The Child Welfare Community Collaborations (CWCC) initiative is designed to mobilize communities to develop and evaluate multi-system collaboratives that address local barriers and provide a continuum of services to prevent child abuse and neglect. In 2018 and 2019, the Children’s Bureau awarded 5-year cooperative agreements to a total of 13 states, non-profit organizations, and Native American tribal organizations. This Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation brief provides a high-level description of each of the 13 CWCC projects and is one of a series of products the evaluation team will produce as part of the cross-site process evaluation. This brief contains a one-page description of each project, including its geographic catchment area, population of focus, key partners, prior experience with community-level collaboration, timeline, and local evaluation.

All states may choose to allocate a portion of their Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) dollars to support fatherhood work. Despite this funding opportunity, very few states have taken advantage of it. States may have other priorities for the use of their TANF dollars, decision makers may not be aware of all the benefits of father involvement for child wellbeing, or TANF program leaders may have limited knowledge about the components of fatherhood programs and how to start/maintain fatherhood programming. This National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse spotlight demystifies the process for using TANF funds to support fatherhood programming and looks at how Ohio has used their state TANF funds to support father-related services through the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood (OCF). The spotlight details the history of how OCF was established, how it works to meet four specific goals, and how its work throughout the state addresses two of the four purposes of the TANF legislation.

The Retaining Employment and Talent After Injury/Illness Network (RETAIN) demonstration aims to help workers with recently acquired injuries and disabilities remain in the labor force. Following a pilot phase, the U.S. Department of Labor awarded cooperative agreements to state agencies in Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Ohio, and Vermont to fully implement RETAIN services. These five RETAIN programs aim to identify and recruit a subset of workers who could be at risk of exiting the labor force and applying for Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) and Supplemental Security Income (SSI). This Mathematica brief compares the characteristics of people who enrolled in RETAIN in 2022 with all workers and with applicants for SSDI and SSI.

The field of workforce development helps job seekers enter and advance in the workforce, and it helps employers improve their hiring, training, and advancement practices. To optimize local workforce systems, practitioners must dismantle silos and create coherent systems and services that balance the needs of both workers and businesses. The Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program is hosting “Workforce Leadership Café,” a series of conversations with leaders who are contributing their talents and insights to this field of practice. Guests will include sponsors of local Workforce Leadership Academies and others who are exploring talent development and job quality in workforce development.

Remaining dates include:
• December 21, 2023: Workforce Solutions Alamo
• January 18, 2024: United Way of Central Maryland + Scranton Area Community Foundation
• February 1, 2024: The Greater Memphis Chamber
• February 15, 2024: Ohio Workforce Coalition and New York Association for Training and Development Professionals

In 2014, three Ohio community colleges set out to adapt a developmental student support model pioneered by the City University of New York (CUNY) called Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP). This program requires students to attend school full time and provides support services for three years, including enhanced advising, financial aid, and career counseling, to help them graduate with an associate’s degree quickly. In this Evidence First podcast episode, MDRC talks with Christine Brongniart, the University Executive Director of CUNY ASAP, and Colleen Sommo, a senior research fellow in MDRC’s Postsecondary Education policy area, to learn more about the replication of CUNY ASAP and the latest findings from MDRC’s study of the Ohio program, including increased earnings and doubled graduation rates.

More than 2.5 million children currently are being raised by their grandparents and other relatives, both formally through the child welfare system and informally through private family arrangements. When these caregivers take on this responsibility, they often receive little to no financial support or advice regarding how to navigate the many systems that they might need to access to help them meet the needs of the children in their care. Kinship navigator programs help fill that gap by providing caregivers with information, education, and referrals to a wide range of services and supports. This brief provides information about the essential elements of kinship navigator programs, including examples in Richland County (Ohio), Florida, New York, and Georgia, along with evaluation outcomes of these programs.

While a wide range of factors contributes to an individual’s economic mobility or movement up and down the economic ladder, the ties between food insecurity and economic inequality are demonstrated. Individuals who experience a lack of food security face mental and physical health consequences that can directly impact their employment status, use of the health care system, and other factors that impact upward mobility. Jurisdictions are working to improve the food security of residents by integrating local efforts and working with key community partners to enhance food production, transportation, and distribution. The National Association of Counties and National League of Cities held a webinar in June 2022 that featured an expert overview of the state of food insecurity in the United States as well as example solutions from Franklin County, Ohio and Dane County, Wisconsin.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, Division of Youth Services, will host a webinar on October 6, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to showcase success stories of youth work experience providers and lessons learned from implementing their programs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Videos covered in the webinar include Early Childhood Resource Center, an Ohio-based child care work experience provider; Kalamazoo Regional Educational Service Agency, which offers summer youth employment; New Hampshire Jobs for America's Graduates (JAG), which connects youth with health care providers; and the Virginia WIOA Youth Summer Program. The webinar will allow participants to interact with Division of Youth Services staff to learn more about work experience requirements.

In observance of National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week, September 19-25, this compendium highlights nine practices that represent holistic approaches to delivering adult education programs. These programs represent approaches for modeling effective integrated education and training (IET) programs—transitioning adult learners from adult basic education to postsecondary education or training, and increasing access to adult education services. The practices are drawn from programs in Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Ohio, and Texas.

The third of a three-part series, this April 27, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic reducing young children’s access to in-person early childhood and learning programs. Presentations covered approaches that states and communities might use to address development and learning needs as the children reenter early childhood and learning settings. Speakers included representatives from the Ohio Department of Education, the North Carolina Department of Health Benefits (Medicaid), and the Office of Head Start.