The Pew Charitable Trusts released an interactive resource that allows users to sort and analyze data related to various fiscal, economic, and demographic trends in the 50 States. Users may browse data related to state revenue, spending, economy and people, long-term costs, and fiscal policy.

The U.S. Department of the Treasury created the Financial Empowerment Innovation Fund, an initiative designed to facilitate informed decision making amongst American families by providing increased access to knowledge and tools that promote financial capability. The Treasury will be allocating approximately six million dollars to research contracts that explore and test promising practices in this field. The Treasury is particularly interested in strategies that incorporate technology and focus on the needs of low- and moderate-income households.

The Brookings Institution released an interactive map in which users may explore EITC take-up rates at the county level nationwide. Darker colors indicate higher value, while grey shading indicates unavailable data. According to this tool, the southeast part of the country provides the highest EITC take-up rates.

The West Coast Poverty Center released a short summary about a study that explores matched savings programs and low-income people's ability to accumulate assets depending on individual desires to save and ability to act on those preferences. The paper defines "time preference," a concept that describes how present- or future-oriented a person may be, and discusses the ways in which variations in time preferences are important for understanding individual financial outcomes. The researchers used data from a 2002-2009 matched savings program to conduct factor analysis, and found that persons with lower future orientation had significantly lower average savings deposit amounts in their first year in the matched savings program.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families released a report outlining their portfolio of research related to welfare and family self-sufficiency projects for the fiscal year 2013. OPRE's research focuses on four major areas: TANF and the Safety Net, Employment and the Labor Market, Education and Training, and other relevant cross-cutting research.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities released an article suggesting that EITC's benefits extend well beyond the limited time during which a family typically claims the credit. The article indicates that children of EITC recipients do better in school, are more likely to attend college, and earn more as adults. The Child Tax Credit (CTC) is discussed, which is a related credit that is designed to help offset the cost of child-rearing, and also plays a major role in helping low-income working families.

The Office of Financial Empowerment within the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) recently released a white paper titled "Financial Empowerment Training for Social Service Programs: A Scan of Community-Based Initiatives." The paper presents the results of a field scan conducted by the CFPB to learn more about the tools and information social service providers across the country need to help their clients increase their financial capabilities. This information was fundamental to the design and development of "Your Money, Your Goals," the financial empowerment toolkit developed by CFPB and scheduled to be released in 2014.

The Social Science Research Network released a paper discussing financial literacy, education, and downstream financial behaviors. A meta-analysis of the relationship of financial literacy and of financial education to financial behaviors was conducted in order to understand the increasing complexity of the financial decisions of individuals over the last generation. The paper discusses the importance of financial education and literacy, as well as suggestions to implement financial education programs. Financial literacy and education are extremely critical to improving the economic self-sufficiency of workers, and therefore, should be reinforced throughout an individual's life.

This recently released research study from the Urban Institute identifies promising approaches that could be implemented within the Annie E. Casey Foundation's Center for Economic Opportunity program to assist the most vulnerable families, of which families escaping domestic violence are included. The research indicates that programs can improve a vulnerable family's employability and savings; however, the most successful interventions are "high touch," longer in length than standard programs, and therefore, more expensive. Also highlighted is the importance of creating partnerships with healthcare providers, as this is often a significant barrier to stability for these families that remains unaddressed.

The Federal government has recently placed a greater emphasis on connecting survivors with asset building programs as a way to build financial independence for the population. With this goal in mind, this toolkit was designed as a step by step guide for both AFI programs and domestic violence service providers interested in creating partnerships. It provides information targeted specifically at each partners, as well as additional resources such as draft MOUs and letters of commitments.