This Chapin Hall report evaluates implementation of Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults in Cook County, Illinois, which helps emerging adults with behavioral health needs reintegrate into community after time in an Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice youth center.

LifeSet is an intensive case management program that prepares young people in foster care for the transition to adulthood. LifeSet specialists meet weekly with youth to provide individualized, intensive services as youth work towards self-defined goals in areas such as housing, employment, education, and money management. This Chapin Hall report presents findings from the Phase II evaluation of LifeSet’s implementation by three child services providers in Illinois. Phase II evaluation activities included focus groups with LifeSet specialists; interviews with LifeSet supervisors, licensed program experts, and young people who participated in LifeSet; and an analysis of both Department of Children and Family Services administrative data and GuideTree program data from Youth Villages.

The Urban Institute will host a free webinar on September 20, 2021 from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET as part of its Strategies for Supporting Young People Transitioning Out of Foster Care Series. The webinar will review how parents in foster care need services and supports as they navigate to parenthood and adulthood. A panel of child welfare professionals and young parents with lived experience will discuss ways that child welfare systems could meet the needs of this population. Panelists include representatives from Chapin Hall, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Children’s Village, and the Urban Institute.

This research-to-practice brief assesses the implications and lessons learned from implementing evidence-based home visiting services for child welfare-system involved families under the Family First Prevention Services Act. For this assessment, the brief examines a pilot project of 10 Healthy Families America programs, administered by the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. The assessment’s results are drawn from program and administrative data as well as interviews of program participants. The brief notes positive benefits of home visiting services, such as increased knowledge of child development, enhanced parenting skills, and improved co-parenting relationships. It also recognizes the difficulty of delivering home visiting services where there are unstable living arrangements and mental health crises among participants.

This report highlights findings from a process evaluation of the Urban Alliance’s High School Internship Program in Washington, DC, Baltimore, Northern Virginia, and Chicago. The Urban Alliance program model aims to empower economically disadvantaged high school seniors to aspire, work, and succeed. The program provides youth participants with workplace skills training, opportunities for internships to gain work experience, mentorship at the internship site, and coaching support from case managers during youths’ participation in the program as well as for program alumni. The findings of this first of three reports are drawn from interviews, focus groups, and surveys of participating students, case managers, and employers as well as a review of program and secondary data.

This research-to-practice brief discusses implementation of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment model by the Family Service League in New York and Asian Human Services in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPS model was initially developed to provide employment services to individuals with serious mental illness, but is now used for a broader range of populations who have significant barriers to employment. Four core components of the IPS model are rapid job search, coordination between employment services staff and mental health providers, identification of client preferences in the types of jobs, and smaller caseloads for case workers. According to interviews with organization leaders, IPS implementation included embracing remote communications and video conferencing, offering initial help to the most vulnerable to support their health and safety, developing new employment plans, and actively matching employees and employers.

This blog post highlights the New Moms program’s efforts to include executive skills building into workforce programs that support young mothers in greater Chicago. The post also includes links to a case study that examines components of New Moms’ work, a toolkit for incorporating workforce staff’s executive skills building into integrated workforce programs, and a video presentation.

This fact sheet illustrates how Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia, and Ohio offered non-recurrent short-term TANF benefits as flexible responses to address the needs of TANF-eligible populations during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sheet also briefly notes how Arizona, Illinois, Indiana, and Florida have implemented flexible adaptions to TANF work requirements. SNAP approved waivers are also highlighted.

This brief describes a project highlighting the development and implementation of policies and practices aimed at reducing the impact of Illinois mothers’ incarceration on their children. From interviews with incarcerated mothers, researchers learned how incarceration creates barriers to parenting, and through interviews with program administrators and others, they discovered how programs across the U.S. are addressing these barriers. Ways to help incarcerated mothers maintain relationships with their children included supporting communication between mothers and children via mail or phone, improving visitation policies, and increasing support services’ availability.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is a feasibility evaluation of the Bridges to Pathways (Bridges) program. The Bridges program addressed youth ages 17 to 21 exiting the criminal or juvenile justice system. Through the program, participants who did not have a high school diploma earned this credential. They also engaged in social-emotional learning workshops, and participated in a subsidized internship. The Bridges evaluation is included in OPRE’s Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration and assessed the Bridges program’s impact on 480 participants and their outcomes for employment, earnings, and decreased criminal activity.