This blogpost illustrates findings of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator program (ROSS-SC). ROSS-SC provides funding to local public housing authorities to support public housing residents—primarily seniors, persons with disabilities, and very low-income families. The blogpost identifies how ROSS-SC helped residents to access food and transportation, deal with health emergencies, address domestic violence, and access child care.

(See also Resources on "intimate partner violence" in the Resource Library)

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report explores different measures of child care access and uses a multi-dimensional, family-centric definition to assess center-based and non-relationship home-based child care. Using 2012 National Survey of Early Care and Education data, the report provides national estimates of families’ local access against the four identified dimensions of this broader understanding of child care. The report illustrates gaps in child care access beyond a “slot to tot” analysis and the persistence of low child care availability for families with infants and toddlers.

The Institute for Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison hosted a webinar on June 9, 2021 to discuss how human services providers have changed operations to deliver services virtually since the spring of 2020. This webinar covered what worked well and what did not, lessons learned during the COVID-19 pandemic, and how these lessons can inform client needs in a post-pandemic world. Speakers included Annette Waters of the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Matthew Lyons of the American Public Human Services Association, and Nadeem Siddiqi of the Wayne Metropolitan Community Action Agency.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation seeks applications for cooperative agreements to create an African American Child and Family Research Center. The proposed Center will lead and support research on the needs of African American populations that are served by ACF programs and will help identify promising approaches to promote social and economic well-being among low-income African American populations. Key topics of interest for the Center will include research on educational and employment experiences and outcomes, experiences with human services, discrimination, effects of criminal justice system involvement, program evaluation, and distinctive experiences in rural, suburban, and urban areas. Applications are due by July 12, 2021.

This journal article is the result of a qualitative study informed by Arditti’s Family Inequality Framework. The study features interviews with 19 fathers who were recently released from prison and data gathered through a brief background survey. Four main themes identified in the study were parenting from prison, committed fathering, outside influences on parenting, and recreating oneself. The fathers identified factors that created barriers in maintaining contact and communication with their children while being incarcerated, such as personal challenges, systemic barriers (such as housing, employment, and the criminal justice system), and parental challenges.

This brief from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families uses data sets from the 2013-2017 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG), which include measures of father involvement for children from birth to age 18. The brief examines differences in experiences of US-born and foreign-born Hispanic fathers. There is also an examination of three domains of fathering behaviors: engagement, warmth, and caregiving.

This infographic from the National Fatherhood Initiative shares that 18.3 million children in the United States are without their biological father in the home. It details how children are affected in father-absent homes, including teen pregnancy, as teens are seven times more likely to become pregnant; child abuse, as children are more likely to face abuse and neglect; and behavioral problems. Data used in the infographic was retrieved from the U.S. Census Bureau.

This National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse brief provides information and action steps that fatherhood programs can use to help unmarried fathers understand and navigate their circumstances and options. Highlighted action steps include creating a parenting plan, finding out whether free or low-cost programs and services are available to unmarried fathers, attending negotiation conferences, and consistently complying with a parenting time schedule.

This brief by the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse analyzes data on the amount and frequency of formal and informal child support payments. The analysis included fathers aged 20-49 who reported living apart from at least one biological or adopted child aged 18 or younger and used data from the 2015-2017 National Survey of Family Growth. Highlights of the analysis were the reported frequency of support payments, which varied according to the father’s employment status.

This video series, available through the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse, encourages fathers to show their “Dadication” to their children. The videos exhibit how fathers make time and show up for their children, even when facing common stressors like financial burdens and busy schedules.