On December 6, the Annie E. Casey Foundation will conclude its Leading with Evidence: Informing Practice with Research webinar series on child welfare. This presentation will explore how researchers and child welfare practitioners can form partnerships to learn from each other to execute the best possible evidence-based initiatives. Because federal program funding is increasingly tied to research quality, this topic is especially important. Researchers and practitioners alike will share their experiences working together to implement youth-oriented programs and services and discuss available resources for research-practice partnerships.

Although research has shown that transportation expenditures are burdensome for low-income households, there is less information available explaining how households manage their mobility needs. To shed insight, this Journal of Poverty article details transportation experiences of 73 low-income individuals in San Jose, California. Research discovered that although low-income families creatively find methods of managing transportation costs, these survival strategies come at a price. High costs to transportation result in fewer miles travelled. This limits families from the very employment opportunities which could lift them out of poverty. (Cost required to access full article.)

This resource from the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse highlights a rural community partnership between a fatherhood program and local child support agency. In this case study, authors describe the development of a partnership in Merced County, California and lessons learned.

This research explores how experiences of discrimination in mental health/substance abuse services may contribute to the greater level of unmet mental health needs among racial/ethnic minorities. The study examined the California Quality of Life Survey responses from adults who indicated they used mental health or substance abuse services in the previous year. Latinos were twice as likely to report discrimination than White patients, and those who were uninsured and who had a diagnosed mental health disorder also faced higher rates of discrimination. Perceived discrimination was linked to finding treatment “not helpful” and leaving treatment early. The authors conclude that “improving the treatment experiences of vulnerable populations in mental health and substance abuse services may be a critical step in reducing mental health disparities, particularly for uninsured and racial/ethnic minority patients.”

This study assesses ways in which individual- and neighborhood-level risk and protective factors affect child abuse and neglect and whether these factors differed based on poverty status. Researchers estimated relationships between child abuse and neglect, neighborhood structural factors, neighborhood processes, and individual characteristics. Comparing lower and higher income families in California, researchers found that neighborhood-level disadvantage was particularly detrimental for families in poverty, and that neighborhood-level protective processes were not associated with abuse and neglect for poor families but did have protective effects for higher income families. Note: There is a fee to access this study, but we included because of its relevance.

This paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research examines the effect of labor market conditions — such as unemployment, mass layoffs and predicted employment — on child abuse and neglect. According to a large body of research, poverty and parental unemployment are key predictors of child maltreatment, but state- and county-level studies assessing the link between economic conditions and child maltreatment have had mixed and contradictory results. In this study, the authors analyzed county-level data in California to assess the effect of gender-specific labor market shocks on child maltreatment rates. They found that overall economic conditions are only modestly linked to child maltreatment rates. However, economic downturns that disproportionately affect men increase maltreatment, whereas downturns that disproportionately affect women reduce maltreatment. The authors suggest that child maltreatment may be reduced by targeting employment search assistance, child care subsidies, and mental health services.

Based in Oakland, California, the Family Independence Initiative (FII) has focused on how low-income people have the capacity to construct their own pathways out of poverty. Recently after listening to families expressing their need to maintain and develop new connections across the country, the organization developed a community-building social networking Web site - UpTogether. The platform allows members to offer and ask for support to move their lives forward, reach goals, and improve their well-being leverage their initiative accelerates their mobility.

The Center for Living and Learning (CLL) is a non-profit organization in California that provides programs to aid disadvantaged persons with obtaining and holding stable employment. Working with disadvantaged adults and at-risk youth since 2001, CLL provides vocational education and has assisted with over 400 apprenticeships. The CLL Apprenticeship Program provides paid internships to persons transitioning from rehabilitation, homelessness, and incarceration, as well as welfare recipients and former foster and at-risk youth, single parents, and other disadvantaged individuals. Skills learned include customer service, data entry, administration, organization, and clerical work, along with a full suite of computer skills. CLL offers to businesses services which help them understand CLL clients; CLL also assists businesses in interacting with CLL clients to facilitate their re-entry into the workforce.

This report from MDRC, funded through OPRE, is a case study of low-income job seekers in San Francisco. The report shares findings and results from an evaluation of the STEP Forward program, which offers interviews with private sector employers at job fairs. It also offers subsidies for employers who use the program. Among other findings, the results indicated that program participants were more likely to be employed in higher quality and higher paying jobs than the control group.