This discussion paper, from the Urban Institute, summarizes how States are serving clients with multiple barriers on their TANF caseloads and provides information on recent changes in States’ approaches to serving this population. Authors interviewed TANF program officials in the States of California, District of Columbia, Florida, Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Washington, and Wisconsin.

Early care and education has become a reality for many young children with an increasing number of working parents in the United States. The early years for children are extremely important for future development and prove the need for high-quality early care and education for low-income families. This resource, from the Urban Institute, found that more than half of children younger than the age of six in low-income families are enrolled in early care and education programs.

From the Henry J. Kaiser Foundation, this research brief uses data from a 2005 study to examine health coverage, access and the financial impacts of health care for low-income parents and their families. It was found that low-income uninsured parents are mostly without access to health coverage and are much more likely to have uninsured children than those with insurance. In fact, four in ten low-income parents are without access to health coverage and are much more likely to have uninsured children than those with insurance.

From the Journal of Contemporary Social Services, this newsletter includes a variety of relevant topics for low-income families. The feature topic of this issue is fathering and fatherhood, and authors also include articles on an upcoming resource entitled “Working but Poor.”

The Workforce Strategies Initiative published this update on how community colleges and sector initiatives are collaborating to benefit businesses and low-income workers seeking. As there is a continued demand for workers educated beyond high school, 43 percent of adults between the ages of 25 and 64 in the United States are not educated beyond a high school level.

Through MDRC’s Employment Retention and Advancement project, this report presents findings after two years of a program in Riverside County, California. The program’s objective was to promote job retention and advancement among employed individuals who recently left the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. It was found that participants in the program had increased employment rates of four percent above the control group, and increased earnings of 11 percent.

This resource from the Urban Institute’s Robert Lerman includes his thoughts on asset promotion policies. New asset policies are driven by the goal that the accumulation and ownership of assets is critical to move low income families into the middle class. Among the benefits of asset building include the psychological benefits from making positive decisions that enhance economic and social well-being.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics seeks to enhance and improve consistency in data collection and reporting on children and families. This 2007 resource provides a set of key indicators that measure important aspects of children’s lives. The indicators included in this report met the following criteria: easy to understand by broad audiences, objectively based on substantial research connecting them to child well-being and easily estimated using reliable data; balanced, so that no single area of children’s lives dominates the report; measured regularly, so that they can be updated and show trends over time; and representative of large segments of the population, rather than one particular group.

This is a speech given by Alan Berube of the Brookings Institution to Congressional staff on the benefits of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) to urban economies. In this resource, Mr. Berube defines ways that members can maximize the EITC benefit to support low-income families. As well as providing significant benefits to families in cities and suburbs, the EITC has been proven to stimulate local economic activity.

This report is from the GAO and identifies services provided to victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence, and stalking and the demographics of victims receiving services. GAO reviewed grantee data to determine what kind of information is reported to HHS and DOJ from grant recipients on the population served. HHS and DOJ reported that there would be significant challenges in collecting and reporting data on the demographic characteristics of victims receiving services because of confidentiality and safety, resource constraints, overburdening recipients, and technological issues.