The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will begin to issue a set of six fact sheets through its blog “Home, Together” to bridge a connection between early care and education providers and housing and homelessness services providers. The fact sheets intend to support a whole-family approach that addresses the needs and strengths of parents and children experiencing homelessness. The sheets also strive to improve the integration of early childhood homelessness data into a broader community-wide planning strategy that seeks to make homelessness a brief and one-time occurrence.

This brief from the National Research Center on Hispanic Children and Families examines the take-up rates for child care and early education for Hispanic families. Historically, Hispanic families have lower rates of usage of programs targeted to assist low-income families such as child care assistance, and this brief uses research to determine why this is the case for child care assistance and what the implications are for these findings.

This brief from the Urban Institute analyzes young adults who progressed through initial career pathway programs to eventually secure middle-skill jobs in their industries. Though Career Pathway programs are a promising model, there is less data available about workers who move past the initial entry level job and on to higher wages. The findings from the data used for this brief show that obtaining more than one credential can support career advancement.

This report from the Urban Institute highlights the work of three community-based organizations taking part in the JPMorgan Chase’s New Skills at Work Initiative. It showcases promising approaches and strategies to engage employers to fill their employment needs and train workers to meet these needs.

This MEF Associates evaluation report prepared for the City of Seattle evaluates their Career Bridge program. Career Bridge was developed as an alternative means of addressing recent gun violence in the city by addressing employment barriers of low-income men of color. The report focuses on the implementation of the program and the employment outcomes for the first three program cohorts that completed the program in 2014.

This guide is a product of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS (Family Resource Information, Education, and Network Development Service) National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention. It provides information, strategies, and resources to help communities support and strengthen families and ensure the well-being of children. The guide offers support to service providers who work with parents, caregivers, and children to prevent child maltreatment. It shares strategies on building protective factors within families and for children through service delivery and community partnerships. Protective factors discussed range from knowledge of child development to building social capital and parental resilience.

This is the final report following the conclusion of the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project sponsored by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE); the goal of the report was to learn how tools from behavioral science could be used to deliver program services more effectively and, ultimately, improve the well-being of low-income children, adults, and families. The report outlines the findings from 15 human service agencies, all of which saw statistically significant changes in outcomes in at least one measured intervention. The domains covered within the 15 sites were child care, child support, and work supports.

Please join the Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) for a webinar reaffirming and renewing its partnership with the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and between the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC), Child and Adult Care Food Program (CACFP), Head Start (HS), and Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF) programs. The webinar will go over a recently signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that describes how WIC, CACFP, HS, and CCDF can work together to promote and support regional, State, and local efforts to improve program coordination and service delivery for low-income children and their families. When: Wednesday, January 31, 2018; 2:00 – 3:00 p.m. (EST) Presented by: FNS & ACF Headquarters Staff. Short remarks to be provided by FNS and ACF Senior Leadership. Log-on information will be provided at a later date. This webinar will be recorded, and the presentation will be made available following the webinar date.

This Urban Institute brief examines the experiences of clients applying for work supports, such as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits, Medicaid, and child care assistance. Applying for these benefits can be a daunting process for low-income families, so six states participated in the Work Support Strategies initiative to streamline and improve the application and service delivery process. The authors describe the experiences of families applying for work supports, then they identify three areas where the process could be improved. Those areas include minimizing wait times so families can receive their benefits sooner, improving customer service so families applying for benefits are treated with respect, and providing clearer information about the process of applying for benefits. The authors recommend that states provide a range of options for applying for benefits and aim for providing benefits on the same day that a client applies.

Senate Resolution 2013-62 (Appendix A) directed the Legislative Budget and Finance Committee to consider the effect of major federal and state programs in assisting low-income families to achieve self-sufficiency and reduce the number of families living in poverty. In particular, the Committee was asked to determine if and how such programs mitigate the “cliff effect.” “Cliff effects” occur when program benefits are not phased out on a sliding scale basis, or increased earnings are not sufficient to cover the full cost of the lost benefit. With one exception, the Committee focused on programs available to all that apply and meet eligibility requirements: TANF (Temporary Assistance for Needy Families), SNAP/Food Stamps (Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program), several federal tax credits, and Pennsylvania’s Special Tax Forgiveness Program. The one exception, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF), is a discretionary federal program offering child care subsidies for low- income families, with the number of eligible individuals served limited by available funding.