Assistance Secretary Sheldon of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) co-announced a new public-private partnership, Partnership for Freedom, with Humanity United, Department of Justice, DHHS, and Housing and Urban Development. Partnership for Freedom aims to spur innovative solutions to human trafficking challenges and launched the first of three competitions - Reimagine: Opportunity – dedicated to improving the infrastructure of support for survivors of modern day slavery. The goal is to inspire experts in the anti-trafficking field to connect with new partners and generate new ideas for sustainable housing, economic empowerment and stronger social services for survivors.

This brief, using qualitative data collected during the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative Grantee Implementation Evaluation, describes the adaptations and refinements undertaken by study sites to make their services more culturally responsive to address the backgrounds and life circumstances of people of different cultural, racial, ethnic, or socio-economic backgrounds. The adaptations included addressing issues of language, diversity, racism, and immigration, and incorporating cultural constructs like familismo, confianza, personalismo, and respeto. These adaptations were made to improve the recruitment, retention, overall participation, and effectiveness of the programs. The study was not designed to examine the overall efficacy of these adaptations, but rather to document them. More research is needed to examine whether these adaptations contribute to program outcomes.(author abstract)

The Economic Mobility Corporation released a new report titled, "Stimulating Opportunity: An Evaluation of ARRA-Funded Subsidized Employment Programs." Major findings from this report include: subsidized employment programs can have a significant impact on low-income job seekers' employment and earnings, employers created jobs that would not have existed otherwise, the long-term unemployed experienced large employment and earnings gained, and the subsidized programs also benefited participants with significant barriers to employment. The report continues to demonstrate the value-add and need for solutions such as subsidized employment and transitional jobs in communities.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics released an economic news release on the summer youth labor force for the summer of 2013. From April to July 2013, the number of employed youth 16 to 24 years old increased by 2.1 million to 19.7 million. This year, the share of young people employed in July was 50.7 percent. Unemployment among youth rose by 692,000 from April to July 2013, compared with an increase of 836,000 for the same period in 2012.

The Foundation for Reentry and Employment Project released the Integrated Reentry and Employment Strategies white paper, which provides guidance to policymakers, agency and program administrators, and practitioners working in the reentry and workforce development fields on how to develop collaborative projects and maximize their investments aimed at shared public safety and workforce development goals.

This U.S. Employment and Training Administration (ETA) Webinar showed individuals how to use workforce data to identify growing and in-demand jobs, to determine which of them are good jobs, and to ascertain what preparatory education and training are needed to qualify for them. The webinar identifies some of the best multi-purpose e-tools that incorporate workforce data, job ads, and other job-related information in one place -- including a new resource that explains what kind of information is available from different e-tools.

The Employment Training Administration's Disability Employment Initiative developed hypothetical case scenarios and video vignettes that help Disability Resource Coordinators and other project staff connect strategies for serving persons with disabilities to overarching customer service strategies. The vignettes touch upon real-life situations that staff faces with their customers such as: How can enrollment in Workforce Investment Act services assist in providing the full range of services to their customers?

On behalf of The U.S. Department of Labor, the Social Policy Research Associates and AHA Consulting released a toolkit that describes Oklahoma's Workforce System Certification process – a Governor-backed initiative to encourage voluntary collaboration across partners to create a shared vision for local economic needs and strategies to meet them. This toolkit presents six useful steps: system building, standards and measures, the review process, a self-assessment tool, certification application, and lessons learned from three pilot areas.

ProLiteracy and its publishing division New Readers Press released their latest white paper, "The 2014 GED® (General Equivalency Diploma) Test and Its Impact on Adult Literacy Providers." The white paper addresses the core challenges adult literacy and basic education programs face in trying to prepare students for the new test, which launches in January 2014. The report notes that, as a result of more rigorous assessment targets and the computerization of the GED test, programs and providers must search for creative ways to build infrastructure and adapt curricula or risk being unable to prepare students for taking the new test.

The Center on the Developing Child from Harvard University released a Question and Answer sheet assessing the "Long Reach of Early Childhood Poverty" report. The report was authored by Greg Duncan and Katherine Magnuson. This piece reviews the evidence linking early childhood poverty to long-lasting consequences and discusses strategies to combat the effects of poverty-induced stress on vulnerable families with young children. The new data shows that when children experience poverty, it affects their later-life outcomes. Children's eventual labor market success appears to be compromised much more by poverty experienced early, rather than later, in childhood.