Employers’ role in creating workplace policies and practices and the work environment has increased relevance for low-wage and historically marginalized workers because these persons often work in occupations with greater job and schedule instability and have fewer workplace protections and benefits. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief discusses how employer-based work-family interventions can impact work and non-work outcomes for low-wage workers and their families, reviews select literature on work-family interventions, and provides strategies to engage and encourage employers to participate in studies of work-family interventions.

Workforce training programs in the United States have delivered inconsistent returns on investment to workers seeking better opportunities in the labor market. Hosted by WorkRise and J-PAL North America, this webinar on March 9, 2022 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET will discuss the power of randomized controlled trials in generating evidence to inform and guide decisionmaking and investment in workforce training. Speakers will share insights from a WorkRise-funded evaluation of the Pursuit Fellowship, a sectoral employment program that equips adults from under-resourced communities with the necessary skills to build careers in the high-wage technology sector.

What can we learn from decades of research on interventions designed to boost employment and earnings for people with low incomes? The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse conducted a meta-analysis to synthesize findings from more than 220 interventions and 300 studies to gain new insights into evidence on what works. The Clearinghouse will host a webinar on March 9, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to discuss these findings and address three primary questions:

• What interventions work to improve the employment and earnings of people with low incomes?
• Do the interventions work best for particular groups of people? If so, which groups?
• In what contexts do interventions appear to be most successful?

Panelists will also describe how practitioners and policymakers can use the findings to best meet the needs of populations seeking gainful employment.

The Pathways Clearinghouse Guide is for researchers conducting rigorous evaluations of interventions that aim to improve employment outcomes, reduce employment challenges, and support self-sufficiency for people with low incomes. It introduces the Pathways Clearinghouse, which identifies interventions that aim to directly or indirectly improve employment outcomes and systematically evaluates and summarizes the evidence of interventions’ effectiveness. Researchers and research funders can use this high-level overview to better understand the Pathways Clearinghouse and its processes for selecting studies for review, assigning study quality ratings, and assessing the evidence of effectiveness for an intervention.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a Virtual Academy from March 7 to March 9, 2022 designed to provide participants with common knowledge of the workforce development field. Topics to be covered include Changing the Narrative in Workforce Development, Career Planning for the Client and the Workforce Professional, Understanding and Utilizing Labor Market Information, Building Effective Partnerships, Working with Special Populations, Program Development and Implementation, and Effective Outreach Strategies. Upon completing the Academy, participants will leave with a deeper knowledge of workforce development practices, a set of innovative ideas and approaches, and strategies to implement processes. There is a registration fee to attend the Virtual Academy.

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.

The Office of Family Assistance has awarded and overseen federal funding for four cohorts of healthy marriage (HM) and responsible fatherhood (RF) grant programs (2006-2011, 2011-2015, 2015-2020, and 2020-2025). The HM grantees promote healthy marriage and relationships through eight legislatively authorized activities, such as marriage and relationship education and development of skills for job and career advancement. RF grantees’ legislatively authorized activities promote responsible parenting, healthy marriage, and economic stability. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief shares what was learned after visits with grantees about factors that have helped or hindered successful implementation of the 2015-2020 cohort of grantees, focusing on approaches to staffing programs and working with partners.

This toolkit is designed to help states create career pathways systems that integrate and expand partnerships between state human service agencies and community and technical college systems and institutions so that more people have the opportunity to train for a quality career. The toolkit includes recommendations for how SNAP E&T and TANF can support high-quality career pathways system development and partnerships with community colleges. It also illustrates model career pathways frameworks from Arkansas and Oregon.

This Digital Skills Discussion Guide helps workforce providers learn how employers are integrating technology and upskilling workers. The Guide facilitates supporting workers to adapt to new ways of interacting with their work environments during this digital transformation. It is based on conversations held with large, national employers from a range of industry sectors during 2020 and 2021.

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.