This issue brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services offers guidance on how to implement virtual case management in the wake of COVID-19 pandemic guidelines for social distancing. These considerations include how to identify appropriate technology, how to provide training to caseworkers and clients on the use of the identified technology, and how to incorporate privacy concerns and information sharing among systems in a virtual environment.

This issue brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) defines virtual technical assistance (TA) and illustrates the types, use, and effectiveness of virtual TA across HHS programs. Included are programs delivered and managed by the Children’s Bureau, Center for Substance Abuse Treatment, and Offices of Child Support Enforcement, Refugee Resettlement, Head Start, Regional Operations, and Family Assistance. While covering emerging practices in designing and delivering virtual TA, the brief offers guidance on how to choose technology tailored to the audience’s access and expertise, administration of virtual assistance to ensure recipient satisfaction, and how to supplement virtual TA with in-person meetings.

This blogpost examines the likelihood of children’s risk to returning to foster care if they are infants, in their early teens, or have experienced a group placement before reunification with their birth families. The blogpost summarizes research on more than 600,000 children in 20 states over a seven-year period, from 2003 to 2010, with follow-up analysis concluding in 2017. Variables assessing the risk of foster care reentry included: children’s race, ethnicity, gender, and age; children’s placement history; and the social and economic context of the placement. Additionally, the blogpost covers how child welfare agencies could identify children who might benefit from Family First Prevention Services Act interventions.

This research-to-practice brief assesses the impact of evaluation technical assistance (ETA) provided to grantees under two federal initiatives: Youth At-Risk of Homelessness (YARH), funded by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and the Performance Partnership Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3), a multi-agency funded initiative. The brief covers details about the grant programs and the provision of ETA evaluation offered; success, utilization, and benefits of ETA; how program requirements and evaluation needs were balanced; and how to make ETA successful for this and similar programs targeting disconnected youth.

This guide from the National Child Traumatic Stress Network provides information to parents and caregivers on how the COVID-19 outbreak might affect their families both physically and mentally and how to help them cope. Information is provided on: COVID-19 cause and its transmission, preventative strategies, steps families can take to be better prepared, including information and communication strategies and awareness of community resources and emergency contacts, how to reduce families’ risk, and ways to help families cope with stress including suggestions for parent and caregiver self-care. A chart features reactions that children might have to the outbreak according to age group and the best ways that parents and caregivers can respond.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief identifies current and past research and evaluation studies that assess program interventions targeting justice-involved, incarcerated, and formerly incarcerated parents and youth.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration has developed this webcast to address questions for prospective applicants for the Young Adult Reentry Partnership Funding Opportunity Announcement (FOA). The webcast covers application submission requirements; applicant and participant eligibility; required partnerships, grant activities, and components; priority consideration; and the evaluation of Reentry Employment Opportunities projects. Grant applications are due on April 20, 2020.

This research-to-practice brief profiles Kentucky’s Addiction Recovery Care program, which offers workforce development services for individuals with a history of substance misuse. The brief notes how individuals with opioid use disorder often encounter concurrent issues at the time of recovery, including poverty, homelessness, and low-level education attainment. The brief also identifies that workforce development services are not tailored to individuals with opioid use disorder and that these individuals need skills to maintain recovery and support self-sufficiency.

This blogpost summarizes two articles by Annie E. Casey Foundation staffers who focus on two critical facets for youth in foster care. The first article explores adolescent brain science and how child welfare professionals can support and engage these youth in planning their futures. The second article covers entry prevention programs and how they keep families together and reduce removal in cases other than child neglect or abuse.

This report presents findings of a random assignment evaluation of the WorkAdvance model which focused on sectoral-based career pathways. Four providers (Per Scholas, St. Nicks Alliance, Madison Strategies Group, and Towards Employment) implemented the WorkAdvance model between June 2011 and June 2013. There were 2,564 study participants. The study findings identify WorkAdvance’s long-term impacts on participants’ employment and earnings and include a cost-benefit analysis to assess the effects of WorkAdvance model from the perspectives of the participants, the government, and society.