It has been 20 years since the U.S. Congress passed welfare reform, and throughout these two decades, Maryland has provided cash assistance to families whose incomes do not meet their basic needs. In this way, the Temporary Cash Assistance program (TCA, Maryland’s welfare program) provides a valuable service to vulnerable families. For most families, however, this is a short-term solution to the challenges of living in poverty. The annual report series, Life after Welfare, examines outcomes of families who left cash assistance. The series focuses on families’ characteristics, employment and earnings outcomes, and the receipt of other public benefits. The 2016 update includes a sample of 11,737 families who left the TCA program between January 2004 and March 2016. Trends were examined over time by separating these families’ case closures into three cohorts: (1) Mid-2000s Recovery—a declining caseload between January 2004 and March 2007; (2) Great Recession Era—an increasing caseload between April 2007 and December 2011; and (3) Great Recession Recovery—a declining caseload between January 2012 and March 2016.

The goal of workforce development efforts serving individuals in poverty is to provide them with the skills and credentials they need to increase their earnings in the labor market and advance to self-sufficiency. It is important for workforce stakeholders to understand that low-income families’ household income is often partly comprised of public benefits (such as supports for housing, child care, and health care) that phase out as increases in earnings are made through higher wages and/or more hours on the job. Rapid phaseouts of benefits – what are known as “benefits cliffs” – can have the effect of canceling out large portions of a family’s earnings gains, or even make a family substantially worse off from a self-sufficiency standpoint that prior to its earnings gains. This latest research by the Seattle Jobs Initiative examines the impact of benefits cliffs on low-income Washington families. The goal is to support workforce and social service providers in their efforts to better help these families to navigate the potential loss of benefits as they assist them to make earnings gains.

This Urban Institute blog post summarizes recent studies that show that students attending two-year colleges are more likely to be food insecure than other adults, especially during recessions. In 2008, 21.8% of households with two-year college students experienced food insecurity, compared to 14.6% of all households. The authors cannot identify specific reasons why two-year college students experience food insecurity at higher rates, but possibilities include reduced family support, the loss of a part-time job, or increased tuition. Most college students are not eligible for Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, so the authors recommend that states consider expanding eligibility for SNAP to more college students enrolled in educational programs.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation developed this report to study the impact of couples-based family strengthening services for incarcerated fathers and their families. The Office of Family Assistance funded 12 grantees to support healthy relationship programming for incarcerated fathers, their partners, and their families from 2006-2011, and this report focuses on the findings from four of those programs. Three out of four of the healthy relationship programs had weak and non-significant finds, but one program showed sustained positive effects on multiple relationship and parenting outcomes. The authors suggest that more robust and comprehensive interventions might be necessary for justice-involved families.

The U.S. Department of Labor funded this national scan to collect information on the research and evaluation capacity of state workforce agencies. The scan included 41 states, and the researchers from the National Association of State Workforce Agencies conducted site visits to Ohio and Washington, two states that have substantial research and evaluation capacity. Three quarters of the agencies reported having at least one unit that initiates research and evaluation efforts, but a majority of agencies reported staff capacity as inadequate or fair. The site visit findings from Ohio and Washington showed two states with a strong culture of using workforce research to inform policy, longitudinal administrative data sets, and buy-in from the governor and other agency heads. To help bring other states to the level of Ohio and Washington, the researchers recommend additional grant funding, training, and technical assistance to help build the capacity of state workforce agencies to conduct research and evaluation.

This brief from the Aspen Institute’s Expanding Prosperity Impact Collective examines how income volatility affects outcomes for hourly service sector employees. The researchers conducted quantitative analysis using the Retail Work and Family Life survey, and they also included 25 in-depth interviews with San Francisco-area parents working in retail or food service. Half of workers employed at the largest 30 retail and fast food companies reported that their income varied from week to week. Workers with variable schedules were more likely to report weekly income volatility than those who worked a regular day shift. Weekly income volatility was also more likely to lead to financial hardship and difficulty paying bills. The authors recommend six solutions to reduce income volatility, including predictable scheduling, wage insurance, and unemployment insurance.

This report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation details the implementation and early impacts of the Bridge to Employment in the Healthcare Industry Program in San Diego. The San Diego Workforce Partnership (SDWP) used an Individual Training Account (ITA) model to help low-income individuals pay for training in the healthcare industry. Using funding from the Health Profession Opportunity Grant, SDWP contracted with three local organizations that operated the program in different areas of San Diego. The program included assessment, case management, ITAs, employment services, and support services, such as transportation, child care, and temporary housing. Early findings showed that participants who received the ITA and support services were more likely than the control group to participate in health care training, receive a credential, and work in a health care job.

The National Governors Association released this brief to help governors and state policymakers incorporate data and evaluation into policy development, implementation, and monitoring, using the example of prescription opioid misuse. There are five steps to using data and evaluation in policy: creating a logic model, identifying data sources, collecting the data, analyzing the data, and making data analysis an ongoing part of the policy process. The authors break down each of the five steps in detail and provide examples from the perspective of a state attempting to reduce prescription opioid misuse.

While the decline in the manufacturing sector led to a decrease in the number of good jobs available to individuals with only a high school diploma, there are still good jobs available without a bachelor’s degree (B.A.). This report from the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce finds that there are over 30 million jobs in the U.S. with a median salary of $55,000 a year that do not require a B.A. Many of those jobs are in skilled service sectors such as financial services and health services, and the growth in good jobs has been greatest for workers with an associate’s degree.

This MDRC brief describes three innovative approaches to low-income fathers from the Building Bridges and Bonds (B3) study. The B3 study is a partnership between six organizations that provide Responsible Fatherhood services, MDRC, and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation. The goal of this study is to identify services that can improve outcomes of fathers who participate in Responsible Fatherhood programs. Innovations highlighted in this brief include a cognitive behavioral workshop that builds skills for employment stability, an interactive approach to high-quality parenting, and an engagement and retention approach.