Providing access to tangible resources can strengthen families and communities by avoiding and de-escalating crises, reducing parental stress, increasing access to safe housing and reliable childcare, and ensuring children have the material items they need to thrive. This brief discusses the impact of community-based strategies, connections, and collaborations that offer economic supports to address families’ basic needs, keeping children safe and families together. These include housing supports, food assistance, financial supports, employment assistance, early care and education services, legal services, and medical and behavioral health care.

This fact sheet summarizes provisions and key aspects of the Child Tax Credit, Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit, and Earned Income Tax Credit. Each of these three tax credits were expanded under the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and can be claimed on federal income tax returns by eligible families.

This toolkit tracks the steps the federal government has taken to implement new resources and administrative changes within human services and education programs authorized by:

• The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA)
• The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act (CARES Act)
• The Continuing Appropriations Act of 2021
• The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021
• The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARP) 

Agencies highlighted in the toolkit are the Administration for Children and Families, the Administration for Community Living, the Food and Nutrition Service, the U.S. Department of Education, the Internal Revenue Service, and the Federal Communications Commission.

Do you lead, work in, or know of an employment and training program that integrates financial capability interventions into its services? Financial capability interventions include:

• Financial education
• Financial coaching
• Financial counseling
• Credit counseling
• Or access to emergency savings programs, safe and affordable financial products, asset-building programs, or tax preparation assistance

MEF Associates and its subcontractor, the Urban Institute, in partnership with the OPRE, invite nominations of employment and training programs to participate in a survey to better understand how financial capability interventions are delivered in the context of employment and training (E&T) programs serving adults with low incomes. This survey is being conducted as part of the Integrating Financial Capability and Employment Services project.

Self-nominations or nominations of others are both welcome. Nominations can be sent to IntegratedFinCap@mefassociates.com. Please include the name of the program and contact information, if known.

The Casey Life Skills (CLS) Toolkit assesses independent skills youth need to achieve their long-term goals and aims to guide youth toward developing healthy and productive lives. Functional areas that the toolkit assesses include daily living and self-care activities, maintaining healthy relationships, work and study habits, using community resources, money management, computer literacy and online safety, civic engagement, and navigating the child welfare system. The toolkit provides CLS assessments, a Practitioner’s Guide (that includes best practices for administering and scoring the assessments), and a Resources to Inspire Guide (a list of resources that can help strengthen independent life skills).

NPR, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard University’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a survey poll between August 2 and September 7, 2021 to identify the extent that the delta variant of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States has continued to cause problems for many households, including severe financial and health impacts for households already in crisis. This report presents survey findings of the most serious problems, including finances, healthcare, racial/ethnic discrimination, education, caregiving, work, health and healthcare, and overall well-being. The poll was conducted before federal pandemic unemployment benefits ended and at the time housing eviction protections expired.

This U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration directive provides a resource guide to workforce investment practitioners who assist job seekers in finding and applying for financial assistance and other supportive services. The guide assists workforce professionals in accurately locating emergency and long-term resources for workforce program customers to gain economic stability. It includes information on rental assistance, supports for utilities and broadband, child care, the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, nutrition and food security, health care resources, and legal aid, among other resources.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this workshop, discussion focused on transforming the delivery of anti-poverty tax credits. The California Department of Social Services (CDSS), together with the California Policy Lab (CPL) and Code for America (CFA), discussed the Department’s tax outreach effort for California's TANF and SNAP participants. Participants learned how to leverage data, communication strategies, and partnerships to increase economic supports available to clients via the tax system.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA) conducted the 2021 National TANF Directors’ Meeting from September 20 - 24, 2021. During this concurrent workshop, a presentation examined how Connecticut’s Welfare to Work program responded to COVID-19 by shifting to a virtual service delivery system while building staff capacity to deliver services remotely statewide. Discussion covered how Connecticut’s initiative kept participants connected and engaged with their Employment Services program during COVID. Lessons learned also included a review of how COVID will impact future program operations, including the implementation of virtual orientation sessions.

This set of briefs, organized by region and all 50 states and the District of Columbia, uses Census Household Pulse survey data to illustrate Child Tax Credit (CTC) receipt, payment usage, and changes in food security for families after the CTC payment was received. The survey was conducted between July 21 and August 16, 2021 when the first two CTC payments were deposited into families’ bank accounts.