This paper tests the relationship between maternal depression, parental quality, and child outcomes. It finds that experiencing adversity as a child is a factor in current maternal depression, which in turn affects parental engagement and sensitivity to children’s distress, but not non-distress. Thus, different interventions should be used for mothers who have experienced trauma depending on whether the goal is identifying and responding to distress signals or increasing parental sensitivity to their children overall.

On September 17, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will host a webinar on supporting youth who have been affected by drugs and addiction within their families. Specifically, they will focus on the importance of mentoring and share strategies and best practices on counseling youth from families and communities where substance abuse may be an issue. Presenters will also discuss the challenges and changes of mentoring as the abuse landscape shifts and the opioid crisis grows.

As youth transition into adulthood, financial literacy is crucial for self-sufficiency. To help young adults understand and manage their finances, the Federal Trade Commission and Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention will sponsor a webinar on September 20 on topics such as generating good credit, avoiding debt burden on student loans, buying cars, and avoiding identity theft, among other important topics.

Join a U.S. Census Bureau economist and statistician on September 19 as they discuss their research into the recent economic stagnation from the late 1990s through 2015 and its effects. They primarily focus on workers moving onto and up the job ladder and the implications of this movement on hours worked and wages earned. Earnings gains were lowered by previously unemployed hires and increased by those who stayed with their jobs and who changed employers.

Work requirements vary widely across programs and states. As state rules change, this tracker, developed by the Urban Institute, identifies and tracks policy changes for work requirements for state-administered TANF programs. The tool compiles data from the Welfare Rules Databook, published by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; the U.S. Department of Agriculture Food and Nutrition Service; Urban Institute’s analysis of state Section 1115 waiver applications submitted to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services; and annual reports submitted to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development by Moving to Work demonstration sites.

The paper from Jobs for the Future reviews and make recommendations about the community-focused approach to federal policy and investments. Also known as “place based,” community-focused efforts have two objectives: 1) improve the integration, coordination, and customer-service orientation of federal support for communities; and 2) provide a framework for comprehensive solutions to interrelated challenges. This policy and investment strategy brings federal, state, and local organizations together with community members to break down barriers that prevent individual and community success. Because the design of community-focused programs is responsive to local needs and priorities, the results and strategies vary based on the location.

This qualitative review by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation seeks to understand the experiences of children in poverty as part of an initiative to learn more about low-income children and families from their own perspectives. After conducting in-depth interviews, several salient themes around benefit receipt, stigma, and the effects of poverty emerged. Even young children perceive the gap between themselves and peers’ material status and feel the double stigma of being poor and receiving benefits. Parents also feel stigma concerning benefits, but also often feel they are not sufficient, have strict requirements that create added pressures, or that other recipients are benefitting unfairly. Lastly, parents try to shield their children from the family‘s true situation in poverty, which can inform policies for welfare offices around sensitivity training, rule clarity, or customized services.

This report from Brandeis University’s Institute on Assets and Social Policy uses data on Secure Jobs participants who entered skills training to explain how Secure Jobs sites use short-term skills training programs for their participants. Key findings include: Secure Jobs participants who enroll in skills training programs are comparable to those who do not, and they show moderate employment gains, most notably in job retention. Secure Jobs participants choose training programs in subjects ranging from health care to manufacturing. About half have chosen training in health care-related fields. Participants who enter training in traditionally female-dominated fields, including health care, sales, and service, are more likely to find employment than those in traditionally male-dominated fields such as construction and manufacturing.

In accordance with federal interests, the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation funded a report on the challenges of and potential solutions for measuring TANF employment outcomes. Creating national standards would be a significant challenge due to the flexible nature of TANF funding; states have implemented many different programs within diverse local contexts and with unique eligibility criteria. Instead, federal agencies could help individual states design metrics to assess their employment outcomes, connect program leaders across states, and allow states to demonstrate their own processes as a learning tool for others. Understanding the breadth of programmatic diversity and range of potential state-specific solutions may allow for the most effective evaluation of TANF employment outcomes.

In this video, Josh Barnes, Acting Director of Disaster Recovery for HHS’s Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), describes his passion for helping people rebuild their communities after disasters. ASPR focuses on providing health and social service needs following a disaster, closing the distance between resources and the people who need them. Teams are constantly preparing for the next recovery effort, constructing plans for a wide range of disaster types. Following the 2017 hurricane season, one of the most devastating seasons on record, HHS employees from many agencies joined hurricane response and recovery teams. Barnes himself has responded to over 30 disasters recovery missions throughout his career.