Family Resource Centers (FRCs) are community-based resource hubs where families can access support to promote child safety and child and family well-being. As conveniently located community or school-based hubs, FRCs bundle and co-locate many services, such as home visiting, parenting education, health screenings, childcare resources and referrals, playgroups, family counseling, government benefits screening, healthy eating and living activities, and food pantries. This Grandfamilies & Kinship Support Network resource highlights takeaways from learning collaboratives in three states that explored increased collaboration between kinship navigators and FRCs.

This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) press release announces that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is initiating action to remove concentrated ingestible fluoride prescription drug products for children from the market. The FDA set a goal date of October 31 for completing a safety review and public comment period and for taking appropriate action regarding removal of these products from the market. In conjunction with this evaluation, DHHS plans to disseminate best practices for dental hygiene in children that are feasible, effective and do not alter gut health.

This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services press release highlights the accomplishments of the Department in the first 100 days of the Trump-Vance administration.

The differences by family structure are substantial. Women who give birth out of wedlock suffer from pervasive disadvantage that cannot be explained by their basic social and demographic attributes. They work less. When they do work, they make less money. A high school or college education provides lower economic returns than it does for married or divorced mothers. Never-married mothers’ incomes increase more slowly with age. Even the impact of children, although modest for all mothers, is less strongly related to income than it is for married and divorced mothers.

This Institute for Family Studies resource uses data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth’s 1979 cohort to track whether specific individual mothers have bettered themselves economically over time, or instead, if different kinds of women are now becoming single mothers.

This Sutherland Institute report catalogs some important examples of how religious groups and those who belong to them provide important services not only to their own adherents but to their neighbors. The examples highlighted in the report are the provision of emergency relief, charitable giving, social services (particularly for the elderly, prisoners, vulnerable children, families in need, and the un- and under-employed), and medical care.

Summer jobs can provide early exposure to professional environments, equipping participants with essential skills for the workplace, including communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. Summer youth employment programs (SYEPs) are primarily workforce development programs, meaning they are intended to prepare young people, often from families with low incomes, to one day enter the workplace. This MDRC report is the synthesis of conversations with SYEP staff members as well as interviews with policy experts to better understand what makes SYEPs effective. The report represents a practitioner-informed understanding of the practices that are believed to improve youth outcomes in this understudied field.

Many families are involved in numerous health and human services programs, with data systems that do not always communicate effectively. This presents risks for duplication and overpayment. This Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation brief describes how enhancing linked data infrastructure across health and human services programs can improve efficiency and increase transparency through strengthening outcomes research.

This Office on Women’s Health webpage provides answers to pregnancy questions, including what mothers can do before, during, and after pregnancy to give their baby a heathy start to life.