Nationwide, nearly 1.5 million high school students experience physical abuse from a dating partner each year. Additionally, about 1 in 3 teenagers has experienced some form of abuse by a dating partner. This blog post was written by the Associate Commissioner of the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) to highlight the importance of addressing Teen Dating Violence as part of ongoing FYSB and ACF activities to enhance health, safety, and wellbeing for all children, youth, and families.

These podcasts were produced in partnership between U.S. Department of Labor, Employment & Training Administration and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB). They share information on providing resources and support for job seekers who are homeless youth, pregnant and parenting youth, or victims of domestic violence.

Wider Opportunities for Women provides a 12-part online course designed to help caseworkers support survivors’ economic independence through better employment. The course is divided into three units: Pathways to Financial Security, Financial Recovery and Growth, and Addressing Barriers to Economic Security. Topics covered in the course include how to match survivors’ skills with good jobs in growing fields, how to help survivors effectively market themselves to employers, how to recover from economic abuse, and how to support survivors with barriers to employment.

Colorado Works, Colorado’s TANF agency, created this handbook to compile best practices that enhance the well-being, safety, and economic security of domestic violence survivors who come into contact with TANF. The handbook provides the business case for collaboration between TANF and domestic violence agencies, describes how domestic violence is interrelated with poverty and TANF, and how application of the Family Violence Option in TANF can help survivors and their children. Best practices include building effective collaboration between TANF and domestic violence agencies and co-locating domestic violence advocates in a TANF agency.

The National Online Resource Center for Violence Against Women created this special collection to provide resources to case managers who want to help domestic violence survivors access the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax benefits. This collection highlights key resources for the EITC, the Child Tax Credit, Health Coverage Tax Credits, and others. It includes general information and fact sheets, reports and research, information about how tax credits affect eligibility for other federal benefits, as well as state-specific statistics and contact information. Finally, it provides information on free tax preparation services across the country and ways to avoid predatory lending and tax services.

This handbook, created by the advocacy organization Wider Opportunities for Women, provides step-by-step tools for case managers to use to help domestic violence survivors move toward economic security. First, the handbook gives an overview of the basics of economic security and the impact of economic abuse, then it provides information on the four steps necessary for a caseworker to help survivors develop an individual economic security plan: assessment, goal setting, identifying and connecting with resources, and continuing support.

This 2014 memo from ACF provides domestic violence training, resources, and potential opportunities for collaboration between TANF agencies and their partners. Resources include information on TANF’s Family Violence Option, which allows states to establish a special program within TANF to serve victims of domestic violence. There is also information provided on assessing a family’s domestic violence history during TANF intake, and partnering with domestic violence shelter programs to provide training for human services staff. The memo ends with lists of domestic violence hotlines, webinars, culturally specific resources, and other national domestic violence resources.

Many survivors of domestic violence have criminal records due to coerced criminal acts experienced at the hands of their partner. Survivors with a criminal record face significant challenges in accessing employment and achieving economic security. This tool is designed to help survivors better understand their employment rights, and offers tips and resources as they prepare for the job search process.

Every October, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) and other organizations across the country take time to raise awareness about the 12 million women and men who are victims of domestic violence each year in the United States. Throughout the month, advocates mobilize to mourn the lives lost to domestic violence, celebrate domestic violence prevention and intervention efforts, and connect to a community that collectively strives for the safety and wellbeing of all its citizens.

This resource from the U.S. Departments of Justice and Health and Human Services summarizes findings and evidence from various reviews of studies and program evaluations to help stakeholders address childhood exposure to violence and improve outcomes for children, families, and communities.