Data analysis in this U.S. Government Accountability Office report shows that nearly 2 million at-risk college students did not report receiving SNAP benefits. The report also highlights the risk factors for food insecurity among this population. This analysis is based on survey results from 14 colleges and discusses resources that these higher education institutions provide to students to address food insecurity and help them apply for Federal food and nutritional assistance programs.

This U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service report illustrates the demographics and economic circumstances of SNAP participants, including age, disability status, household size and composition, benefit level, and households with earnings and those receiving other cash welfare benefits. Changes in SNAP participant characteristics over time are also discussed.

This Mathematica report follows a 36-month evaluation of the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP) grants, which the U.S. Department of Labor awarded to 20 local workforce development boards. The grants were made to test methods of establishing jail-based American Job Centers (AJCs) to support incarcerated persons with employment services for successful reintegration. The report provides a descriptive implementation analysis of the strategies that the grantees identified as well as design challenges in this environment.

Family engagement has been identified as a key factor in children’s early learning and development at a cognitive and social level. Since few ways exist for early care and education (ECE) programs to determine the strength of family engagement supports and to identify areas for improvement, the Georgia Family Engagement Assessment and Planning Tool (FEAP-T) was developed. This National Center for Children in Poverty report presents findings from a FEAP-T pilot, suggests that the FEAP-T be revised, and highlights ways a revised tool could help strengthen family engagement practices in Georgia’s ECE programs.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation blogpost features lessons from Maryland MENTOR to illustrate how to improve the quality and quantity of mentoring programs. Also mentioned are projects that Maryland MENTOR has initiated to increase the number of mentors, including convening town halls, building professional development skills for mentors, and creating a database to connect volunteers with young people looking for mentors. While this organization’s scope is limited to Maryland, some findings noted in the blogpost can be used to help grow and support mentoring programs nationally.

This Jobs for the Future report identifies how rural community colleges offer academic and non-academic support for adult and non-traditional learners’ college retention and completion. While important for all first-generation students and adult learners, these supports are typically less available within rural communities as a result of distance and fewer institutional resources.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation practice brief examines the first phase of the Learn, Innovate, Improve process (LI2) model for systems change. The LI2 model is an approach to implement systems change intentionally, to guide change systematically, and to use evidence and research to inform this change. The brief explores the “learn phase,” which identifies the reasons for systems change, the problems to be addressed by the change, and organizational readiness for change.

The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families will host a webinar on March 19, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to discuss best practices for coordinating care, delivering trauma-informed services, and offering treatment for opioid-addicted teens and young adults.

This Child Trends blog post illustrates how family engagement is now being recognized as falling along a continuum of services that support children’s development. The authors distinguish between home visiting, which works more with parents to improve outcomes for their children, and early child care and education that is more child-focused. The use of a family engagement continuum addresses these complementary roles that center on communications and how we engage families to set and achieve child and family goals.