This online self-paced course supports identification of occupations for youth and adult apprenticeship programs based on a five-step occupational selection approach. The process helps determine whether an occupation has mutual benefits for employers and the apprentice. Key learning objectives include how to identify an occupation through labor market trends and partnerships; how to use data evaluation tools to identify whether an occupation fits an identified apprenticeship program; and how to align labor market and program data with the U.S. Department of Labor’s apprenticeable occupation list. The course includes presentations from representatives from CareerWise USA and the Institute for American Apprenticeships.

This case study describes how the Rhode Island Department of Human Services’ Rhode Island Works (RI Works) helps TANF recipients overcome barriers to workforce success before beginning their job searches. The case study overviews RI Works and presents its key features: where the program operates; how it is administered; how TANF participants experience the program; and the ways that RI Works uses data. Also highlighted are the program’s accomplishments and remaining challenges after its 2018 redesign.

This case study covers the New Moms program, which offers job training, housing, and family support programs to pregnant and parenting young women and their children in Chicago and its near western suburbs. The case study illustrates the New Moms model and presents its key features: what services are offered; how the model is organized, staffed, and funded; and how New Moms measures program participation and outcomes. The case study also highlights promising practices, challenges, and lessons learned.

This case study profiles Kentucky’s Targeted Assessment Program (TAP), which provides comprehensive assessment and intensive case management for parents in the state’s child welfare and TANF systems. The program’s goals are to support participants in overcoming barriers to self-sufficiency and family safety with a focus on mental health, substance use, intimate partner violence, and learning disabilities or deficits in 35 counties statewide. The case study also notes services provided by TAP; how the program manages staffing, communication, and funding; and how program participation and outcomes are measured. The case study also highlights TAP’s promising approaches, challenges, and future plans.

(See also Resources on "domestic violence" in the Resource Library)

This case study describes the Family Assessment Centers (FACs), which provide emergency shelters for families experiencing homelessness in Honolulu, Hawaii. The FACs represent an initial initiative under the `Ohana Nui service delivery framework, which is used across the Hawaii Department of Human Services (DHS) to support multigenerational families. The case study covers this program in detail, including where FACs operate and their context; what FACs offer; whom FACs serve; how they are staffed and funded; what services are provided by FACs; and how FACs measure program participation and outcomes. The case study also highlights accomplishments, challenges, and future plans.

This case study covers the Business Link program, housed in New York City’s Human Resources Administration. The program helps participants achieve self-sufficiency by providing job placement and subsidized employment opportunities for TANF cash assistance recipients and other low-income persons. Business Link develops connections with local businesses and helps them recruit, screen, and hire job candidates. The case study details where Business Link operates; whom it serves; what services are provided; how it is organized, staffed, and funded; and how it measures program participation and outcomes. The case study also discusses promising practices and remaining challenges.

This case study profiles Solutions for Change (Solutions), which supports families experiencing homelessness in San Diego County. The Solutions model progresses through a highly structured, three-phase, 1,000-day program. The sequence includes dedicated case management; onsite mental health services; 12-step support groups; unpaid work experience; parenting; employment readiness training classes; and a series of life skills. The case study notes where the Solutions model operates, its background and approach, and whom it serves; what services are provided; how it is organized, staffed, and funded; and how it measures participant progress. The case study also discusses the model’s accomplishments and challenges.

This Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth brief identifies the extensive nature of trauma and how adverse childhood experiences have negative impacts on the employment outcomes of youth and young adults with disabilities. The brief notes how workforce systems can meet young job seekers’ mental health needs by using a trauma-informed care lens, which can reduce barriers to employment among youth with disabilities who have histories of trauma. The brief presents data on the percentage of youth who have had adverse childhood experiences and highlights state examples of care coordination and cross-system collaboration, tools and training for professional development, and culturally responsive practices.

This report evaluates four grantees of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Ready to Work (RTW) Partnership Grant (RTW) program. RTW assists the long-term unemployed—persons who have been out of work for at least 6 months—in finding jobs and succeeding in the labor market. Support services include career guidance, occupational training, employment readiness, job search assistance, and work-based training. The evaluation, which covers a four-year period from 2014 to 2018, reviews RTW implementation among four grantees: the Maryland Tech Connection program at the Anne Arundel Workforce Development Corporation; California Skills to Work in Technology/Job Search Accelerator at San Francisco’s Jewish Vocational Service; Finger Lakes Hired at RochesterWorks! (Monroe County, New York); and Reboot Northwest at Worksystems, Inc. in Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, Washington.

This brief reviews how seven programs that combine substance use disorder treatment and recovery with employment services transitioned to meet service delivery challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. The brief, part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies project, also reviews how the programs responded to increased substance misuse and overdoses during the initial months of the COVID-19 crisis.