This 12-page practitioner brief focuses on one aspect of the ERA programs — that is, their strategies to reemploy the many program participants who quickly lost jobs. Limited rigorous evidence is available on reemployment strategies. Moreover, the ERA evaluation was not designed to test the effectiveness of the specific strategies discussed in this document. However, the experiences — successful or not — across the ERA programs can provide important lessons for developing or operating employment programs for current and former welfare recipients. The reemployment services that were offered to newly unemployed individuals are similar to job placement services in programs that target unemployed populations generally, but there are differences, particularly in using recent job loss as a learning tool in finding the next job.

While preventing job loss can be an appropriate goal for retention and advancement programs, the ERA study illustrates how challenging it is to keep individuals in a particular job. Programs might consider redefining “retention” as sustained employment across jobs rather than as sustained employment in any one job. The focus in this brief is on how to address job loss once it has happened: structuring job search and job placement services for those who have recently lost their jobs, with the goal of reducing the length of unemployment, improving the quality of the new job over the previous one, and achieving greater employment stability over time. The lessons address three overarching questions:

How can programs learn about participants’ job losses quickly?

Which strategies might contribute to faster reemployment?

How can managers organize staff and resources to address job loss?  (author abstract)

This curriculum was developed by the Office of Disability Employment Policy within the U.S. Department of Labor. The curriculum focuses on “soft” workforce readiness skills for youth ages 14 to 21, including youth with disabilities. Built in modules, each section includes hands-on activities in the following key areas: communication, enthusiasm and attitude, teamwork, networking, problem solving and critical thinking, and professionalism.

This First Focus report from the Brookings Institution offers a summary of the economic recession’s impact on children in the United States. During an average month in 2011, an estimated 6.5 children had an unemployed parent, with more than 1 million living in California, which has an unemployment rate of 12 percent. Many children are receiving Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits as a result of the recession, as children make up half of all SNAP beneficiaries. SNAP caseloads have increased by 70 percent over the last four years. Finally, child poverty has increased from 18 percent in 2007 to 22 percent in 2010.

As the United States continues to face high unemployment in the wake of the recent recession, federally funded workforce programs can play an important role in bridging gaps between the skills present in the workforce and the skills needed for available jobs. The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) sought to strengthen the connection between workforce programs and employers, but GAO’s prior work has found that collaboration remains a challenge. With WIA currently awaiting reauthorization, GAO reviewed (1) factors that facilitated innovative collaborations among workforce boards, employers, and others; (2) major challenges to collaboration; and (3) actions the Department of Labor has taken to support local collaborative efforts. GAO examined 14 local initiatives identified by experts as among the most promising or innovative efforts in which local workforce boards collaborated effectively with employers and other partners to achieve positive results. GAO interviewed representatives of the 14 initiatives and officials from five federal agencies. GAO also reviewed reports on the initiatives and relevant federal laws, regulations, and other documents

Visit the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ (CBPP) National Earned Income Tax Credit & Child Tax Credit Outreach Campaign. The CBPP provides a 2012 Tax Credit Outreach Kit, EITC estimator tool, and a comprehensive, searchable database of “Outreach in Action,” which provides examples of how organizations are promoting the EITC, Child Tax Credit, and free tax filing assistance.

The Asset Platform Web site serves as a resource for nonprofit and agency staff and provides information on financial education, coaching, and asset development. This website has training information, tools, and products and divides its resources into six focus areas to best serve its users: budgeting, credit score, debt, insurance and safety net, organizational resources, and savings.

The IRS provides EITC Central, which hosts the Partner Toolkit, the Tax Return Preparer Toolkit, Marketing Express, and Information for the Press. EITC Central includes the latest EITC news and updates, EITC statistics, and widgets, banner ads, radio, TV PSAs, and ready-made publications and products to use in your EITC outreach campaign.

The Office of Community Services (OCS), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, administers the Assets for Independence (AFI) Program. AFI funds community-based, faith-based, and other organizations, such as State, local and tribal government agencies that assist low-income people to become economically self-sufficient. The Assets for Independence Resource Center takes an asset-based approach to self-sufficiency and offers users many resources specific to program and agency needs, as well as resources specific to certain populations. Visit the Resource Center to learn more about IDAs, read success stories, locate a project near you, or apply for an AFI grant.

This EITC Assistant is from the IRS and provides eligibility information for the EITC in tax year 2011. By providing basic income information, the program can help in determine correct filing status, determine whether children qualify, and it can also estimate the amount of credit that someone may receive.