This compendium introduces Executive Function (EF) skills and provides resources for additional understanding about these skills and how poverty and stress impact their development. The resources include videos, a guide to Goal, Plan, Do, Review and Revise (an approach used by human service professionals to build EF skills among their clients), applying behavioral science to address chronic scarcity, and links to podcasts.

From CEOs to frontline employees providing essential services, workers across the board have been impacted by the uncertainty, stress, anxiety, loss of earnings, and other emotional and physical trauma brought on by COVID-19. These experiences, whether neurological or emotional, can deplete executive functions. Written by an organizational psychologist, this article offers strategies organizations can use to reduce cognitive load and restore balance to employees returning to the office. The three strategies identified are rest, schedule breaks, and implement a phased return to the workplace; acknowledge and name feelings and hire a psychologist to meet with managers; and take steps to help with memory deficiency, including the use of assistive technology and memory tools. Organizations might also want to hold workshops on time management and organizational skills or bring in coaches to help employees use new technology.

This brief illustrates a case study of the Navigator, an online work-based learning platform adopted in North Carolina that offers participants opportunities to learn about different industry sectors and occupations under a continuum of experiences that cover career awareness and career training. Through The Navigator, employers post work-based learning opportunities that counselors, educators, and job coaches can search to find opportunities for their students. The Navigator was developed as part of the National Governors Association’s Policy Academy for Scaling Work-Based Learning.

This report presents four key pieces of an aligned, integrated approach for reemployment. They are: expansion of universal access to skills training; the creation of 21st Century Industry Partnerships among businesses, training providers, the public workforce system, and community organizations; creation of a Reemployment Distribution Fund to support access for income support and wage replacement subsidies during unemployment; and increasing eligibility for supportive services under current federal programs to increase access to the labor market.

This research-to-practice brief offers a blueprint of strategies to implement trauma-informed practices under the Family First Services Act. The brief illustrates key considerations in building a systemic approach to trauma-informed care to include: design access and delivery of prevention and kinship navigation services; use of functional assessments to analyze child trauma and traumatic stress when making placement decisions; incorporating trauma-informed treatment approaches and assigning residential facilities that support youth and their families; encouraging trauma-informed family reunification planning; and preparing child welfare professionals to address secondary trauma.

This report presents the six characteristics of a high-quality pre-apprenticeship program within the IT industry sector. Each of these characteristics are covered in depth with nationally implemented examples and reflect: transparent entry and success requirements; alignment with employer-led skill requirements; recognition of one or more industry-recognized credentials; skills development with hands-on activities and work-based learning; integration of academic, career exploration and wraparound supports; and transition into a registered apprenticeship program

This blogpost identifies how closures and other COVID-19 safety measures pose challenges for victims of domestic violence. The blogpost notes how the Family Violence Prevention and Services (FVPSA) program under the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) administers funding to support emergency shelters and services for domestic violence survivors. The blogpost also suggests how responding to domestic violence can be part of a community’s disaster and emergency preparedness plans, requiring advance training, partnership building with local domestic violence service providers and state domestic violence coalitions, reviewing plans at the beginning of an emergency to identify effective implementation, and continuous updating of resources as new information emerges. The blogpost also highlights the phone number of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (open 24/7/365) and the availability of online chat services for the hotline.

American workers have suffered loss of work or in some cases a decrease in hours worked because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this loss has been felt across the country and especially in Hispanic/Latino and African American low-income households. The Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University has released visual presentations of unemployment and job losses data in the U.S. by education level, industry, gender, race, and occupation. Also included are visualizations of the loss of employment income by household. The data covers March through May 2020.

This report, coordinated with the Mobility Metrics Working Group at the Urban Institute, provides a systematic review of socio-economic factors to reflect mobility from poverty over the lifespan of individuals. The metrics identified in the report have predictive capacity to analyze mobility from poverty. The metrics can be used to support strategic planning and priority setting as well as to monitor progress at the local level for narrowing inequality.

This blogpost reviews the operations and procedures of the Safe & Sound Family Resource Center in San Francisco. The blogpost notes the intake interview process where families identify what they perceive as their needs and helps to illustrate how the families are functioning, including their support network, what types of concrete supports they need, and what they see as their strengths. The blogpost also highlights “light touch” services offered to help enhance protection for parents and children, such as parenting and education classes, parenting support groups, counseling, and respite childcare. There is also discussion of the Integrated Family Services program, which offers a more intensive level of services to families living in conditions that create the highest risk for child abuse and neglect; many of these families have three or more adverse childhood experiences.