The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services will hold a webinar on April 29, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET. The webinar will cover technical assistance resources available to assist youth workforce development practitioners in delivering all-inclusive services to young people.

This Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation issue brief highlights local perspectives on how performance indicator alignment from federal programs promoting self-sufficiency could increase program efficiencies and service delivery across multiple federal agencies. This qualitative analysis is based on the EMPOWERED performance measurement study and identifies the challenges and opportunities associated with the alignment.

This Urban Institute study illustrates the financial costs and long-term effects of youth incarceration and suggests a new model to prevent and address illegal actions by youth. This new model calls for a continuum-based approach that includes restorative justice programming, family counseling and mentoring support, and interventions to address substance abuse. The brief reviews four areas to create this continuum, including: capturing and reinvesting savings resulting from youth detention facilities closures; repurposing youth detention facilities; maximizing existing state and federal funding sources; and identifying innovative funding strategies for opportunities for youth and their families.

This Upjohn Institute issue brief notes strategies to ensure SNAP benefit retention. Data from seven states showed that almost half of SNAP participants exit from assistance within one year, and one half of these exiters remain eligible but are dropped from caseloads since they fail to meet administrative filing requirements. The issue brief illustrates how many states, including Michigan, have tried to reduce administrative burdens by allowing participants to track and manage their benefits online.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison teamed with the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to present a webinar on March 27, 2019 on current research, as well as outreach and programming field practices that are responsive to fathers’ needs. Presenters included faculty from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Social Work and practitioners from the Indianhead Community Action Agency (serving Northwestern Wisconsin), the Parenting Network of Milwaukee, and the City of Milwaukee Health Department Men’s Health Unit.

This MDRC brief describes how behavioral strategies were used to encourage parents to make child support payments and to explain child support orders once issued. The Start Smart initiative guides eligible noncustodial parents on income withholding mechanisms to make child support payments and for making these payments before the income withholding starts.

This blog post from the Children's Bureau Office on Child Abuse and Neglect identifies programs and resources that foster safe and stable environments for children and their families. The post highlights an initiative funded under the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program, as well as the 2019 Prevention Resource Guide that includes six protective factors promoting child well-being.

Casey Family Programs developed and hosts this interactive mapping tool designed to identify community aspects that correlate with safe children and strong families. It utilizes current U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey data and shows the following data indicators by state, county, and zip code: vacant housing levels, housing cost burden, resident turnover, percentage of single-mother families, child-to-adult ratio, percentage of persons 65 years old or older, unemployment rate, percentage of adults with a high school diploma, and poverty rate, as well as general demographics, such as population, racial breakdown of the population, and percentage of persons who are foreign born.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report identifies a research design plan that will be used in interviewing up to 140 participants from among 27 HPOG 2.0 grantees across the country. The interviews will provide insights about participants’ motivations, decision making, expectations, and experiences.