Project SEARCH, run by Cincinnati Children's Hospital, provides employability skills training and workplace internships for individuals with significant disabilities, particularly youth transitions from high school to adult life. Project SEARCH now has program sites throughout the United States and the United Kingdom, and works with youth with chronic illnesses, traumatic injuries, rehabilitation issues, and other disabilities, and generates a plan that addresses their vocational, educational, training, and employment goals.

The U.S. Department of Education and the National Center for Education Statistics released a report examining the basic skills of American adults by demographic and other socioeconomic factors including race, educational attainment, foreign status, and age. This critical information will allow for the design of smarter, more effective policy solutions that improve the skills of American adults and youth.

The Connecticut Employment & Training Commission released a report describing the most prominent State strategies for building and promoting career pathways. These strategies were pulled from a review of literature on career advancement strategies for low-skilled workers over the last decade.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau released a report on low-income and economically vulnerable populations. Low-income and economically vulnerable populations include as many as 100 million people. These consumers are diverse in culture, geography, stage of life, and financial status. Last year, the Office of Financial Empowerment hosted a forum to examine the unique consumer financial product and service needs of low-income and economically vulnerable consumers. This report captures the reflections and insights of attendees and describes some of the strategies being pursued to address the issues identified.

A study by Brookings researchers examined the prospects for ending extreme poverty by 2030 and the factors that will determine progress toward this goal. They released an interactive tool that allows users to explore the study's key finding, including: poverty scenarios to 2013; the view from the poverty line; the need for equitable growth; China, India, and sub-Saharan Africa; and weak prospects for fragile States.

Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago hosted a webinar on January 16, 2014 that discussed the nature of self-sufficiency and the ways different systems view economic instability. Speakers also discussed the present challenges and opportunities for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners who work to understand the ways that Federal policies can affect income instability, and the relationships between employment supports and poverty.

This report from the Center of Law and Social Policy (CLASP) proposes several strategies to help turn the table for the thousands of young black men who are under- and unemployed. The report reflects on the current labor market situation of young black men and on policies and practices that can be leveraged to dramatically improve their labor market status.

The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families released a brief on healthy relationships, employment, and reentry. This brief provides an overview of the evidence supporting the interrelatedness of employment, healthy relationships, family well-being, and recidivism. It also gives the perspectives of expert program practitioners who are successfully integrating programming related to employment, prison reentry, healthy relationships, and responsible fatherhood. Finally, this brief offers program and policy recommendations for leveraging the positive impacts of healthy relationships on employment and reentry and vice versa.

This publication provides an in-depth, systematic description of program implementation, operations, outputs, and outcomes of four Tribal TANF programs (the Navajo Nation Program for Self Reliance, Tanana Chiefs Conference, Athabascan Self-Sufficiency Assistance Project, and South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency).  The publication also identifies promising practices and other areas for further study.

Overall, the study found that tribes use the flexibility of Tribal TANF to create diverse programs that reflect their unique circumstances, opportunities, and cultures.  Elements of tribal culture were evident in the program design, in the way program staff and clients interacted, and in the types of activities in which clients were engaged.  The Tribal TANF programs in the study generally focus on the broad goal of self-sufficiency, beyond the narrower goal of employment.(author abstract)

This paper provides a review of formal research reports and published literature on implementation analysis. It defines implementation analysis, summarizing methodological issues and topics addressed by this type of analysis, and describes systems change analysis and its relationship to implementation analysis. The paper concludes with a summary of implications for the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) National Implementation Evaluation design. The paper was developed as part of the HPOG Implementation, Systems and Outcome Project, which is being led by Abt Associates in partnership with the Urban Institute. (author abstract)