Child Trends hosted a virtual session on September 20, 2023, at 2:00 p.m. EDT to unpack a decades-long decline in child poverty and more recent shifts following COVID-19 aid, and to probe how well common poverty indicators have captured changes in child and family well-being. This webinar included a panel representing research, advocacy, direct service, philanthropy, and human services, who discussed what it takes to build a social safety net focused on economic well-being rather than poverty.

Since 1996, many childless adults between the ages of 18 and 50 can only get Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits for three months in a 36-month period unless they are exempt or are able to document sufficient work hours. This vulnerable population includes veterans, youth aging out of foster care, individuals reentering the workforce after incarceration, and the chronically unhoused. Many of the people subject to time limits either cannot find jobs or get too few hours of work in the jobs they do have. This Food Research and Action Center’s research brief explains the SNAP time limit provisions and discusses priorities for outreach, proper screening for time limit exemptions, and use of discretionary exemptions and waivers for areas that have 10 percent or higher unemployment or other indicators of insufficient jobs.

The challenge of attracting and retaining a diverse, productive, engaged workforce has grown. Workers seek quality jobs, and companies that prioritize job quality become employers of choice. Job quality is not just about the job; it is a combination of key drivers that are important to each worker’s overall employment experience. This Job Quality Toolkit, issued by the U.S. Department of Commerce, is an actionable tool for organizations to improve the quality of the jobs they offer. Identifying and improving the drivers most valued by workers can significantly increase their satisfaction and engagement and, in turn, improve the organization’s ability to compete for talent and achieve success in the marketplace.

The Skills and Experience for the Careers of Tomorrow (SECTOR) program provides employment and training services, cognitive behavioral interventions, and connections to mental health and substance use disorder services for people with previous legal system involvement. It uses a sector-based approach, which connects individuals to training opportunities that offer a livable wage, career advancement opportunities, and benefits for job seekers. The model anticipates that behavioral health, well-being, employment, and earnings improvements will reduce future interactions with the criminal legal system. This MDRC report presents the findings of the SECTOR program evaluation as part of the Los Angeles County Reentry Integrated Services Project. The evaluation focuses mainly on employment and criminal legal system contact and whether SECTOR successfully connects individuals to mental health and substance use disorder services.

Disaster displacement refers to the involuntary movement of residents from their homes and community because of an external phenomenon for a temporary, short-term, or long-term period. There are approximately 1 million new disaster displacements in the United States every year. After being displaced by a disaster, people often have critical human services needs in areas such as housing, income support, transportation, employment, and education. These needs can be acute for people with low incomes. A combination of federal, state, and local emergency management and human services agencies and nonprofit, community, and faith-based organizations work to address these needs. This report summarizes existing literature and available resources on disaster displacement and human services. The findings in this report can provide useful insights to policymakers, agencies, and organizations that provide human services to people displaced by disasters.

In 2014, three Ohio community colleges set out to adapt a developmental student support model pioneered by the City University of New York (CUNY) called Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). This program requires students to attend school full time and provides support services for three years, including enhanced advising, financial aid, and career counseling, to help them graduate with an associate’s degree quickly. In this Evidence First podcast episode, MDRC talks with Christine Brongniart, the University Executive Director of CUNY ASAP, and Colleen Sommo, a senior research fellow in MDRC’s Postsecondary Education policy area, to learn more about the replication of CUNY ASAP and the latest findings from MDRC’s study of the Ohio program, including increased earnings and doubled graduation rates.

A work-based learning quagmire has arisen related to SNAP. Benefit recipients enrolled in subsidized work-based learning programs offered through their SNAP Employment and Training (E&T) are paid a reasonable wage in these transitional jobs; as a result, they are no longer eligible for SNAP and are forced off their training program. This sudden and unexpected decrease in or loss of government benefits that often occurs with an increase in wages is referred to as a benefit cliff. This American Public Human Services Association brief explains work-based learning and how it differs from unsubsidized employment, as well as possible solutions to benefit cliffs.

WorkforceGPS will host a virtual session on September 13, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT to discuss how to expand relationships with employer sponsors for apprenticeships. This webinar will highlight the risks of relying on a single contact for planning, such as lack of expansion, decreased enrollments, or potential termination due to internal shifts or turnover while uncovering strategies for securing leadership buy-in.

Students who face barriers to success need accessible pathways to economic mobility, but low income and low tolerance for debt present challenges. Strategies at all levels of education, as well as after they enter the workforce, could provide support to achieving their career goals. This Urban Institute report describes results from a survey of career and technical education program administrators, with insights about strategies that can support students in getting jobs that offer pathways to economic stability and long-term upward mobility.

Unemployment insurance (UI) exists to provide temporary partial wage replacement during periods of involuntary unemployment while beneficiaries are actively seeking reemployment. The Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessments (RESEA) program provides UI eligibility assessments and reemployment services to beneficiaries. This Upjohn report provides an evaluation plan, including a logic model, for PY 2020 for the state of Maryland. It also outlines anticipated ways that future annual RESEA evaluations can build on evidence about program and services impacts as well as special evaluations of program and services refinements and extensions.