This video and companion brief from Harvard University's Center on the Developing Child provide an overview of what executive function is and how it affects one’s life-long capacity to learn. It explains how these skills develop, what can disrupt their development, and how supporting them can pay off in school, work and life.

Created by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities (CBPP), the Building Better Programs initiative is a useful resource for TANF programs and other human services stakeholders looking to improve program strategies and offerings to better meet the needs of clients with reduced executive functioning. Available resources include webinars, research, practice summaries and links to additional information that offer techniques for identifying executive functioning challenges, assessing client needs and developing responsive programs.

This paper, from the Crittenton Women’s Union (CWU), discusses how executive functioning skills are important to move out of poverty. Executive functioning includes skills like impulse control, working memory, and mental flexibility. Persistent poverty can influence brain development and executive functioning and provide challenges for individuals as adults. The paper reviews how improving executive functioning can help promote positive outcomes and discusses how policy and programs can be developed to improve executive functioning.

This presentation describes a study using system dynamics modeling to determine if there is a cliff effect -- the income gap low-wage workers experience when their income exceeds eligibility limits for benefits and the loss of work supports totals more than earned income -- in Franklin County, Ohio and across the state of Ohio.

This presentation was given at the 2014 National Association of Welfare Research and Statistics (NAWRS) Annual Workshop.

On December 3, 2014, ORR hosted a webinar on the Annual Outcome Goal Plan (AOGP). The AOGP is required annually for of all states and Wilson-Fish agencies The webinar reviews each section of the AOGP, highlighting key points and important details.

Published by MDRC, this report highlights the early results on how program providers in New York City, Tulsa, and Cleveland implemented the WorkAdvance framework into a workable program. The WorkAdvance program encompasses sectoral as well as job retention and career advancement strategies. This report offers lessons learned to assist organizations seeking to implement a similar sector-focused career advancement program.

Stemming from the lessons learned of the initial conditional cash transfer program, this report provides key findings from the first two years of implementing Family Rewards 2.0. Launched during 2011 in the Bronx, New York and Memphis, Tennessee, Family Rewards 2.0 targets low-income families with children primarily in the ninth and tenth grade. In addition, the program seeks to provide financial stability for disadvantaged communities through conditioned-based rewards.

Published by the Center for Housing Policy, this report provides guidance on how housing authorities can implement both behavioral and cognitive science in improving programs. In addition, it offers direction that public housing authorities (PHAs) can utilize to design self-sufficiency programs aimed at meeting the needs of chronically low-income households.

Jobs-Plus is an evidence-based model used to help individuals that live in public housing find work. Published by MDRC, this guide assists users in implementing Jobs-Plus programming. In addition, it serves as a resource for practitioners to learn from others around the world who have had experience with the program.

This Crime Victims' Institute resource describes the strengths and limitations of several intimate partner violence (IPV) risk assessment instruments, including the Danger Assessment and Ontario Domestic Assault Risk Assessment. In addition, it summarizes a few studies that examined the predictive validity of various risk assessment instruments. Finally, it describes how risk assessment instruments are being used as part of IPV response protocols by first responders in certain States.