Services to help people find work are a common element of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and other programs, but evidence on the effectiveness of different approaches is limited. This report presents options for designing a rigorous evaluation of the impact of job search assistance for low-income workers. It describes several broad designs, using both individual- and group-randomized experimental designs, and concludes with a discussion of the tradeoffs when considering research questions, technical merit, practical merit, and policy relevance. Abt Associates prepared the report. (author abstract)

How can federal programs support low-income and low-skilled individuals find and keep employment? Searching for a job is a universal experience for nearly all Americans, but for some low-income and low-skilled individuals, job search may be especially difficult. To support these individuals as they look for employment, many federal programs offer short-term and relatively low-intensity services, known as job search assistance. This brief describes an overarching framework for thinking about job search assistance programs, including an overview of service delivery methods, key program components, and the steps that make up the job search process. Abt Associates wrote this brief. (author abstract)

This article provides an overview of available research on children who experience homelessness, the impact of homelessness on children's physical and educational development outcomes, as well as policies and programs established to help address the issue of child homelessness. TANF is highlighted as a potential solution and applicable research is shared about job readiness services for homeless individuals. This article would be helpful to TANF programs interested in gaining a better understanding of the needs and more fully serving homeless families.

This brief from the National Center on Family Homelessness provides an overview of ways TANF can be used to help homeless families find and maintain stable housing. It explains the difficulty which some homeless families experience when attempting to access TANF while also offering examples of state programs effectively building partnerships between TANF and homeless service providers. While it is intended for housing service providers and gives a basic overview of TANF, the suggestions for collaboration would be useful to TANF stakeholders seeking to address the needs of homeless families with local service providers.

In April 2014, the Institute for Research on Poverty released a discussion paper that explores the receipt of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) among low-income households. The research is based on data from the first two waves of the Michigan Recession and Recovery Survey (MRRS), a panel survey of working-age adults in the Detroit Metropolitan Area. The study examined how low-income families in the Detroit Metropolitan Area combined SNAP with other forms of public assistance during the Great Recession and analyzed the relationship between the receipt of SNAP assistance and food shopping behaviors.

The Institute for Research on Poverty recently released a short report that provides an overview of the evidence on employment instability in the United States. The report also includes information about some opportunities and challenges facing policymakers and researchers interested in promoting employment stability in the current economic and political context.

This paper reviews the literature on the policy context of the HPOG program and the challenges and opportunities related to developing healthcare occupational training and support programs. It discusses the structure of the healthcare industry and trends in healthcare employment, implications of ACA for entry-level employment in healthcare, and resulting challenges and opportunities for training programs. (author overview)

In this testimony before the State of Vermont House Committee on Human Resources, Heather Hahn discusses proposed changes to Vermont's TANF program, and more generally, the "benefits cliff" and work incentives that participants experience as they strive for self-sufficiency. Hahn explains how the key policy levers - asset tests and the earned income disregards - affect the benefits cliff and work incentives. She also places Vermont's Reach Up rules in the context of other states' TANF rules and discusses other important issues to consider in conjunction with changes in these rules. (author abstract) 

This brief examines how provider training and education are related to parent- and provider-reported indicators of quality in home-based and center-based care for toddlers using data from a nationally representative sample of low-income children. (author abstract)