This webpage provides summaries on waivers that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service issued to increase flexibility in funding and administration of SNAP programs. Coverage of waivers identified on this webpage includes: Pandemic Electronic Benefits Transfer, SNAP Online Purchasing, Time Limit Suspensions, Claims, Fair Hearings, Reporting, and Flexibility for States with Increasing Workloads.

This interactive set of continuously updated state profiles presents waivers that the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service has granted for emergency allotments of SNAP and other funds to address food insecurity in light of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This issue brief provides definitions and summaries of the concepts of “food insecurity” and “food insufficiency” and offers initial data on current levels of food insecurity (in aggregate) compared to 2018 and 2019. The brief also covers how research can identify the gap in who receives food assistance, as well as the differences in outcomes between government-administered food and nutrition programs and non-governmental emergency food assistance programs (such as food banks or pantries) that aim to address food insecurity.

This issue brief provides guidance to understand the shifts in detecting and responding to child maltreatment that have occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief states that child maltreatment categories should distinguish between cases tied to poverty-related neglect and those that are a result of child endangerment or abuse. The issue brief highlights community-based supports that are available and ways to leverage technology to improve access to these supports by affected families. The brief also provides guidance on enhancing child maltreatment reporting.

This research-to-practice brief identifies lessons learned from six child support agencies in Arizona, California, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia as they implemented the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) model of child support enforcement. The PJAC model incorporates fairness in dispute resolution over child support payments and suggests that if a non-custodial parent perceives the process to be fair, he or she is more likely to comply with the order, regardless if the outcome of the process is favorable to them.

To develop an understanding of interventions to prevent homelessness among youth in or formerly in foster care, The Children’s Bureau at the Administration for Children and Families created the Building Capacity to Evaluate Interventions for Youth/Young Adults with Child Welfare Involvement At-Risk of Homelessness (YARH) grant program. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report includes assessment findings of the YAHR grant program. It examines the characteristics of six organizations that formed partnerships with local child welfare agencies to define a comprehensive service model of interventions designed to prevent homelessness in youth who have experienced foster care. The report provides an initial review of how youth participants benefitted from these comprehensive models and how the models changed the services that youth participants received. The report also highlights how these grantees prepared to implement their service models and what factors hindered implementation.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will convene its annual Youth Symposium as a virtual event from December 7 to December 9, 2020. The symposium will feature workshops in the areas of: Educating and Training Our Future Workforce; Employment, Retention, and Advancement; Overcoming Barriers; Recruiting and Engaging Youth; and Self-Care for Workforce Professionals. Workshops will include live and pre-recorded sessions. There is a registration fee to participate.

Through the Scaling Pandemic Resilience Through Innovation and Technology (SPRINT) Challenge, the U.S. Department of Commerce supports regional initiatives that focus on economic, safety, and health risks caused by the coronavirus pandemic by awarding economic development assistance merit-based awards. Awards will be given to entities that support economic development, promote job creation, and attract private investment in economically distressed areas of the United States. Eligible applicants for these grants include: district organizations of a U.S. Economic Development Administration-designated economic development district; Indian tribes or consortiums of Indian tribes; state, county, city, or other political subdivisions of a state; institutions of higher education or consortium of higher education institutions; or public or private non-profit organizations or associations working in cooperation with officials of a political subdivision of a state. Up to 100 grants will be awarded, and the estimated total program funding is $25,000,000. The deadline for receipt of applications is December 3, 2020.

This initial graphic summary examines the level of unemployment in 2019-2020 among younger adults (ages 16 to 19) and older youth (ages 20 to 24) during the summer and the beginning of the school year. The unemployment levels are also compared against longer-term trends in youth unemployment since 2010.

This report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration presents national indicators for substance use and mental health among persons who are 12 years old or older. Indicators include substance use and alcohol use in a prior month, and illicit drug use, substance use disorders, mental illness, substance use treatment, and mental health services received in the past year.