From the USDA, this report includes information on how the agency's distribution of loan and grant funds from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Recovery Act) has helped the Nation's rural residents. The data show that millions of business owners and agricultural producers, Internet users, and thousands of homeowners will benefit, and 300,000 jobs have been created or saved.

This paper is from the Brookings Institution, and authors provide an update to a September 2009 paper, which simulated the unemployment rate based on the data from 2009. Using recent data released by the Census Bureau, authors conclude that the recession is going to have a large impact on poverty for the next several years. The recent simulations reveal that the overall poverty rate could increase from 12.5 percent in 2007 to nearly 16 percent by 2014, and the child poverty rate could increase from 18 percent in 2007 to nearly 26 percent in 2014.

A number of states have created free Reality Check Calculators to help youth, students, and adults understand how salary, wages, careers, education, training, and budgets all interrelate. Reality Check Calculators can be used to estimate the cost of living in a particular state or community. There are several examples of these in California, Minnesota, and Texas. These tools help the users think about what the cost of living is, and how education and training correlate to salary and careers. The Calculators allow users to think about:

• Type of housing they would like (apartment, condo, house);
• Utility Costs (phone, electricity, cable, etc.);
• Food (eating out, cooking at home, combination);
• Transportation needs (public transportation, used or new car);
• Entertainment and other miscellaneous charges; and
• Savings.

Once the user has established their “ideal” cost of living and budget they are linked to state salary, occupation, and labor market information sites.

The U.S. Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration has launched "mySkills myFuture," a Web portal that helps job seekers match their current skills to new careers and determine what training is needed to transition from one job to another. Users can view local job postings and locate training and education providers. They are also able to find descriptions, salary information and common job tasks associated with new occupations.

Savings accounts that are started when children are born can allow parents to build savings to pay for college, home ownership, and businesses. This report is from the Center for Social Development, the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), the Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute, the New America Foundation and the University of Kansas’ School of Social Welfare, and presents results from research on families who participated in child development account pilot programs in 12 states and communities.

The TANF program, created in 1996, refocused the nation’s welfare system on promoting employment and self-sufficiency, and requiring states to meet work participation rates. This testimony to the U.S. Senate Committee on Finance provided on September 21, 2010 by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) focused on 1) key changes to state welfare programs made in response to TANF and other legislation and their effect on caseload trends; 2) how low-income single-parent families are faring; and 3) how recent developments in state programs and the economy may affect federal monitoring of TANF.

Many States are currently working to increase support services to improve the health and development of young children. From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this issue brief offers information, opportunities, and challenges that States face when developing policy initiatives to better serve their families. Authors highlight research on how parenting can influence child outcomes, provide an overview of initiatives in four States, and provide recommendations for State policymakers and program developers when implementing programs to support families with young children.

From the College Board, this annual progress report provides a roadmap for educators and policymakers to increase postsecondary education retention. The United States is currently lagging behind in the college completion rate from other industrialized countries, especially for minority and low-income students. With a goal of reaching a graduation rate of 55 percent by 2025, this agenda provides key recommendations, providing promising strategies to help meet this goal.

The Native American Communities Justice Project, an initiative through the Center for Families, Children, and the Courts, authored this policy brief on the court system and issues of family violence. In 2009, over 500 Native Americans and California court personnel gathered together to learn from Native American family violence victims and those who help them in order to consider how California’s courts can better serve these families. This brief outlines key findings from this series of meetings and lessons learned from this important collaboration.

The Occupational Information Network (O*NET) is being developed under the sponsorship of the US Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) through a grant to the North Carolina Employment Security Commission. The O*NET program is the nation's primary source of occupational information. Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors. The database, which is available to the public at no cost, is continually updated by surveying a broad range of workers from each occupation. Information from this database forms the heart of O*NET OnLine, an interactive application for exploring and searching occupations. The database also provides the basis for their Career Exploration Tools, a set of valuable assessment instruments for workers and students looking to find or change careers.