This National League of Cities issue brief identifies the challenges that mental illness, substance abuse, and homelessness present to local communities. The brief profiles innovative approaches that city leaders have taken, including first responder-provider partnerships, first responder-led referral programs, and regional dedicated emergency psychiatric facilities. Examples are presented of how these approaches are tailored to the unique community needs in Seattle, Washington; Gloucester, Massachusetts; and Alameda County, California.

This Lumina Foundation issue paper looks at how community colleges are moving towards emphasizing workforce education for underserved populations and ways that colleges build partnerships with employers. The issue paper also looks at the adoption of shorter, stackable credentials and the value of credentials in the labor market as workers enter and progress through career pathways.

This toolkit issued by Reimagine Retail Chicagoland provides useful information on designing and implementing career pathways in the retail industry. The toolkit offers sources for labor market information that can be used to develop the pathways and provides examples of “scripts” and language to use to create employer partnerships. There is also a section that evaluates how to use engaged employers’ feedback to create and strengthen sustainable workforce partnerships in the retail industry which can be applied to other industry sectors.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief reviews the state of data availability and data quality related to community connections for home visitations. The brief identifies data sources that are available to stakeholders as well as data sets not readily accessible (for example, the number of clients referred for services) and the data not available but desired (such as the capacity or quality of community service providers). There is discussion about future opportunities to improve data availability, accessibility, and quality.

This Institute for Research on Poverty brief is a summary of an impact and benefit-cost analysis of the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration Program (CSPED). Participating parents were given additional employment services to support economic self-sufficiency with the goal of increasing child support compliance. Analysis findings concluded that satisfaction with the child support system improved substantially for noncustodial parents when a customized approach was utilized; there were modest gains in child support enforcement compliance, earnings, and parenting. While short-term implementation costs outweighed benefits, it was expected that there would be more benefits than costs in the longer term.

This Casey Family Programs research to practice brief provides analysis about the costs of child maltreatment and the financial benefit of prevention and early intervention services. The study identifies the costs for children who experience abuse or neglect, including the risk of involvement with the criminal justice system, developmental delays, substance abuse challenges, low academic achievement, delinquency, and teen pregnancy, as well as diminished wages and future productivity. It also offers brief summaries of child maltreatment prevention and intervention programs and return on investment for these programs with Title IV-E funds directed by the Family First Prevention Services Act.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report examines the Minnesota Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (MSTED) program that is designed to increase employment outcomes for persons who receive benefits for more than six months under the state’s Minnesota Family Investment Program (Minnesota’s TANF program). This implementation study looked at the outcomes from November 2014 to December 2016 in three counties to identify gains in employment and earnings, reduced receipt of public assistance, and overall well-being. The study also analyzed how participants and employers experienced the program in terms of engagement and retention.

ASCEND at the Aspen Institute will host a webinar on August 28, 2019 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET to discuss the implementation of the Restoring Education and Learning (REAL) Act. The REAL Act restores Pell Grant eligibility for incarcerated individuals, so that they can pursue postsecondary education. ASCEND representatives will moderate this webinar, which will feature presentations by representatives from the College and Community Fellowship, Vera Institute of Justice, and New York City Housing Authority.

This National Skills Coalition brief offers guidance on how TANF and other public assistance programs could shift emphasis to skills and employment outcomes, like those used by WIOA common measures, rather than a procedural process that measures the work participation rate. WIOA identifies individuals facing barriers to entering the labor market. This brief identifies ways to enhance coordination between TANF and WIOA systems by addressing common purposes for increasing access to employment and education and training opportunities to support these individuals.

This research-to-practice brief identifies use of kinship diversion practices at child welfare agencies. Kinship diversion, used as an alternative to foster care, places children with relatives when there are allegations of child abuse and neglect. The brief describes interviews with agency administrators and child welfare advocates and draws upon estimates of kinship diversion using the Kinship Diversion Estimation Tool, an online survey of child welfare workers.