This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blog post highlights Bethany Christian Services (BCS), an organization dedicated to helping foster children transition into adulthood. Using evidence-based curriculum, BCS offers workforce development skills and workforce stipend experiences to youth in foster care, while also providing information on life skills, including pregnancy prevention, career path education, budgeting, resume development, and more. Participants are assigned a case manager to guide them, answer questions about the transition to adulthood, and help them build self-confidence and self-sufficiency. To learn more about BCS or other pregnancy prevention programs funded through the Family and Youth Services Bureau, visit their website.

The Disaster Recovery Services by Career OneStop includes state resources, along with a general national resource guide. The Toolkit contains a Resource and Social Services Finder for disaster assistance and a page that provides U.S. Department of Labor aid resources for general disaster recovery.

This bulletin, from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, provides an overview of the literature around disaster preparedness, response, and recovery for low-income populations, and the vulnerability of communities and families with low socioeconomic status. The bulletin explores differences between these populations compared to others regarding preparedness prior to a disaster, response to official communication/warnings as well as the impact post-disaster has on housing, physical effects like injuries, financial recovery, difficulty with obtaining and receiving aid, depression, and posttraumatic stress.

As the rains from Hurricane Florence finally move out to sea this week, the long recovery process from such a devastating natural disaster has just begun. Families and communities impacted by last year’s Hurricanes Harvey and Irma are still in recovery mode, and many people continue rebuilding their homes, communities, and lives. This blog post from the HHS Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response highlights available resources, including the Disaster Distress Helpline. Further, there are suggestions about how one can be engaged to support in recovery efforts; the National Voluntary Organizations Active in Disasters are a great starting place. The blog also notes how to prepare yourself and your family for the next disaster and its aftermath, as well as how to learn about disaster recovery.

In October 2017, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and MEF Associates gathered child support practitioners for a roundtable on the future of child support programs, which served as the content base for this report. They highlight eight issues faced by the child support community, such as compliance, non-traditional families, changing costs of living, and other public benefit receipt, as well as types of research opportunities to further study these concerns. Although not exhaustive, their list is comprehensive and offers concrete research questions for stakeholders to discuss and use to inform their child support policies and operations.

Recent data from the American Community Survey shows that child poverty declined 1.1 percentage points from 2016 to 2017, which is now within half of a percentage point of pre-recession levels. This gap is driven mainly by rural poverty, because urban child poverty has declined below recession levels for the first time. Rates are lowest in the Northeast and in the suburbs but remain highest in the South and in cities. Although child poverty shows promising trends, these measurements use the official poverty rate, which is only one measure of economic hardship. For graphs and maps showing more data on child poverty, visit the Carsey School of Public Policy to download this data snapshot.

Because most jobs today, especially sustainable and well-paying jobs, require a college degree, those without postsecondary credentials are at risk of being left out of or underemployed in the workforce. While national attention is being focused on increasing this number in aggregate, more attention needs to be paid to populations like opportunity youth, immigrants, or the previously incarcerated that have historically had low college enrollment rates and continue to be underserved. This Jobs for the Future report details four ways that institutions can initiate and sustain guided pathways and cross-cutting policies: 1) political leadership and commitment, 2) data systems capacity and use, 3) braided funding, and 4) capacity building and continuous improvement. They also highlight four policies for students to help them connect, enter, progress through, and complete college: 1) strong on-ramps, 2) ongoing intensive student support, 3) comprehensive financial aid, and 4) robust career pathways. More information on the current conditions and policy opportunities within each category is provided in the report.

This report presents findings from an OPRE evaluation of New York City’s Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) that strove to provide subsidized employment and support services for disconnected youth. Implementation and short-term impact studies were previously conducted, so this report details longer term impacts and performs a cost analysis. While the program initially led to strong employment and earnings gains for participants, the results faded after 30 months and participants did not transition into education, employment, military, or training programs at higher rates than the control group. At $5,431 per participant, this intervention is on the lower end of the spectrum of similar programs, which can range from $4,200 to $10,000 per group member. The authors concluded that “light-touch employment and personal development services” are insufficient to translate into sustained employment and earning outcomes, and that future programs should pay more attention to transitioning their participants from subsidized work to long-term unsubsidized employment.

On October 30, the American Public Health Association will host a webinar for caseworkers and policymakers alike that will discuss necessary leadership skills to inspire and drive change in workplace culture around health and safety. Applicable to many different settings and contexts, their exploration of leadership requisites and leveraging expertise to support health and safety initiatives will be invaluable for all changemakers in various social policy fields.

System modeling is an effective tool to understand the way homeless people navigate the variety or systems and programs in an area, which can ultimately lead to more efficient and cost-effective service provision. A report from The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness details steps involved in system modeling for homeless services, including listing desired aspects of a homeless services program, estimating the population size, reviewing existing data on which programs are being accessed and for how long, identifying intervention combinations that will lead to permanent housing, and using those figures and interventions to develop an ideal model to distribute resources effectively. By taking a broad look at the state of existing programs, using actual data to make utilization projections and assumptions, and reviewing new data periodically to ensure resources remain efficiently distributed, system modeling can be a powerful way to combat homelessness. This article also discusses a case study where system modeling in Indianapolis helped reduce homelessness for youth and young adults.