speakers included representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Families First of Boston, La Cocina of Colorado, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and ZERO TO THREE.

Educare schools provide full-day, year-round early care and education for young children living in families from underserved communities. This brief illustrates the experiences and responses of Educare’s early childhood care and education (ECCE) staff during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as systemic inequities that Educare schools encountered. Interviews with staff from 18 Educare schools revealed three common themes: the importance of supporting the ECCE workforce’s physical and mental health and overall well-being; the redefinition of expectations and mechanisms for accountability; and the ECCE workforce’s ongoing commitment to professional development. The brief describes a set of identified challenges for each theme that the ECCE workforce encountered and overcame.

The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse will host a webinar on September 29, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss how workforce development practitioners have adapted employment services to remotely offer work readiness activities or education and training services to low-income job seekers. Discussion will highlight a recent brief’s findings on common challenges that make it difficult for job seekers to utilize remote services and ways that practitioners can deliver services remotely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presentations will also include a demonstration of where to find information about employment interventions, including remote service delivery within the Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse.

The Urban Institute will host a free webinar on September 20, 2021 from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET as part of its Strategies for Supporting Young People Transitioning Out of Foster Care Series. The webinar will review how parents in foster care need services and supports as they navigate to parenthood and adulthood. A panel of child welfare professionals and young parents with lived experience will discuss ways that child welfare systems could meet the needs of this population. Panelists include representatives from Chapin Hall, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Children’s Village, and the Urban Institute.