Recent causal research shows that people’s earnings are directly linked to the neighborhoods where they grew up, with impoverished and underserved communities at the bottom end of the earning scale. Johns Hopkins’ 21st Century Cities Initiative offers three categories of policy suggestions to help economic mobility for people living in distressed neighborhoods. First, place-based programs like revitalization and infrastructure development can create needed services and economic opportunities. Second, housing mobility programs can provide access to higher opportunity areas. Third, placelinking programs can physically reconnect isolated areas without moving residents or building completely new infrastructure. Together, initiatives like these can revamp and reinvigorate impoverished neighborhoods.

Urban Institute fellow and podcast host Justin Milner, along with experts in the U.S. Department of Labor and the Brookings Institution, speaks about what evidence-based policy is and what it looks like in practice. The speakers emphasize basic research, statistical evaluation, performance management and measurement, and experiential evidence to build effective and applicable programs. Because policy makers do not always use robust evidence, many government programs do not have large impacts when statistically scrutinized. Thus, including researchers is important in the policy debate and program development stages to create successful new initiatives and identify existing effective programs for expansion.

In this article issued by the Institute for Research on Poverty, discussion highlights the effects of paid leave on mothers’ post-birth employment and on child well-being. Policies, such as work requirements, time limits, and child care subsidies, are effective levers for increasing employment. Yet this research also suggests that any assessments of these policies must consider not only benefits of increased maternal employment, but also the potential costs associated with reduced child well-being.

Studying large public social programs can be a challenge for social scientists. Recent technological developments have allowed researchers to use big data — data sets that combine survey and administrative data — to examine how social programs work and how they affect their participants. One method by which researchers accomplish this is “text mining,” a process of finding patterns from large amounts of unstructured text data. In this report from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago, researchers explore how text mining contributed to a better understanding of the behavior of families in the foster care system and the role of the courts on reunification.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services highlights the importance of kinship care – care by a close relative or friend – if a child cannot remain with their parents. Research has shown that children have the best outcomes when raised in a supportive environment by people they know. This article emphasizes the preference for kinship connections and provides links to the Children’s Bureau website, where there are tips and advice for those interested in child welfare and kinship care. The website also hosts an outreach tool to help advocates and professionals engage the public in fostering child well-being.

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 the Building Wealth and Health Network for the work they do to build social and financial capital of TANF recipients. Based on research that shows the beneficial effects of high social and monetary capital, the Network provides group financial empowerment classes and other resources with a specific focus on those overcoming violence or adversity in their past. There is also a peer support component that creates connections among participants, which increases social capital and helps members feel engaged and self-sufficient and makes the program sustainable. Randomized control trial results suggest that this program increased employment, earnings, and self-sufficiency while decreasing depression and economic hardship among members.

This research brief, drawn from the Homeless Families Research Briefs project out of the Office of Policy, Planning research & Evaluation, explores issues of family homelessness that are especially relevant to HHS, to state and local decision makers, and for programs. The Employment of Families Experiencing Homelessness brief explores parents’ earnings at the time the family was in emergency shelter, prior to becoming homeless and at 20 and 37 months after experiencing homelessness. This new brief examines employment rates, compares the employment rates of families experiencing homelessness to the employment rate of parents in deeply poor families in the same communities, discusses barriers parents identified for not working, and explores the relationship between employment, income, and continued housing instability.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights the $150 million initiative by the Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Family Assistance to conduct Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) promotion activities; of this $150 million, $75 million each year is designated for healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE). OFA funds 46 HMRE programs in 27 states and the territory of Guam. One of these programs is University Behavioral Associates/Montefiore’s Supporting Healthy Relationships program, which delivers services on building healthy relationships and marriages to 300 married and unmarried couples each year. This blog post describes the services that two UBA/Montefiore program participants received and their appreciation for the services.

On September 18, 2018, the Urban Institute will host a discussion at their D.C. headquarters led by a Washington Post columnist to address misconceptions about credit, specifically credit for low-income families. Having poor or no credit is a serious barrier to overcoming poverty because it creates high transaction costs and limits opportunities to invest in homes or cover emergencies. Thus, policymakers and researchers will discuss the facts on credit and why credit-building should be expanded for low-income Americans.

New Census data comes out in mid-September, and this webinar hosted by the Coalition on Human Needs aims to forecast trends that may emerge and help stakeholders understand what to look for when the data is released. Specifically, the speakers and moderators will focus on how the data can answer questions about the best ways to raise incomes, reduce poverty, and evaluate the effectiveness of new work requirement policies for social support programs. They will also discuss which relevant data to watch for and how to find specific information of interest. Visit their website to register for the event on September 6, 2018.