This U.S. Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime webpage discusses vicarious trauma and contains suggestions for coworkers and supervisors who may be experiencing vicarious trauma, as well as family members of victim service providers and first responders, who are also often affected by work-related trauma exposure. The webpage also highlights the Vicarious Trauma Toolkit (VTT), which introduces a new model for examining and conceptualizing the impact of vicarious trauma and the reactions and experiences of victim service providers and first responders. Included on the webpage is a sample of the 500 tools and resources from the VTT Compendium of Resources, which covers Education and Awareness, Prevalence and Risk Factors, and Impact. These resources are intended to support those working in victim services, emergency medical services, fire services, law enforcement, and other allied professions.

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

This July 2016 webinar, hosted by the National Resource Center on Domestic Violence, focused on methods of compassion fatigue management, encouraged self-care, and aimed to renew participants’ passion for their work. The webinar also provided valuable tools that caregivers can use to identify the warning signs of compassion fatigue as well as to help in developing techniques for self-care. One of the tools is a compassion fatigue symptoms checklist which covers physical, psychological, emotional, spiritual, and professional symptoms that caregivers might encounter.

This report covers lessons learned from the first phase (January 2020 to September 2020) of the Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents and Families. The Cohort is an initiative aimed at enhancing and aligning programs, policies, and systems to better support young parents (ages 18-24) and their families in Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. The report presents findings on four key areas: understanding and engaging young parents, continuous improvement through data and feedback, service collaboration and alignment, and service delivery adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This toolkit offers steps on how the juvenile justice and workforce development systems can collaborate to serve youth with justice involvement. The toolkit includes a review of evidence-based practices in youth workforce development, an examination of how the public workforce system is funded under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), examples of how to utilize WIOA-funded services for better outcomes for youth with justice involvement, and steps that could be taken to form interagency partnerships between the juvenile justice and workforce development systems.

This brief reviews youthCONNECT, an initiative implemented in Prince George’s County, Maryland. The initiative integrates college and career preparation skills, life skills training, and connection with a caring adult to improve healthy behaviors, school engagement, and the social and emotional skills of participating students. The youthCONNECT initiative seeks to leverage these improvements into increased high school achievement and postsecondary educational enrollment and employment. The brief describes a survey of 721 students enrolled in the youthCONNECT program based on self-reporting as well as data from these students’ academic records (grades, attendance, and disciplinary actions taken).

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report describes the STRIVE program in Westchester County, New York, which is a full-time, eight-week course that teaches job readiness and job search skills. The report discusses a study of the STRIVE program, which aimed to answer these research questions: what was the context in which the STRIVE program operated; how was the STRIVE program designed; how was the STRIVE program implemented, what were its most prominent features, and what challenges faced managers and staff; and what are the lessons for program administrators wanting to implement this approach.

The National Association of Social Workers will host a webinar on January 28, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET which will review the child protection approach to child welfare. The webinar will review the effectiveness of the approach and how it offers a rights-based process of protecting children and providing services to child welfare clients and their families. The webinar also explores the implications of the approach on social work practice. A registration fee is required for this webinar.

Drawn from site visits to two Appalachian communities, this report reviews how the opioid crisis affects children in families where there is substance misuse and how parents or caregivers could be better supported by service providers and systems. The report also looks at service providers’ limitations, either as a result of policy failures or regional economic challenges, and how people experiencing substance use disorders face constraints in access to treatment. There is also discussion of how although schools and early childhood care programs are potential resources for these families, they are underfunded and operate beyond capacity.

Helping families meet their basic needs has a direct impact on lowering their stress, especially during a crisis like COVID-19. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University produced a short paper that focuses on how parents and caregivers can build up and strengthen resilience as they face challenges due to the pandemic. The paper suggests ways program staff can help families and staff reduce sources of stress, including connecting parents and caregivers with programs and services that can help meet their basic needs; encouraging parents, staff, and co-workers to practice self-care; and giving parents a break from child care responsibilities. The paper notes that moving past the pandemic, strengthening core life skills and building and practicing executive function and self-regulation skills will go a long way towards managing daily life so parents are better able to provide care for themselves and family members. Practical tips are provided, such as signing up for text reminders of important appointments, using tools like daily schedules and grocery list apps, and creating checklists for completing important applications.

This KIDS COUNT report utilizes survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to measure how low-income households and children have been affected by COVID-19. The report first illustrates the rates of child well-being before and during the pandemic. The report also presents findings on health insurance coverage and mental health services access, and measures economic instability during the pandemic as well as data on changes in children’s learning environments since the pandemic’s start in spring 2020. The report then provides strategies that can be implemented at the federal and state levels to address future needs of families and children.