Governmental agencies often work with faith leaders because they are influential and well-connected to the people they serve. Their presence, coupled with their capacity to deliver critical services, allows them to mobilize communities and earn the communities’ trust, which makes them a vital stakeholder to create change. This Center for Religion and Civic Culture infographic offers ten tips to aid government officials in partnering with faith communities.

This Executive Order by the Trump-Vance administration announces the White House’s Faith Office to assist faith-based entities, community organizations, and houses of worship in their efforts to strengthen American families, promote work and self-sufficiency, and protect religious liberty.

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration is hosting a webinar on January 21, 2025 at 2:00 p.m. ET, which will address the economic stability of service members, Veterans, and their families (SMVF). This webinar will explore critical areas such as employment opportunities, income supports, SSI/SSDI, Outreach, Access, and Recovery (SOAR) for Veterans, and housing solutions, providing valuable information and resources to support maintaining or achieving economic stability among the SMVF community.

Early childhood development (ECD) investments are rarely considered an important part of economic development, yet they are deeply interconnected. When children have a healthy start in life, they are more likely to become the scholars, innovators, and entrepreneurs that drive economic development in their communities. This Administration for Children and Families resource highlights an important return on investment approach to investments in ECD that is uniquely augmented in Native communities.

A growing number of local governments and nonprofit organizations across the United States are experimenting with guaranteed income programs, often with the goal of supporting low-income families and individuals. The results of many of these newer efforts are still being measured and assessed, but there are earlier programs that can provide insights into long-term effects. The Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a webinar in December 2024 to share research on cash transfer programs begun or conducted in previous decades, including Native American tribal casino dividends, the Mincome project, and the Alaska Dividend.

Community engagement in research involves collaborating with community members as integral partners and valuing lived experience as essential expertise. But the federal context can introduce unique complexity to undertaking community-engaged research due to some of the characteristics of federally funded projects, such as their scale, multisite nature, and contracting requirements. Some federal staff may feel unequipped to use such methods. This Urban Institute report summarizes results from an environmental scan of federal research and evaluation projects conducted in the past ten years that involved community engagement. The report summarizes findings from two key activities:

• identifying and documenting example federal research projects that incorporate community-engaged methods; and
• assembling and soliciting feedback from a community advisory board on several specific Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation practices, processes, and materials.

Chapin Hall compiled a toolkit that promotes child and family well-being and prevents child welfare involvement. The following tools are focused on state-level policy:

• TANF & Child Welfare Innovations;
• State Policy Options to Increase Economic & Concrete Supports (ECS) as a Child Welfare Prevention Strategy;
• Flexible Funds for Concrete Supports to Families as a Child Welfare Prevention Strategy; and
• Providing ECS to Increase Effectiveness of Evidence-Based Services.

These tools are focused on federal-level policy:

• ECS Testimony from May 2024 Family First Hearing;
• ECS as Evidence-Based Service: Summary of Chapin Hall’s Submission to the 4E Clearinghouse;
• A Preventable Cost: The Economic Burden of Child Maltreatment and Child Welfare Involvement; and
• ECS: Implications for Family First and Systems Change.

Nearly 80 million individuals are enrolled in Medicaid and Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP), including nearly half of all children and youth in the United States. Many of the individuals served through the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) funded programs are enrolled or eligible for Medicaid or CHIP. ACF released this Dear Colleague Letter to support states as they work to strengthen their implementation of Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnostic, and Treatment requirements to help ensure improved health outcomes for children and youth enrolled in Medicaid and CHIP.