In rural communities, widely dispersed populations face many access challenges. With a declining talent pool and lower educational attainment, coupled with rising poverty rates as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is an urgent need to prepare young people in rural areas for high-demand careers. The U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Apprenticeship hosted a webinar on April 28, 2022, which focused on best practices and creative solutions for increasing pre-apprenticeship and youth apprenticeship access, enrollment, retention, and program completion for young people in rural areas. Featured youth apprenticeship intermediaries and partners shared their accomplishments in developing youth apprenticeship opportunities in rural areas, establishing support networks, and best utilizing resources to ensure pre- and youth apprenticeship success.

This brief explores changes in Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseloads during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic. It examines changes to the national and state caseloads by calculating percent changes since before the pandemic began in February 2020. Overall findings reflect that the national caseload rose in the early months of the pandemic, peaking in June 2020, but fell below pre-pandemic levels by October 2020, while state TANF caseload changes varied widely. The brief also discusses the broader context that informs state caseload changes, including structural components of TANF that make it unlikely to respond to increased need, differential access to cash assistance by state, and states’ pandemic-related policy changes.

As the economy struggles to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and the ensuing volatility in labor markets, leaders in the field of young adult talent development are seeing a need to develop approaches that address the talent needs of employers and the training aspirations of young adults equally. This Jobs for the Future brief explores how personalized learning approaches can be used to support and balance the interests of the supply and demand sides in young adult talent development.

This fact sheet summarizes available federal child welfare spending programs, their provisions, and their respective funding levels. It includes funding of the Foster Care, Prevention, Permanency-Title IV-E and Child and Family Services-Title IV-B of the Social Security Act (SSA), as well as the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA).

The COVID-19 pandemic required child protection agencies to pivot quickly, identify new ways of working with children and families, and seize opportunities for innovation that previously seemed impossible. Agency leaders leveraged virtual engagement to maintain connection and support the well-being of children and families, and to address their staff’s needs so they could deliver services effectively during such a difficult stretch of time. This brief shares lessons learned and key considerations offered by parents, caseworkers, supervisors, administrators, and resource caregivers, including both foster and relative caregivers, for incorporating virtual engagement into practice in ways that best support children and families.

This is the first brief in the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) 2.0 Participant Perspectives series. HPOG 2.0 funded local career pathways programs to prepare participants for occupations in the healthcare field that paid well and were expected to either experience labor shortages or be in high demand. This brief presents insights from in-depth, in-person interviews with participants in career pathways programs funded under HPOG 2.0. It describes participant experiences navigating career pathways and suggests implications for career pathways program practice and for evaluations of career pathways programs.

The Youth Homelessness Demonstration Program (YHDP) is an initiative designed to reduce the number of youth experiencing homelessness. The goal of the YHDP is to support selected communities, including rural, suburban, and urban areas across the United States, in the development and implementation of a coordinated community approach to preventing and ending youth homelessness. This Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) establishes the funding criteria for the FY 2021 YHDP. Through this NOFO, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development will award approximately $72 million in up to 25 participating communities, with a priority for communities with substantial rural populations in up to eight locations. Applications are due by June 28, 2022.

Motivational Interviewing (MI) is a collaborative, goal-oriented style of communication characterized by compassion and designed to strengthen personal commitment to making change by exploring the person’s own reasons for change. This MI guide provides a roadmap through the planning and implementation process, including sections on Planning and Readiness, Implementation and Change Management, and Continuous Quality Improvement.

This brief presents findings from an exploratory impact evaluation of the New York City Performance Partnership Pilot (P3) program, which enhanced youth workforce services for young parents. Initial findings note that NYC P3 enrollees had better outcomes than the comparison group in their occupational training participation rate. Enrollees were more likely to participate in other education and job-oriented services, achieve high school equivalency credential attainment, and enroll in education/training enrollment and credential attainment after they leave the program. The brief concludes with recommendations for policy and practice.

The Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) project aimed to improve understanding of approaches to coordinating early care and education services at the state or local level. This brief focuses on findings from telephone interviews with leaders of 18 coordinated services approaches. The interviews provided insights about how coordinated services approaches serve children and their families. Topics discussed in the interviews included information about the development of the coordinated services approach, the partners and funding involved in coordination, the services included in the coordinated services approach, and the coordinated services approach’s use of data, while also offering foundational information for future research or programming efforts.