The U.S. Department of Labor’s Re-Integration of Ex-Offenders Program provides three main types of services to ex-offenders: mentoring, including one-on-one and group mentoring; employment services such as work readiness training, job training, job placement, job clubs, transitional employment, and post-placement follow-up; and case management and supportive services. This report summarizes the initial impacts of the RExO program on offender outcomes in four areas: service receipt, labor market success, recidivism, and other outcomes. The findings suggest that RExO significantly increased the number and types of services received by ex-offenders.

In 2010, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services launched the Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED), and the Department of Labor launched the Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD). These complementary research projects are evaluating the effectiveness of 13 subsidized employment models in ten locations across the country. The programs target “hard to employ” groups, including TANF participants, people with criminal backgrounds, and young people out of school or work, and offers subsidies for learning employment skills while working.

According to a report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, in 2014, 48.1 million people lived in food-insecure households. Food insecurity is defined as having limited access to food because of lack of money or other resources. Food insecure households are more likely to have children, be headed by a single mother, and live below 130 percent of the poverty threshold. This brief spotlight focuses on food insecurity and the importance of food assistance programs for family well-being.

This fact sheet from Workforce3One highlights WIOA reforms for One-Stop Centers. Since WIOA presents an opportunity to improve career options for workers and job-seekers through an integrated, job-driven public workforce system, this resource shares how One-Stop Centers will gain improved access to comprehensive services, enhanced and streamlined operations, and better public recognition.

In this publication, the U.S. Census Bureau presents data on income and poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2015 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC). It notes that in 2014, the median household income was $53,657, which was not statistically different from the 2013 median household income of $54,462. The official poverty rate was 14.8% (46.7 million individuals) in 2014, which was not statistically different from the 2013 poverty rate. The data is also categorized by demographics such as race, ethnicity, and region. For most demographic categories, income estimates did not statistically differ between 2013 and 2014.

The Office of Family Assistance recently published the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application for the third quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. During that quarter, an average of 1.6 million families were receiving TANF and Separate State Program (SSP) assistance per month. This indicates a decrease of about four percent from the same time period in FY 2014.

This Office of Family Assistance Program Instruction (PI) reminds TANF jurisdictions that federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) funds cannot be used to provide juvenile justice services. The Office of Family Assistance identified that several states are using federal TANF and/or MOE funds to provide services to individuals who are under the jurisdiction of the state's juvenile justice system. This PI is to remind TANF agencies about established policy in this area.

As part of the Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Reentering Fathers and their Partners (MFS-IP), twelve grantees received funding from the Office of Family Assistance to implement activities to support and sustain marriages and families of fathers during and after incarceration. Grantees also provided reentry, parenting, education, and employment services. The evaluation includes publications such as research briefs, reviews of promising practices, and implementation data.

The National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities at Case Western Reserve University published this “State of the Field Scan” that explores how a mixed-income housing approach has transformed deteriorating public housing complexes into safer and more attractive developments for residents from a range of income levels. The report describes how mixed-income developments provide services to improve well-being and self-sufficiency. The authors conducted an online survey with representatives from 60 mixed-income housing developments to gather information on the demographics of the community as well as data on the types of supportive services provided, how developments tracked service use, and the developments' perceived outcomes of services provided.

This new career pathways website is a hub for information about career pathways research from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE). It includes the PACE study, the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) research portfolio, and other programs being evaluated.