In this article, Brookings discussed this month's release of the Census Bureau's latest round of Income, Poverty, and Health Insurance Coverage data, giving insight into poverty levels for 2011. Rates from the data show an increase in working full-time, year-round jobs in 2011; however, they also show a continual decrease in household income. This article touches upon important findings released, along with suggestions for various factors that will influence poverty levels in the future.

The Center on Children and Families at Brookings has been using a model for the past three years to predict the U.S. poverty rate before the official figure is released by the Census Bureau. In this article, poverty rates for the next twenty years are predicted and discussed, along with the causes and reasoning for the upcoming changes.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported on August 24, 2012 that from January 2009 through December 2011, 6.1 million workers were displaced from jobs they had held for at least three years. This is down from the 6.9 million for the survey period covering January 2007 to December 2009. In January 2012, 56 percent of workers displaced from 2009-11 were reemployed, up by seven percentage points from the prior survey in January 2010.

The Brookings Institute published a paper that aimed to provide metro, State, and national policy makers with a clearer understanding of the specific problems facing metropolitan labor markets today. An analysis examining trends in the demand for educated labor, and an explanation on how the gap between education supply and demand is related to unemployment, is addressed. This study concludes with a discussion of the implications of these findings for public policy.

The Brookings Institute published an article on the challenges many families face with poverty. A brief overview of the success of poverty reduction over the past decade is addressed, along with the examination of the major causes of poverty, trends in spending to help poor and low-income Americans, and strategies Congress has adopted to fight poverty.

This Urban Institute report details how state policy decisions affect TANF program administration in five states: California, Florida, Michigan, Texas, and Washington. The authors examined both cash assistance and other aspects of the block grant, plus how states responded to the Deficit Reduction Act and the recession.

The Urban Institute published the "Low-Income Working Families Fact Sheet" for August 2012. Within this fact sheet, information about what has been learned about the TANF program over the past 16 years has been summarized. Elements of TANF legislation is briefly addressed, along with the notation of the six considerable differences between TANF and the terminated Aid to Dependent Families and Children (AFDC).

The Supporting Healthy Marriage (SHM) evaluation was launched in 2003 to test the effectiveness of a skills-based relationship education program designed to help low-income married couples strengthen their relationships and, in turn, support more stable and more nurturing home environments and more positive outcomes for children. The evaluation is led by MDRC, in collaboration with Abt Associates and other partners, and is sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services.

The SHM evaluation includes a rigorous random assignment research design that compares outcomes for families who are offered SHM’s services with outcomes for a similar group of families who are not offered SHM services but can access other services in the community. The evaluation also includes this implementation study documenting how eight local programs delivered SHM’s services. The SHM program offers a voluntary, yearlong package of relationship and marriage education services for low-income married couples who have children or are expecting a child. The model has three complementary components: group workshops based on structured curricula; supplemental activities to build on workshop themes; and family support services to address participation barriers, connect families with needed resources, and reinforce curricular themes. This report presents final findings from the SHM implementation study, the characteristics of couples who enrolled, and their participation in the program.  (author abstract)

In 2002, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) instituted the Community Healthy Marriage Initiative (CHMI) evaluation to document operational lessons and assess the effectiveness of community-based approaches to support healthy relationships, marriages, and child well-being. The evaluation is being conducted by RTI International and The Urban Institute. A component of the CHMI study involved an implementation study on initiatives approved by the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) under authority of Section 1115 of the Social Security Act.1 The goals of the initiatives were to improve the child support systems through community engagement and healthy marriage and relationship education programs. Operationally, these goals included direct improvements to the child support program, like increasing the number of child support orders established, increasing paternity establishment, and increasing payment toward support obligations. The broader context for these operational goals was improving child well-being and increasing parental responsibility.

This is the final in a series of reports being produced on the implementation of demonstrations in 14 sites receiving grants under the 1115 waivers. Earlier reports covered the implementation of initiatives in Atlanta, Georgia; Boston, Massachusetts; Chicago, Illinois; Denver, Colorado; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Jacksonville, Florida; Lexington, Kentucky; Minneapolis, Minnesota; Nampa, Idaho; and New Orleans, Louisiana. This report focuses on the initiatives in Marion County, Indiana; Clark County, Ohio; Lakewood, Washington; and Yakima, Washington. The goal of the implementation studies was to describe the nature of the community initiatives, including recruitment and outreach strategies, targeting efforts, and innovative approaches for linking child support with healthy relationship and marriage support activities. This report examines key aspects of the initiatives’ community partnerships, design and implementation of service delivery, and links with child support. It does not present estimates of program impacts or effectiveness. The report is based on site visits conducted in 2010, 3 to 5 years after the initiatives were initially approved as well as information provided over the course of operations by grantees. Because these visits took place when the initiatives were ongoing, this report is not a complete accounting of what the initiatives accomplished or how many people they served over the course of their waivers. (author abstract)