The Larimer County Workforce Center (Colorado) website provides tools that can assist individuals as they plan a career path. The tools include assessments of interests and values, skills assessments, and tools for understanding local labor market information.

ACT WorkKeys is a job skills assessment system that helps employers select, hire, train, develop, and retain a high-performance workforce. This series of tests measures foundational and soft skills, and offers specialized assessments to target institutional needs. As part of ACT's Work Readiness System, ACT WorkKeys has helped millions of people in high schools, colleges, professional associations, businesses, and government agencies build their skills to increase global competitiveness and develop successful career pathways. Successful completion of ACT WorkKeys assessments in Applied Mathematics, Locating Information, and Reading for Information can lead to earning ACT's National Career Readiness Certificate (ACT NCRC), a portable credential earned by more than 2.3 million people across the United States.

This annual report is mandated by Utah’s Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act, and requires the Utah Department of Workforce Services (DWS) to report on the status of individuals experiencing intergenerational poverty. Since 2012, DWS has met this requirement through coordination of data sharing across the five state agencies that comprise the Intergenerational Welfare Reform Commission, including the Department of Health, Department of Human Services, DWS, Juvenile Courts, and the Utah State Office of Education. This yearly report provides an update on state two-generation activities over the previous year, and includes evidence-based policy recommendations based on the data contained in each report.

In 2012, the Utah Legislature passed the Intergenerational Poverty Mitigation Act, recognizing that children in the cycle of poverty and welfare dependency experience barriers to stability and opportunity. This bill requires the Utah Department of Workforce Services to establish and maintain a system to track intergenerational poverty related data to identify at-risk children and other groups, to identify trends, and to assist case workers, social scientists, and government officials in the study and development of plans and programs to help individuals and families break the cycle of poverty.

This two-minute video details the impact of toxic stress on brain development. It is part of a three-part series produced in 2011 by the Harvard Center on the Developing Child and the National Scientific Council on the Developing Child.

This career exploration tool from the O*NET Resource Center helps caseworkers understand their clients’ strengths and areas in which they would like to explore further education or training. It helps identify occupations that fit individuals’ capacities and can help clients determine what kind of jobs they can do well.

This report presents findings from an intervention designed to increase the number of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families recipients who “reengaged” in Los Angeles County’s welfare-to-work program.

Two behaviorally informed notices went out to different groups of participants:

• A notice highlighting the losses they might face by not attending the reengagement appointment; and
• A notice highlighting the benefits they might receive by attending.

A third control group did not receive either behaviorally informed notice.

Participants received the notice one week before their appointment. The test found that receiving a behaviorally informed notice increased the percentage of group members who engaged in the program within 30 days of their scheduled reengagement appointment, with the increase driven by the loss notice (author abstract).

In this short video, TANF practitioners explain how partnerships at their local American Job Centers are creating opportunities to reach more people who utilize their services. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah programs are highlighted for their successes in TANF/WIOA collaborations.

This report describes the major research investments of our Division of Family Strengthening through Fiscal Year 2015. This division has primary responsibility for research and evaluation projects related to strengthening relationships within families, supporting fatherhood, nurturing children through their families, reducing teen pregnancy, supporting youth in their transition to adulthood, and preventing family violence.

This report presents the research organized into six different sections, showing the breadth of our family strengthening research. These sections include:

• Supporting Fatherhood
• Strengthening Relationships
• Nurturing Children Through Families
• Supporting Positive Youth Development And Reducing Teen Pregnancy
• Preventing Family Violence
• Other and Cross-Cutting Research (author abstract)

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program funds training in high-demand healthcare professions targeted to TANF recipients and other low-income individuals. This brief from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) presents an overview of studies funded by HPOG University Partnership Research Grants and discusses the contributions these studies are making to the body of knowledge regarding the education and training, employment, and advancement of low-income job seekers. The brief includes recommendations developed by the studies’ investigators for local education and training programs and state/federal agencies to consider in order to apply the knowledge generated by their studies.