This report from the Office of Research, Planning, and Evaluation provides a conceptual framework for healthy marriage education intervention with low-income married step-couples based on research and practice lessons. Authors provide background data on divorce and remarriage, information on the characteristics of stepfamilies and trends in stepfamily prevalence, research findings on stepfamily dynamics, the quality of relationships among stepfamily couples and outcomes for children, and information learned from practitioners.

Government safety-net programs provide income, health, education or other forms of assistance to individuals, families, and households. The AARP Public Policy Institute authored this resource looking at the distribution of work-related and need-related benefits among American families in 2004. While most older Americans are covered by Social Security and Medicare, need-related government programs are still important for low-income, older Americans.

One in twelve people in the United States participate in the FNS-sponsored Food Stamp program. In this report, GAO examined what methods States are utilizing to increase access to the program, results of such methods, and what actions States have taken to maintain program integrity while implementing alternative methods.

This fact sheet, from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation, provides an overview of the health of African American men, including mortality rates, health status, insurance coverage, and access to care. Authors find that African American adult men are more likely to lack health insurance than boys, as are adult men in the Midwest and the South, compared to the Northeast and the West.

Isabel Sawhill, of the Brookings Institution, testified before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support of the House Ways and Means Committee to discuss poverty reduction strategies. She cited three priorities to alleviate poverty in the United States: expanding early childhood education, reducing teen pregnancy and early, out-of-wedlock childbearing, and encouraging work.

Authored by the Institute for Research on Poverty, this resource provides information on how the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) improves infant health. Data show that WIC has modest effects on fetal growth, but there is no relationship between WIC and smoking habits.

Mathematica authored this resource on vouchers and gives an overview of how vouchers are used in public programs. Information is provided on the design and implementation of voucher programs and outcomes associated with existing voucher programs, specifically regarding the Child Care and Development Fund and the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families programs.

This resource is from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Office of Inspector General (OIG), and provides information on OIG’s initiatives from the last 30 years. OIG has continued to work in audit, investigative, and evaluative oversight of Medicare, Medicaid, and the group of public health agencies that comprise HHS. The Office is also confronting new issues in public health under the recent Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, the Deficit Reduction Act of 2005, emergency preparedness and response and health information technology initiatives.

This brief is from the National Alliance to End Homelessness and provides information on chronic homelessness in the United States. Authors summarize the interaction between emergency shelters, health care systems, and criminal justice and chronic homelessness, and conclude with the benefits and cost effectiveness of permanent supportive housing.

The Earned Income Tax Credit can provide low-income families the necessary support to attain self-sufficiency. This report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation provides key lessons learned from EITC-related tax sites around the country. While EITC initiatives have been successful in supporting working families, sites have experienced challenges in integrating asset building and tax preparation services. Authors give information on how sites around the country and integrating EITC initiatives with asset building strategies.