This report covers lessons learned from the first phase (January 2020 to September 2020) of the Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents and Families. The Cohort is an initiative aimed at enhancing and aligning programs, policies, and systems to better support young parents (ages 18-24) and their families in Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. The report presents findings on four key areas: understanding and engaging young parents, continuous improvement through data and feedback, service collaboration and alignment, and service delivery adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation emphasizes benefits and challenges of building an integrated data system to support two-generation programming and also highlights strategies adopted by several agencies to efficiently track and share information on families they serve. The report highlights field-tested lessons from different organizations in Maryland, New York, Texas, Atlanta, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Massachusetts; these sites develop, adopt, and refine integrated data systems to enhance their two-generation work. Despite the implementation barriers, their goal is to improve programs and program outcomes for parents and their children.

This report is part of the Responding to Intimate Violence in Relationship Programs (RIViR) study to evaluate approaches for assessing teen dating violence. The report covers how to accurately identify youth in Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs who are experiencing teen dating violence (TDV) so they can be referred for additional services. The report also examines how youth and TDV program staff perceive tools to assess TDV and strategies to implement these tools. The report compared two HMRE programs—More Than Conquerors, Inc. of Conyers, Georgia and Youth and Family Services of Rapid City, South Dakota.

This fact sheet shows how a non-recurrent short-term benefit program could operate in Georgia in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Examples of how non-recurrent benefits might address emergency situations are presented and include short-term benefits to make up for lost wages, short-term rental or mortgage assistance, utility and energy assistance, housing search and placement services, and family support services. There is also a brief note about how non-recurrent TANF support during the pandemic might help boost incomes and help families not fall further behind during the ensuing economic dislocations.

This research-to-practice brief describes the Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration project and its integration of procedural justice principles into enforcement practices in six child support agencies in Arizona, California, Georgia, Michigan, Ohio, and Virginia. The premise of PJAC is that if defendants perceive the dispute resolution process to be fair, they will comply with the outcome of the process, regardless of whether the decision was favorable to the defendant. The target population of the PJAC demonstration project is noncustodial parents being referred for civil contempt of court-mandated child support even when these parents have been determined to be able to pay it. Implementation of PJAC addresses noncustodial parents’ perception of the court system proceedings and reasons for nonpayment, how to improve consistency of their payments, and ways to promote their positive engagement with the child support agency as well as the other parent.

This National Governors Association policy brief examines the lessons learned from the Parents and Children Thriving Together: Two-Generation State Policy Network (PACTT Network). Initially convened in 2016, the PACTT Network is a policy academy that created and implemented two-generation strategies to address intergenerational poverty. The policy academy included state representatives from Colorado, Georgia, Minnesota, New Jersey, and Oregon.

Over 36 million adults in the United States cannot read, write, or do basic math above a third grade level. Further, 43 percent of adults with the lowest literacy levels live in poverty, and 70 percent of adult welfare recipients have low literacy rates. The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on December 12, 2019 from 1:00-2:30 p.m. ET exploring how programs are addressing these challenges and providing an overview of the current state of adult literacy and education in the United States. The webinar featured successful program strategies for improving literacy levels and preparing adults for sustainable employment. 

Speakers included:

Cheryl Keenan, Director, Division of Adult Education and Literacy, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education (OCTAE), U.S. Department of Education

Daphne Greenberg, Distinguished University Professor and Principal Investigator, Center of the Study of Adult Literacy, College of Education & Human Development, Georgia State University

William Durden, Policy Associate, Basic Education for Adults, Washington State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC)

Stacey Wedlake, Research Coordinator and Analyst, Technology and Social Change Group, University of Washington Information School