On March 21, 2018, a tool for veterans went live that lets veterans check the status of their benefits appeals, see how long the process may take, and alerts them about any actions they must take. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Digital Service hopes this tool will increase transparency and help veterans understand the timeline of their benefits process. To access the new Appeals Status tool, visit the Vets.gov website.

This report describes how a new smartphone-based application, DadTime, was developed jointly by fathers and the nonprofit MDRC to encourage attendance and participation in the Just Beginning parenting program. The app both provides reminders to attend Just Beginning sessions and reiterates techniques learned in the sessions through interactive tools. The study asked for feedback and used concrete suggestions, like allowing fathers to set the time of day of notifications, using more icons and emojis, and asking parents how they felt when they opened the app, to tailor the application. Overall, the new version of DadTime will hopefully increase user engagement and participation in the Just Beginning intervention.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights a West Virginian program that aims to teach at-risk youth about the “success sequence” path from school to work through marriage and family in a positive and non-judgmental way. Project T.H.I.N.K. discusses healthy relationships and provides resources to inform participants about the transition to adulthood, which can help them avoid early pregnancies, overcome poverty traps, understand what being a parent might be like, and ultimately lay a foundation for a successful and mobile future. The project especially tries to avoid shaming or nagging and works to understand the situations of all participants, whether they already have children or not.

On December 4, 2018, the National Association for the Education of Young Children will hold a webinar with authors of a new book From Survive to Thrive: A Director’s Guide for Leading an Early Childhood Program. The authors will provide information for childhood program directors on building a strong culture, creating useful and engaging policies, and working with families as a leader.

This paper summarizes 40 years of randomized controlled trials (RCT) field experiments on programs and interventions in the unemployment insurance (UI) system to mitigate work disincentives and to help laborers reenter the job market. It is well known that unemployment insurance discourages people from quickly finding a new job if they are unemployed. However, interventions like reemployment bonuses, stronger work-search requirements, and job search assistance significantly decrease time spent without a job while being cost-effective. Hiring incentives for employers and removing the work test, on the other hand, are ineffective. The numerous experiments in the paper can offer strategies for combatting UI’s moral hazard to lower the time people spend unemployed.

The USDA emphasizes maternal and child health as part of their work on nutrition assistance for low-income households, and this second-year report evaluates the efficacy of their initiatives on feeding practices and child health outcomes. The study used a mixed methods approach to gather data from mothers participating in the WIC Supplemental Nutrition Program about child diets and postnatal measurements. They found that WIC helps children consume regular meals and meet most of their recommended daily nutrient intakes, although working mothers are less likely to breastfeed for long periods of time. Also, only about 1% of babies receiving WIC assistance had low weight-for-length measurements, while about 23% had higher than healthy measurements.

This research paper recognizes the growing need for research on children to be supplemented by research with children and examines strategies to help children report on their own well-being. The researchers worked with children between ages three and five to introduce them to emojis, listen to their stories about particular emojis, and facilitate open-ended discussion about aspects of children’s lives that they shared based on particular emojis. A directed content analysis was used to code qualitative interviews into data, and researchers found merit in using emojis to capture children’s thoughts and feelings. As technology and media become more prominent in early childhood, these visual measurement methods may be effective for use in future research with children.

The new Community Needs Assessment (CNA) online data tool can now be found within the CARES engagement network and features structural improvements to increase user experience. It still allows for mapping and reporting data, but has updated environments and easier data downloading features. They will be hosting a webinar on August 14, 2018 to give an online tour of the improved tool.

Visitors to this webpage can select states and territories in a drop down list or click on states and territories on an interactive map to view state caseload trends provided by The Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE); the map links to IV-D Child Support Caseload Fact Sheets for each state of the United States and three territories. The source of the information on the fact sheets is the OCSE 157 Report.

On October 30, MDRC and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association will host a free webinar as part of their College Promise Success Initiative. This webinar will feature adult promise programs as part of their programming around technical assistance and evidence-based support practices. Stay tuned for more information to come.