McKinsey & Company's Center for Government (MCG) released a report titled, "Education to Employment: Designing a System that Works." This report examines dual global crises, the high levels of youth unemployment, and a shortage of job seekers with critical skills. The report discusses how a country can resolve this issue and bring young people from education to employment, examining more than 100 education-to-employment initiatives from 25 countries. In addition to this, a survey of youth, education providers, and employers in nine countries that are diverse in geography and socioeconomic contexts is assessed. Lastly, the report focuses on skill development, giving special attention to the mechanisms that connect education to employment

The Urban Institute's HOST Demonstration is developing and testing the effectiveness of using two-generation "whole family" approaches to address the challenges of deeply poor, vulnerable families living in public and assisted housing. HOST services are intended to improve children's health outcomes and reduce risky behavior, helping to overcome some of the disadvantages of growing up in chronic disadvantage. HOST's core case management component helps parents in low-income neighborhoods confront their key barriers to self-sufficiency: poor physical and mental health, additions, low literacy, educational attainment, and a weak connection to the labor force, while integrating services for children and youth. This report discusses the implementation and expansion process of the HOST program.

In 2009, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act expanded investment in States' labor market information (LMI) systems to help create new jobs, save existing ones, spur economic activity, and invest in long-term growth. As part of the Recovery Act funding for green jobs, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded $50 million in State LMI improvement grants to 30 grantees, including 24 individual State workforce agencies and six consortia. The "Investing in Labor-Market Information (LMI): Insights from the Recovery Act LMI Grants" report describes experiences of nine selected grantees and presents lessons that may inform future efforts, while the "Investing in Labor-Market Information (LMI): A Summary of the State LMI Improvement Grants" summary offers information about grantees' goals, definitions of green jobs, partners and stakeholders, activities, products, and dissemination strategies.

Young adults formerly in foster care are less likely to be employed or enrolled in college at age 19 than their same-age peers nationally, contributing to greater economic instability in their early adult years. Social workers, educators, and policymakers question whether youth are adequately prepared for work but have difficulty assessing their job preparedness. This brief, prepared by the Urban Institute, uses data collected as part of the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs to examine: 1) how youth in foster care rate their preparedness for work at age 17, and 2) whether their assessments accurately predict education and employment two years later. The results indicated that a high sense of job preparedness, particularly when combined with high reading skills, was associated with more employment and college enrollment among young adults currently and formerly in foster care. (author abstract)

Mathematica released a report on the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the nation's largest source of training and employment services, in which they conducted a study of States' and local areas' use of eight WIA policy waivers. This final report provides descriptive analysis of the findings from each phase of data collection, discussing the reasons for waiver requests and implementation of waivers at the State and local levels, the successes and challenges of these efforts, and lessons that can be learned from these States' and local areas' waiver use.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a report that discusses issues and potential options for: 1) TANF's role in providing cash assistance to low-income families, 2) measuring TANF work participation, and 3) information on States' use of TANF funds. The report also reviews relevant Federal laws, regulations, and agency documents, along with transcripts from relevant congressional hearings from 2009 through 2012, which provide information on issues and options identified by members of Congress.

The Center for Studying Disability Policy and Mathematica Policy Research released a report summarizing policies and programs that the United States and 10 other Organization for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries are using to provide income support and vocational rehabilitation to transition-age youth with disabilities. The report examines common barriers that inhibit a large portion of young Americans with disabilities from transitioning into adulthood with gainful and stable employment. The four major themes that emerged from the report are: 1) a range of efforts has been made to promote employment, 2) investment in large-scale pilot projects has been helpful to governments to identify what works, 3) most countries are operating programs at various government levels designed to improve access to adult services for people with disabilities, and 4) all countries have actively pursued solutions to the problem of inadequate coordination of youth and adult services.

MDRC released a brief on the GED Bridge to Health and Business Program. This program was developed to better understand how adult education programs might strengthen pathways to college and careers. The GED Bridge program represents a new approach to GED instruction, as it aims to better prepare students not only to pass the GED exam, but also to continue on to college and training programs. This brief details some of the key findings from this study as well as their implications for future research and for the development of stronger GED and adult education programming.

Mathematica issued an information brief entitled, "Ticket to Work Participants: Then and Now." Created by Congress to help beneficiaries with disabilities find employment, the Ticket to Work (TTW) program was revised in 2008 to make it more attractive to employment service providers. This brief discusses how the TTW participant population has changed under the revised regulations, and examines how the regulations may have affected beneficiaries' service use, employment outcomes, and satisfaction with TTW.

One of the best ways we can support teen moms is to help them plan their families in a healthy way.