Question on the "Benefit Cliff"

This MDRC series includes six podcasts that reflect evidence-based programming for education and social programs, at both the design and evaluation stages. Podcast speakers include MDRC researchers and field practitioners and cover: Using Data-Driven Strategies for Program Improvement, Replicating CUNY’s ASAP Model in Ohio, Can Aligned Instruction Prevent Pre-K Fadeout, A Practitioner-Researcher Partnership for the Grameen America Program, Steps to Upward Mobility: Lessons from Three Youth Employment Programs, and How to Improve College Placement Using Multiple Measures.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation blogpost profiles A Place 4 Me, a community-based organization in Cleveland that improves outcomes for housing of youth transitioning out of foster care. The blogpost discusses the organization’s goals for ending youth homelessness and how it integrates support systems and services by offering young peer navigators who have transitioned out of foster care.

This Urban Institute report is an evaluation of the Family-Centered Community Change (FCCC) approach, launched by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, at three pilot sites: Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas. The three FCCC sites adopted two-generation approaches in the areas of early childhood education and child care, partnerships with local elementary schools, after-school care, job-training opportunities for adults, financial education and literacy, and coaching to assist parents with goal setting. This five-year evaluation began in 2013 and concluded in 2018.

This research brief from the Office of Child Support Enforcement identifies findings from a five-site Parenting Time Opportunities for Children (PTOC) grant. The grant, awarded to child support agencies in California, Florida, Indiana, Ohio, and Oregon, was intended to demonstrate how child support agencies can include parenting time orders in child support enforcement actions. The brief describes how increases in noncustodial parenting time, with safeguards in place for child welfare, led to improved relationships and increased compliance with child support payment orders.

The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (DOLETA) will host a webinar on July 11, 2019 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to discuss best practices of using labor market information (LMI) data in creating Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) State Plans. Speakers include LMI Directors from Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan and representatives from the U.S. Department of Education and DOLETA.

Noncustodial parents (NCPs) want to be positively involved in their children’s lives but often face obstacles, including legal issues and inability to attain economic security and to pay child support consistently. In a recent Information Memorandum, the Administration for Children and Families reminded jurisdictions of their ability to use TANF funds to provide employment services to noncustodial parents to help needy families provide for their children and rise out of poverty.

An Office of Family Assistance (OFA)-sponsored webinar on June 26, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET will feature a panel of programs using TANF funds to serve NCPs: the Ohio Fatherhood Commission, South Carolina Department of Fathers and Families, which fund community programs for fathers and families and advocate for “father-friendly” policies and practices in state agencies, and Fathers Support Center of St. Louis, which will share its experiences of directly engaging fathers to improve family and economic security. A presenter from the Federal Office of Child Support Enforcement will also talk about programs for fathers and NCPs who have alternate funding sources. These programs and agencies participated in a scan to identify promising approaches to using TANF funds to serve noncustodial parents. The scan is being conducted by ASPIRE (Assisting Special Populations to Improve Readiness and Engagement), an OFA-sponsored project; an ASPIRE representative will share project highlights and moderate the panel.