This report from the Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund presents findings of a two-city (Nashville and Philadelphia) pilot that looked at how Financial Empowerment Centers inform their clients’ knowledge about financial literacy. It also reviews the ways that financial counseling expands low-income individuals’ saving outcomes and discusses how financial counselors work with these clients to meet financial goals.

This MDRC evaluation report assesses a Transitional Living Program that targets youth in foster care or involved with the juvenile justice system. Youth Villages, a social service organization, created YVLife Set to provide individualized and intensive clinically focused case management, support, and counseling to help secure positive outcomes for young participants as they move to adulthood.

Historically, low-income students have been identified in schools by receipt of the federal free or reduced lunch program, but this measure is becoming irrelevant and misleading as more districts offer “community eligible” free lunches to all students. As a result, some states have begun to identify low-income students by family participation in programs like TANF, SNAP, Medicaid, and foster care. The post’s authors at the Brookings Institution applaud these methodological changes because they will yield more accurate data on the achievements of disadvantaged students without including non low-income students who may be receiving free or reduced price lunch. This post highlights practices and data from states, such as Delaware, Massachusetts, New Mexico, and Tennessee, as well as the District of Columbia, as exemplary initiatives of linked data measure systems.

The Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund released the results of an evaluation of a three-year investment in free, one-on-one financial counseling to residents in five cities. This project was based on a model that originated in New York City, in which individuals in financial trouble receive personalized help from a professionally trained counselor through their local government. Bloomberg Philanthropies partnered with Denver, Lansing, Nashville, Philadelphia, and San Antonio to see how they could replicate this model. In each city, the local government implemented the model and contracted with a nonprofit partner to provide counseling services. Over 22,000 individuals received financial counseling, and they were able to achieve positive financial outcomes like opening bank accounts, reducing debt, improving credit, and establishing emergency savings. Each city also found sources of public funding to sustain the program beyond the Bloomberg Philanthropies grant.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII hosted the Tribal Technical Assistance Meeting on May 3‐5, 2016 at the Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The meeting brought together Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Native Employment Works (NEW) stakeholders to discuss innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well‐being for individuals, families, and tribal communities. During the meeting, tribal representatives engaged in talking circles and listening sessions, shared best practices, and participated in workshops and action planning in order to more successfully serve the program participants in their communities.

In this short video, TANF practitioners explain how partnerships at their local American Job Centers are creating opportunities to reach more people who utilize their services. North Carolina, Tennessee, and Utah programs are highlighted for their successes in TANF/WIOA collaborations.