Research has suggested that people living in higher poverty areas experience more acute systemic problems than people in lower poverty areas (e.g., limited access to medical services, healthy and affordable food, quality education, and civic engagement opportunities). Government agencies and researchers have previously identified counties with high rates of poverty over an extended period as targets for increased level of support. While definitions vary, counties are typically considered to be in persistent poverty if they maintained poverty rates of 20 percent or more for the past 30 years. This Census Bureau report expands upon the persistent poverty literature by examining subcounty geographies (specifically, census tracts) and comparing those results to county results. By using this smaller geography, additional populations that may benefit from targeted intervention are identifiable.

Federally funded Responsible Fatherhood programs work with fathers to promote healthy relationships and marriages, strengthen parenting practices, and help fathers attain economic stability. For programs to improve fathers’ outcomes, they need to be able to recruit fathers, engage them in services, and keep them actively participating in program activities. However, social service programs often struggle to engage participants in their services. The Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF) study was aimed at addressing this difficulty with fatherhood programs. This brief summarizes how cycles of 10 fatherhood programs participating in SIRF were designed and implemented, and provides an overview of the study’s overall findings.

Youth Thrive, a research-informed framework on youth well-being and an action-oriented initiative of the Center for the Study of Social Policy (CSSP), is designed to better support healthy development and promote well-being for youth with partners across the country. For the past eight years, Youth Thrive has focused on strategies to improve systems that serve youth who are most marginalized in society, specifically focusing on child welfare and juvenile justice systems and the service system that supports youth who are at-risk of homelessness. CSSP will host a webinar on June 8, 2023 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss new resources from Youth Thrive which organizations can use to help young people build their protective and promotive factors. Participants will learn about resources such as new graphics and animated videos, a practice blueprint with many tools and guides, an interactive professional development workshop for staff on social connections, and an instructional video on the Youth Thrive Self-Assessment Survey.

This brief summarizes findings and recommendations from a study designed to measure and compare the added value of models used to predict participant success within career pathways programs in the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program. HPOG provided education and training in high-demand occupations in the health care field to TANF participants and other individuals with low incomes. As part of program enrollment and participation, workforce program providers have access to program data through their management information systems that has the potential to improve program outcomes through data analysis. In addition to improving program outcomes, analyzing the wealth of program data allows providers to identify participants at greater risk for program dropout and tailor the program accordingly to participants with an increased risk. From a provider perspective, predictive models vary in the level of program value, costs, and complexity. To help inform practitioner decision-making and explore differences using real-world program data, the brief explores the tradeoffs of using simple to complex data science methodology to analyze career pathways program data.

This report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2019 for most indicators and through 2020 for other indicators, reflecting changes that have taken place since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act in 1996. Welfare dependence is defined in this report as the proportion of individuals who receive more than half of their total family income in one year from the TANF program, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and/or the Supplemental Security Income program.

The issue of opportunity youths—young adults who are neither in school nor working—has been pervasive over the past few decades, although the problem grew more severe during the COVID-19 pandemic. The first article in a two-part series from the Federal Reserve Bank noted how the rate of young adult disconnection ebbs and flows with business cycles as these adults choose to enroll in school or grapple with the realities of the labor market. This second article  illustrates how several demographic groups have differed in their response to business cycles over time and how their disconnection rates have changed in recent years. The inability to reengage these young adults may aggravate economic issues already gaining attention, such as declining enrollment in higher education and languishing labor force participation.

According to the American Farm Bureau Federation, 45% of rural adults say they have been impacted by the opioid epidemic, and 74% of farmers and farmworkers have been directly affected. Rural communities encounter unique challenges when combating substance misuse in the community and the workplace. Rural areas typically have a high poverty rate, are sparsely located, and lack access to healthcare, mental health, and recovery services. The U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Workforce Investment (OWI), in collaboration with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Appalachian Regional Commission, and the First Tennessee Development District and its partners, will host a webinar on May 31, 2023 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET that will highlight how opioid addiction has impacted the rural workforce and the resources, promising practices, and grant opportunities available to support recovery through the workforce system.

State and local benefits agency staff are invited to join a training with Kristi Thornton of the Federal Communications Commission on May 26, 2023 at 1:00 p.m. ET to learn about relevant law concerning SMS messaging to engage with public benefits applicants and recipients. This training will describe a declaratory ruling issued by an FCC Bureau in January 2023, and other guidance public benefits programs should consider (including non-health and integrated delivery models).

After registering, registrants will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.

All along the journey from youth to young adulthood, there are critical junctures at which a change in pathway can have a tremendous impact on a young person’s future. This Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce report identifies 10 pathway changes with the greatest potential to improve employment outcomes for young adults. It uses the Pathways-to-Career policy simulation model to identify promising junctures at which strategic interventions could increase the likelihood of working in a good job.