Evaluations of employment and training programs often use state unemployment insurance (UI) wage records to measure effects on participants’ employment and earnings. However, UI wage records have some constraints, including:

• Missing earnings from certain types of work, such as self-employment, informal “off-the-books” jobs, and employment with the federal government; and
• Not capturing out-of-state work. This MDRC brief examines the implications of relying only on in-state UI wage records to evaluate programs that are designed to increase employment and earnings.

This brief builds on the work of National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies, an assessment of a series of programs that were implemented and evaluated in the 1990s, by presenting differences between the National and Oregon-only data sets in employment rate impacts annually through Year 20. It also presents year-by-year differences in earnings impacts, comparing Oregon-only earnings data with data from a broader group of states.

The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation is funding the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies (BEES) project to conduct an evaluation of a supportive housing program in Portland, Oregon. The program, operated by Central City Concern, provides treatment for substance use disorder (SUD) along with housing and employment services. This OPRE project profile provides a short overview of the Central City Concern’s supportive housing program, including the program’s employment services, and describes the study to be carried out by the project team.

The BOOST initiative connects families with low incomes to critical human services supports and educational and career pathways to advance multigenerational family economic success. In six cities — Baltimore, Green Bay, Hartford, New York City (Queens), Portland, and Syracuse — community colleges and human services nonprofits have partnered to support the economic advancement of families as part of the BOOST initiative. This Jobs for the Future brief explores how these partnerships can advance multigenerational family economic success and how to lean into their unique strengths as they seek to achieve this goal. It looks at how the sites are working to change policies and access funding to support their partnership goals. It also highlights practices and insights learned, with the intent of aiding and accelerating other efforts to follow this collaborative path.

The Office of Family Assistance and Children’s Bureau have announced the 10 sites selected to participate in the FAST-LC. The FAST-LC is a 12-month initiative operating from September 2023 through September 2024. The Learning Community will focus on promoting innovative prevention strategies to mitigate and reduce families’ involvement with the child welfare system through partnerships between TANF and Child Welfare programs. Site teams will benefit from a robust suite of individualized training, technical assistance, and coaching support, as well as regular opportunities for collaborative learning and sharing across site teams.

The states and tribes participating in the FAST-LC are:
• Arizona Department of Child Safety and Department of Economic Security;
• Arkansas Department of Human Services;
• California Department of Social Services;
• Chippewa Cree Tribe of the Rocky Boys Reservation (Montana),
• Iowa Department of Health and Human Services;
• Kentucky Department for Community Based Services;
• Michigan Department of Health and Human Services;
• Oregon Department of Human Services;
• Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Arizona); and
• West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration will host a webinar on March 16, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to cover best practices in work-based learning at the state level. Work-based learning offers participants the ability to combine employment with training. Presentations will be made by representatives of the Missouri Department of Higher Education and Workforce Development, WorkSource Oregon, the New Hampshire Department of Employment Security, the Maricopa County (Arizona) Human Services Department, the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development, and Adaptive Construction Solutions, Inc.

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.