This toolkit from the Heartland Alliance provides resources targeted toward organizations wanting to engage employers for transitional jobs or subsidized employment programs. These resources will help organizations plan and implement effective job development strategies, build relationships with employers, and serve participants with barriers to employment. The toolkit includes research briefs on six different topics, videos of employers describing how partnering with transitional jobs programs was good for business, and links to additional information by subtopic.

This interactive map from Feeding America describes the extent of food security by county across the United States. Using 2015 food insecurity data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, this map illustrates how food insecurity rates differ across regions. The map includes the food insecurity rate, the estimated percentage of the population that is eligible for SNAP and other nutrition programs, the average cost per meal, and the additional money to meet that county’s food needs.

This report from Mathematica Policy Research details an evaluation of New Heights, a DC Public Schools program that supports parenting students’ educational attainment. New Heights’ program model includes a coordinator responsible for providing targeted school-based case management, weekly educational workshops, advocacy, and incentives to both male and female students who are either expecting or parenting. The researchers found that New Heights led to significantly better outcomes in school engagement and credit accumulation, and a marginally significant impact on graduation rates for parenting students.

While low-income parents face challenges, many manage to raise children with socio-emotional competence. This policy report from the National Center for Children in Poverty describes what can be learned from these resilient parents, and analyzes programs and policies that promote parents’ and children’s resiliency. The authors find that policies such as increasing access to health and mental health care, providing training in evidence-based parenting skills, and strengthening key safety net programs all contribute to strengthening resiliency in both parents and children.

Almost half of American families are financially insecure, and financial capability programs have the potential to provide solutions. This brief from The Pew Charitable Trusts analyzes four different types of financial capability programs for economically vulnerable Americans: literacy, counseling, coaching, and planning. Each section links to research and program examples of all four types of financial capability programs.

This fact sheet examines 2015 spending data to understand spending patterns nationally and to examine the wide variations across states in how TANF/MOE funds are used.

This handbook from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration provides tools for individuals suffering from opioid use disorder to use in their recovery. A key feature of this handbook is medication’s role in opioid abuse recovery; there are sections on whether medication supports recovery, which medications can work for recovery, and how those medications function. Each section contains interactive tools that individuals can use as they progress through recovery.

Many American families experience significant shifts in income from one year to the next. These shifts, known as income volatility, make it difficult for families to balance paying expenses and planning for the future. This report from The Pew Charitable Trusts analyzes the differences between families that experienced income volatility and those that did not. The researchers found that more than a third of American families experienced a large year-to-year change in income, but Hispanic families and families without a high school diploma were more likely to experience income volatility.

Work-based learning opportunities are a critical tool for filling skills gaps for positions that require some education or training past high school. This scan from the National Skills Coalition identifies the policies that all 50 states and the District of Columbia have implemented to encourage work-based learning opportunities. The authors found that 35 states had at least one of the following policies: expansion initiatives, employer subsidies, pre-apprenticeships or youth apprenticeships, secondary student work-based learning opportunities, or policies supporting postsecondary classroom instruction for apprenticeships.

Nearly 12% of American children will spend at least half of their lives from birth to age 17 living in poverty. This report from the Urban Institute analyzes factors that have helped these persistently poor children achieve economic success. Some of those factors include spending more years in an employed family, spending fewer years in a family headed by someone with a disability, and living in less segregated and disadvantaged neighborhoods. The researchers recommend several strategies to help more persistently poor children achieve economic success, such as subsidized employment for parents and programs to help families move out of disadvantaged neighborhoods.