Description: The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will be hosting a four-part Summer Learning on Using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to Enhance Workforce Organizations, Productivity and Programs. Each session will feature practical knowledge, step-by-step implementation strategies, case studies, guest speakers and breakout room sessions.

1. Introduction to Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality in Workforce Development will take place on June 27, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT;
2. Enhancing Workforce Productivity with Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality will take place on July 25, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT;
3. Using Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality for Immersive Customer and Employee Experiences will take place on August 29, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT; and
4. Strategies for Integrating Artificial Intelligence and Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality Into Career Development will take place on September 26, 2024 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. CT.

There is a fee for participation for each session.

MDRC partnered with JPMorgan Chase to promote continual improvement among their Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) grantee organizations through research. SYEPs are a workforce development model predicated on promoting socioeconomic advancement for young people ages 14 to 24 who are disconnected from school or the labor market. MDRC collected data in the form of interviews and metrics aggregated and interviewed six SYEP providers to share specific insights about a particular program component—soft-skills training. “Soft skills” refer to the general habits and competencies that make for an effective employee, such as arriving at work on time, cooperating with coworkers, taking and giving direction, communicating clearly, dressing appropriately for the workplace, and so forth. This MDRC brief presents findings that showcase ways that soft-skills training, as a workforce development intervention, can put young people on the path to high-paying jobs and socioeconomic advancement.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report presents the plan for evaluating the impacts of the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education project and the first round of Health Profession Opportunity Grants on key outcomes nine years after random assignment into the program.

The purpose of this resource is to document the study approach and publicly commit to specified outcomes in hypothesis testing and an estimation approach prior to inspecting treatment-control differences on newly collected data. It describes the operationalization of outcome measures, including their source data. It refers to prior documents for data, measures, and methods previously established for the evaluation.

The Survey of Household Economics and Decision-making is the survey from the Federal Reserve Board of Governors for tracking the financial circumstances of low- and moderate-income families and potential risks to their financial health. This year’s survey continues to track key topics related to financial outcomes, such as the effects of inflation on household finances, emergency savings, housing, returns to education, and retirement. New topics have been added on food sufficiency, caregiving, employment of those with a previous arrest or conviction, and homeowners’ insurance.

The Federal Reserve Board of Governors will be hosting a virtual event on June 20, 2024 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET, where researchers will share findings from the survey on trends in financial well-being and answer any questions on the financial conditions among low- and moderate-income populations based on the survey results.

An estimated 377,000 children are living in foster care. This staggering number is a measure of how we as a nation are faring in our responsibility to ensure that every child in every community has the opportunity to grow up in their own family connected to the people, places and cultures that will help them thrive. This Casey Family report shares examples of how communities are actively partnering with families to build the foundations of a better approach, how they are using new tools and approaches to better address the needs of families and children, and how they are investing effectively to ensure thriving families, safer children and supportive communities.

Qualitative data indicate guaranteed income programs—which provide cash directly to beneficiaries—provide real stability to people in need. But, while waiting for the quantitative data to come in, researchers are brainstorming on how to maximize this approach. This Abt podcast episode discusses two outstanding questions that researchers have: What do we still have to learn about cash transfers as a means of empowering people, and can making payments directly to households be a more effective way of providing rent subsidies?

Nearly 83% of individuals in the United States have experienced some form of trauma in their lifetime. Employees’ response to trauma may manifest in the workplace in various ways. When left unaddressed, it can lead to poor performance, absenteeism and burnout. This Office on Trafficking in Persons factsheet provides tips, strategies, and resources to support staff at all organizational levels in creating and sustaining a trauma-informed workplace.

Although the relationship between hardship and child welfare system, CWS, involvement seems straightforward, it is far more complicated. On average, families encountering the CWS tend to have lower incomes, and rates of CWS involvement are highest in the sections of New York with the highest concentrations of families with incomes below the poverty level. Among those who are involved with child welfare services, co-occurring conditions such as substance misuse and mental health challenges, which hardships exacerbate, are also correlated with CWS involvement regardless of income. This Urban Institute report examines the relationships between hardship and CWS involvement.

As part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies project, researchers conducted virtual interviews from November 2021 to April 2022 with staff members at ten workforce programs to learn how they were using technology to adapt their services during the pandemic. Most of the organizations used a hybrid model to blend in-person and virtual service delivery. This MDRC publication examines five key adaptations of the programs made to accommodate the new hiring context.