This resource is from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and provides an overview of the key components of the Foundation’s financial stability activities for low-income families in Baltimore and the State of Maryland with Baltimore’s CASH Campaign Coalition. The Coalition has built a citywide network to improve tax preparation services and financial services, increase financial literacy, and expand the use of Individual Development Accounts. Authors conducted a case study of how this strategy has been developed and implemented in Baltimore and offer recommendations for replication for others doing similar work in their communities.

This working paper is one in a series of projects initiated by the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) to improve knowledge for child care researchers and policy makers about parental child care decision making. In this paper, we identify three distinct conceptual frameworks for understanding child care decisions – a rational consumer choice framework, a heuristics and biases framework, and a social network framework – and review the major assumptions, contributions, and possible limitations of each of these frameworks. We then discuss an integrated conceptual model, the accommodation model that draws from each of these frameworks. The first three frameworks come primarily from the fields of economics, psychology, and sociology, respectively. It is our sense that most research about child care decision making has been informed by the theories, assumptions, and empirical methods of one or more of these frameworks, either explicitly or implicitly, and we provide some examples and elaborate the basic tenets of each framework. The integrative accommodation model was first presented by Marcia Meyers and Lucy Jordan (2006). We develop and elaborate this model more fully here with explicit attention to its relation to the rational consumer choice framework, the heuristics and biases framework, and the social network frameworks. These frameworks are presented as complementary, rather than mutually exclusive. For a process as complex as parental child care decisions, each can provide a different and useful lens through which to understand unique aspects of the factors, processes and outcomes of parental child care decisions. When considered together, we believe they may inform one another and the development of more integrative models, such as the accommodation model presented here. It is our hope that researchers working primarily within one of the conceptual frameworks discussed here will benefit from learning about other frameworks. In some cases, this may simply suggest additional or new variables to consider when specifying a particular model, while still working from the same conceptual framework. In other cases, it may result in integrative approaches that address multiple dimensions of the decision making process – dimensions that may not be as obvious when working within a single framework. In the concluding section we discuss some of the issues and the implications for future research. (author abstract)

TANF potentially serves as a portal for a wide array of programs that provide cash income support, in-kind nutrition and housing assistance, tax credits, and other services to families with low-incomes. This research brief summarizes what we know about the connections between TANF and other important safety net programs. It reviews the size and scope of the various programs, the receipt of other safety net benefits by TANF families, and the implications for policy and research. (author abstract)

Visit the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities’ (CBPP) National Earned Income Tax Credit & Child Tax Credit Outreach Campaign. The CBPP provides a 2012 Tax Credit Outreach Kit, EITC estimator tool, and a comprehensive, searchable database of “Outreach in Action,” which provides examples of how organizations are promoting the EITC, Child Tax Credit, and free tax filing assistance.

The Asset Platform Web site serves as a resource for nonprofit and agency staff and provides information on financial education, coaching, and asset development. This website has training information, tools, and products and divides its resources into six focus areas to best serve its users: budgeting, credit score, debt, insurance and safety net, organizational resources, and savings.

The IRS provides EITC Central, which hosts the Partner Toolkit, the Tax Return Preparer Toolkit, Marketing Express, and Information for the Press. EITC Central includes the latest EITC news and updates, EITC statistics, and widgets, banner ads, radio, TV PSAs, and ready-made publications and products to use in your EITC outreach campaign.

The Office of Community Services (OCS), within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, administers the Assets for Independence (AFI) Program. AFI funds community-based, faith-based, and other organizations, such as State, local and tribal government agencies that assist low-income people to become economically self-sufficient. The Assets for Independence Resource Center takes an asset-based approach to self-sufficiency and offers users many resources specific to program and agency needs, as well as resources specific to certain populations. Visit the Resource Center to learn more about IDAs, read success stories, locate a project near you, or apply for an AFI grant.

This EITC Assistant is from the IRS and provides eligibility information for the EITC in tax year 2011. By providing basic income information, the program can help in determine correct filing status, determine whether children qualify, and it can also estimate the amount of credit that someone may receive.

In 2009, the United States ranked fourteenth in college graduation rates among industrialized countries, and this research highlights ways to improve college attendance and graduation rates at 4-year colleges. This working paper, through the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, provides a review of 38 studies on the relationship between assets and children’s education attainment. Then, authors discuss Child Development Accounts (CDAs) policies, which have been proposed as an asset approach for helping to finance college.

From the Corporation for Enterprise Development (CFED), the Scorecard provides a comprehensive picture of wealth, poverty and the financial security of families in the United States across all 50 states and District of Columbia. CFED offers state-by-state performance and policy measures across five issue areas: Financial Assets and Income, Businesses and Jobs, Housing and Homeownership, Health Care and Education. Across the five issue areas, CFED gives a detailed assessment of the strength of each State’s policies, recommendations to strengthen policies, and links to Resource Guides.