This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is an implementation and impact study of two job search assistance programs in Sacramento County, California: Standard Job Club and Fast Track Job Club. The report assessed whether there are differences in types of services that job seekers receive under either program, as well as the level and duration of assistance. The report also discusses if there are differences between participants in the two programs regarding employment, earnings, duration before employment, and need for public assistance.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP) will host a set of three professional development webinars, beginning on August 22, 2019 at 1:00 p.m. ET and continuing on September 26, 2019 and October 17, 2019. The first of these one-hour webinars will cover Career Assessment Principles and Practices, and successive webinars will highlight Career Planning: Individualizing the Process and Beat the Clock: Behavior Focused Time Management. Registration fees are required for all three webinars for both NAWDP members and non-members prior to attendance.

The term “chronic scarcity” was coined by behavioral economist Sendhil Mullainathan and psychologist Eldar Shafir in their book, Scarcity: Why Having Too Little Means So Much (published by Henry Holt & Company, 2013). This book articulates the ways that scarcity creates and perpetuates poverty and how scarcity leads people to shuffle resources and prioritize for urgent roles. From a policy perspective, the authors present an example of how training programs need to offer alternative meeting times to prevent participant attrition. As well, they suggest that time limits can effectively motivate TANF participants to prioritize identifying and securing employment.

MDRC will host a webinar on July 18, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to introduce the TANF Data Collaborative (TDC) and launch the TDC Pilot. Presenters will discuss three ways that TDC supports data-driven management and will cover how TANF agencies can access TDC pilot funding and receive a scholarship for attending data analytics training.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service will host a webinar on July 18, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET to discuss the use of intermediaries in the administration of SNAP E&T programs. Intermediaries are organizations that conduct required administrative tasks and support State SNAP programs by centralizing operations and fiscal reporting. The webinar will include speakers from Goodwill of North Georgia, Portland (Oregon) Community College, and Worksystems (the local Workforce Investment Board in Portland, Oregon) who will discuss the benefits, challenges, and opportunities of each of their models.

This Chapin Hall issue brief reviews: child welfare workers’ perceptions of county-level availability of training and the range of services available for transition-age foster youth; workers’ views about the collaboration between child welfare departments and other service delivery systems; and the correlation between foster youth satisfaction with training and services and outcomes in education, homelessness, employment and health. The analysis relies on longitudinal studies from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) conducted in 2013 and 2015. Report findings point to the need for increased collaboration among child welfare and other systems, as well as connection of foster youths’ satisfaction with offered services to support service delivery.

The June issue of the MDRC operations web series “In Practice: Lessons for and from Practitioners” provides guidance on participant recruitment for community improvement programs. The blogpost outlines eight key steps towards implementing recruitment strategies: know your target audience, market the benefits of your program, establish and train a recruitment team, get the word out, connect with referral partners, set realistic recruitment goals and track your progress, put your recruitment plan in writing, review progress regularly, and reward success.

This Urban Institute report reviews the use of outcomes-based contracts (OBCs), which tie government payments to improvements in service delivery. The report examines the benefit of using OBCs to incentivize performance from external contactors, as well as the challenges and risks in administration and effect on service delivery. Findings are drawn from field interviews and external researchers.

This Administration for Children and Families Information Memorandum presents state Work Participation Rates for FY2018. The dataset includes state-by-state information regarding TANF and SSP-MOE work participation rates and standards, caseload reduction credits, the number of work-eligible individuals, and activities in which individuals participated.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation issue brief covers ongoing Administration for Children and Families (ACF) research and evaluation projects regarding the Responsible Fatherhood grant program, noncustodial parents, and fathers and fatherhood in general. The brief also discusses prior ACF research and evaluation projects on fatherhood.