This Chapin Hall issue brief reviews: child welfare workers’ perceptions of county-level availability of training and the range of services available for transition-age foster youth; workers’ views about the collaboration between child welfare departments and other service delivery systems; and the correlation between foster youth satisfaction with training and services and outcomes in education, homelessness, employment and health. The analysis relies on longitudinal studies from the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) conducted in 2013 and 2015. Report findings point to the need for increased collaboration among child welfare and other systems, as well as connection of foster youths’ satisfaction with offered services to support service delivery.

More than half the caseload of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program consists of child-only cases, in which a child receives TANF cash assistance but the parent or caregiver does not. The most common type of child-only case is a nonparent caregiver case, consisting of children being cared for by someone other than their parents, often a grandparent. Research suggests that nonparent caregiver cases are often vulnerable with many unmet needs and that the children in these cases share characteristics with children living in foster care: mental health conditions, school-related problems, and experience with trauma. Kinship navigator programs can be an important tool for supporting these families. Most states are developing or expanding these programs, and the federal government has provided funding in fiscal years 2018 and 2019 to state and eligible tribal child welfare agencies to develop, enhance, or evaluate kinship navigator programs. The Family First Prevention Services Act amended the Social Security Act to allow title IV-E agencies to receive funding for kinship navigator programs that meet certain evidence-based criteria; see ACYF-CB-PI-18-11 for program requirements.

On July 16, 2019, the Office of Family Assistance, in collaboration with the Children’s Bureau, sponsored a webinar that featured kinship navigator programs operating in three states and the services they offer to nonparent caregivers. Arizona Kinship Support Services connects kinship families to government benefits, links them to legal services, and helps them navigate existing community support systems. California’s UWCA-211-iFoster Kinship Navigator Collaborative provides an online, self-service resource portal for kinship families that coordinates public and private resources based on the families’ individual needs and preferences. The New York State Kinship Navigator provides an information and referral network for kinship caregivers statewide. In addition to these three states, the webinar featured a representative from the Children’s Bureau who discussed the federal funding available for kinship navigator programs and a representative from the Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement (ASPIRE) study team who shared information on TANF child-only cases.

TANF and WIOA programs in Tulare County, California are working together to coordinate employment services for CalWORKs (TANF) and work-eligible clients. Strategies include co-enrollment in programs—including WIOA career services, TANF supportive services, and a subsidized employment program—as well as shared spaces, cross-program workgroups, and a common database to exchange performance outcomes. This site also has a special focus on serving migrants and seasonal workers in rural areas.

Sections of the brief discuss joint service delivery, resource sharing, shared learning, and managing collaborative activities. Readers may also access links to the state TANF plan and funding information for more context and resources. This brief is part of the TANF Works! TANF/WIOA Collaboration Series, through which the Office of Family Assistance’s Integrating Innovative Employment and Economic Stability Strategies (IIEESS) initiative seeks to highlight innovative coordination strategies of TANF and WIOA programs to serve low-income or vulnerable populations.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews the effectiveness of using coaches to help low-income individuals move toward self-sufficiency. The evaluation profiles four coaching models: Iowa’s Family Development and Self-Sufficiency (FaDSS); coaching at home visits implemented in Jefferson County, Colorado; LIFT, a national nonprofit organization that delivers career and financial coaching in Washington (D.C.), New York (New York), Chicago (Illinois), and Los Angeles (California); and MyGoals for Employment Success, a model designed by MDRC and piloted in Baltimore (Maryland) and Houston (Texas).

This United States Interagency Council on Homelessness brief is a transcript of a set of interviews conducted with housing officials in Montgomery County (Pennsylvania), Columbus (Ohio), and Los Angeles (California). The discussion identifies their approaches and initiatives to stem eviction and divert persons from entering homelessness.

This Urban Institute study documents the spatial mismatch between where hourly workers live and where the jobs are. In addition to maps that illustrate the issue in Columbus, Ohio and San Francisco, California, this study also presents data to identify the prevalence of the geographical divide throughout the country. Economists suggest that spatial mismatches can lead to higher unemployment rates and prolonged joblessness for those with limited access to transportation across geographical regions. The analysis concludes with successful strategies that some cities and regions have implemented to address spatial mismatch.

This Center for Law and Social Policy report identifies challenges that state level officials encounter in implementing the 2014 reauthorization of the Child Care and Development Block Grant program. State profiles from Alabama, California, and Louisiana are highlighted. Also presented are lessons learned as a result of the lack of resources and data needed to implement the law more effectively.

This report highlights a study that documented that almost two-thirds of young adults had encountered “some kind of dating violence” as teens in Orange County. These incidents include psychological and cyber abuse, stalking, and physical and sexual violence.

This 2018 webinar discussed the relationship between the habits of a healthy dating environment and a healthy marriage. The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families’ hour-long session included an overview of the Resource Center, as well as presentations on relationship education for youth in California and precautionary support for high-risk youth. The session focused on the impact of normalized relationship skills fostered from youth onward and how they transpire in later relationships or marriage. The session ended with a Q&A section for the audience to reflect on the webinar and to ask any relevant questions.

Based on a prior report on associations of time in extended foster care with youth outcomes, researchers at Chapin Hall examined data of more than 40,000 youth from California’s Child Welfare Services/Case Management System, including youth who had been in foster care for at least six months sometime after their 16th birthday. Researchers were unable to discover negative consequences of extended foster care beyond age 18. Instead, they reported that remaining in care past age 18 assists in meeting youths’ basic needs, reduces the chance of becoming a young parent and interacting with the criminal justice system, and helps them advance their education, acquire additional work experience, and save money.