The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration hosted a session entitled "WIOA Youth Program COVID-19 Session" on May 4, 2020, attended by nearly 1,700 youth workforce professionals nationwide. Attendees shared their solutions to some of the biggest challenges facing youth during COVID-19. This document highlights attendees’ input shared during the webinar.

Children living in poverty are less likely to participate in structured learning activities during the summer months; Boston After School & Beyond, a citywide program based in Boston, Massachusetts, seeks to address the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers by offering a menu of online learning services and resources to support student enrichment and learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. A network of partners provides these enrichment supports, including learning and skills-building, meals delivery, and meeting emergency needs. The partners include: CitySprouts, Breakthrough Greater Boston, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, 3Point Foundation, African Community Economic Development of New England, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and others.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration has compiled a list of resources from the 24 Youth CareerConnect grantees on program management strategies. These resources cover case management as well as monitoring and participant files, sustainability of Youth CareerConnect partnerships, and other relevant guidance for programs addressing the needs of youth. Also included are data and general information about the Youth CareerConnect program, engagement strategies, and career and education strategies.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report presents findings of the Strengthening Relationship Education and Marriage Services (STREAMS) evaluation, which is a random assignment impact analysis and process assessment of five Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) grantees. The process study report identifies findings on The Parenting Center’s experiences in the design and implementation of Empowering Families, which was designed to offer integrated HMRE and economic stability services to couples raising children together. The STREAMS impact evaluation reviewed the effectiveness of the integrated HMRE Empowering Families program and whether intensive economic stability services effect participants’ employment and earnings and relationship quality and co-parenting.

This Indian Health Service grant announcement provides 501(c)(3) organizations an opportunity to apply for funding to support a variety of services to improve the healthcare of the American Indian/Alaska Native community through outreach and education efforts. Eligible organizations include those with expertise in representing Tribal governments and administering national health policy and health programs, including work in substance abuse and suicide prevention, domestic violence prevention, HIV/AIDS outreach and education, and diabetes work. The application closing date is June 29, 2020.

The Aspen Institute has developed a series of digital events entitled Conversations in Financial Security in Response to COVID-19: How to Triage, Recover, and Stabilize. Tenth in the series, this webinar on July 1, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET will highlight the importance of addressing employees’ financial challenges to ensure an equitable economic recovery.

In this Aspen Ideas to Go podcast, a panel of child and adolescent experts define anxiety and stress and offer coping strategies to parents to help support them in their interactions with their children at various stages of their development. In the wake of COVID-19, children and teenagers have experienced disruptions in their normal activities and routines, including attending school and play time with friends and family. Many adolescents and teens are experiencing emotional distress, worry, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Taking a whole family approach, the panel addresses these behaviors and stressors and provides guidance to parents on being honest and clear with their communications, speaking in age appropriate language, filtering out misinformation, and monitoring the news. In addition, the experts also offer parents guidance on managing their own self-care and mental health during this time of uncertainty.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration’s Division of Youth Services has produced a set of three webcasts to support the planning and implementation of WIOA youth programs. Webcast topics include: Employer Engagement; Partner Engagement (to include other non-employer stakeholders who offer supportive services and training to youth participants); and the Recruitment and Retention of Out-of-School Youth.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation research-to-practice brief covers background information on the consequences of domestic violence on families and children and illustrates how prevention and intervention efforts on domestic violence are framed within fatherhood programs. The brief also identifies various promising practices in these programs to support both the prevention of domestic violence and interventions when incidences have already been perpetrated. The brief was developed through the Preventing and Addressing Intimate Violence when Engaging Dads (PAIVED) study.

This blogpost, authored by the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, discusses the Open Table initiative. This initiative supports youth in undergoing “significant life transformation” by using an intensive, relationship-focused, volunteer-based model to help them develop their own life plans; volunteers then use their own social networks to help youth implement these plans. The blogpost highlights Crosswinds Youth Services, a Runaway and Homeless Youth Transitional Living Program project in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where five “tables” were formed to provide group mentoring and help at-risk youth successfully leave the program.