This report from MDRC presents labor market trends and examines employment programs for disadvantaged youth over the past three decades. It aims to inform the search for solutions on the demand-side by discussing factors that may cause high unemployment rates among young adults, current evidence on employment-related interventions for young adults, and future directions for change involving greater employer involvement.

Strong English language skills open the doors to economic advancement and community involvement for immigrants and refugees, while strong basic literacy, numeracy, and technology skills are also important for adults to secure jobs and become self-sufficient. This webinar discussed how to meet the particular needs of parents of young children and immigrants in the workforce, ensuring equal access to services for those with low levels of education, and improving access to education and training opportunities for immigrants and refugees.

This blog post highlights the work of a Family and Youth Services Bureau grantee, the Alexandria Campaign on Adolescent Pregnancy (ACAP). ACAP partners with local teen pregnancy prevention groups and other stakeholders to provide more effective services to youth. In 2014, they found that most youth reported positive perceptions of their programs.

This report from the Office of Planning, Research & Evaluation (OPRE) provides a comprehensive framework for understanding self-regulation in context, using a theoretical model that reflects the influence of biology, caregiving, and the environment on the development of self-regulation. It is part of a four-part series that also discusses topics such as stress as related to toxic stress, self-regulation in the context of youth development, and implications for programs and practice.

Many programs within the Administration for Children and Families work with fathers to promote economic self-sufficiency and social well-being for them and their families. These programs may also implement rigorous research and evaluation projects designed to improve our understanding of how best to serve those fathers. This brief describes research and evaluation projects related to the Responsible Fatherhood grant program and noncustodial parents, and other research related to fathers and fatherhood.

This resource, published by Nova Southeastern University, outlines strategies and provides examples of techniques used in Motivational Interviewing. For each technique, the authors include both a rationale for the technique and samples of the technique in use. In this brief, the authors cover the following topics: Asking Permission, Eliciting/Evoking Change Talk, Exploring Importance and Confidence, Open-Ended Questions, Reflective Listening, Normalizing, Decisional Balancing, Columbo Approach, Statements Supporting Self-Efficacy, Readiness to Change Ruler, Affirmations, Advice/Feedback, Summaries, and Therapeutic Paradox. The strategies and techniques sketched out in this resource provide practitioners with real world examples of how to implement Motivational Interviewing in day-to-day interactions with clients.

This 2-page resource from Nova Southeastern University provides tips for using the five general principles of Motivational Interviewing: 1) expressing empathy, 2) developing discrepancy, 3) avoiding argumentation, 4) rolling with resistance, 5) supporting self-efficacy. The resource describes what motivational interviewing is not, including how to avoid making assumptions about others, and provides tips about strategies for handling resistance and helping participants explore goals and hopes for the future.

This paper, produced by SAFER Foundation and the Council of Advisors to Reduce Recidivism through Employment, identifies and examines barriers – direct and indirect – to post-release employment of women. Here, the authors explore the interrelated issues of family life and children, housing, relationships, stigma, and substance abuse/recovery as they relate to female reentry and employment. Additionally, the authors offer recommendations for programming and policy changes to bolster outcomes in each issue area.

This series of briefs outlines criminal justice changes in the last 20 years and discusses implications for female offenders. The briefing sheets in this series include: Women in the Criminal Justice System: An Overview; Involvement in Crime; Mothers in Prison; Inadequacies in Prison Services; and Barriers to Re-entering the Community. Each of the aforementioned topics is explored, as related to female offenders and issues resulting from incarceration: family, socioeconomic status, physical and mental health, housing, education, and employment.

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Impact Study is being designed to demonstrate how variations in program services affect program impacts. The literature on promising and innovative career pathways programs, especially in health care, is quite limited. As such, the HPOG Impact Study will fill a void in the sectoral training and career pathways literature about both program effectiveness and which types of programs or program components are most effective. Key evaluation questions that will be addressed in the study include:

1. What impacts do HPOG programs have on outcomes of interest?
2. To what extent to these impacts vary by subgroups of interest?
3. To what extent does HPOG program participation (in particular components, with particular dosage) have an impact on outcomes of interest?
4. To what extent do various HPOG program models or components have varying impacts?
5. To what extent do specific program enhancements have impacts, relative to the “standard” HPOG program?
6. How does parental participation in various HPOG program models and components affect outcomes for children? (author abstract)