This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights the Jeremiah Program, a nonprofit organization that strives to put families on the path toward self-sufficiency by using a family-centered approach with both parents and their children. Primarily funded by private donations, Jeremiah helps low-income single mothers complete their education and at the same time provides access to high-quality early childhood education for their children. Participants may be eligible for federal and local child care and housing subsidies. This two-generation approach reports that 81 percent of children who attended a Jeremiah child development center are performing at or above grade level in elementary or middle school.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is part of the "Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field" and highlights a West Virginian program that aims to teach at-risk youth about the “success sequence” path from school to work through marriage and family in a positive and non-judgmental way. Project T.H.I.N.K. discusses healthy relationships and provides resources to inform participants about the transition to adulthood, which can help them avoid early pregnancies, overcome poverty traps, understand what being a parent might be like, and ultimately lay a foundation for a successful and mobile future. The project especially tries to avoid shaming or nagging and works to understand the situations of all participants, whether they already have children or not.

On December 4, 2018, the National Association for the Education of Young Children will hold a webinar with authors of a new book From Survive to Thrive: A Director’s Guide for Leading an Early Childhood Program. The authors will provide information for childhood program directors on building a strong culture, creating useful and engaging policies, and working with families as a leader.

On October 30, MDRC and the State Higher Education Executive Officers Association will host a free webinar as part of their College Promise Success Initiative. This webinar will feature adult promise programs as part of their programming around technical assistance and evidence-based support practices. Stay tuned for more information to come.

This research brief, drawn from the Homeless Families Research Briefs project out of the Office of Policy, Planning research & Evaluation, explores issues of family homelessness that are especially relevant to HHS, to state and local decision makers, and for programs. The Employment of Families Experiencing Homelessness brief explores parents’ earnings at the time the family was in emergency shelter, prior to becoming homeless and at 20 and 37 months after experiencing homelessness. This new brief examines employment rates, compares the employment rates of families experiencing homelessness to the employment rate of parents in deeply poor families in the same communities, discusses barriers parents identified for not working, and explores the relationship between employment, income, and continued housing instability.

Stable and affordable housing continues to be an issue for low-income families as rental and home prices increase and wages may not rise in accordance. This webinar on September 25 is geared toward SNAP Employment and Training stakeholders to demonstrate ways in which SNAP programs can implement approaches to job training that facilitate housing stability for benefit recipients. Drawing on examples from Massachusetts and Arkansas State SNAP agencies, links between housing and workforce initiatives will be highlighted and their importance emphasized to overcome rent burden and homelessness for vulnerable populations.

This policy brief describes the opportunities for collaboration between SNAP Employment & Training programs and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. Because both serve overlapping populations, such as able-bodied adults without dependents, states can implement SNAP E&T through existing workforce training programs to overcome participants’ barriers to employment. The report details the benefits and challenges of cooperation, provides examples of states that are currently uniting the two initiatives, and suggests lessons for integration.

This testimony from an Institute Fellow at the Urban Institute was presented to the Subcommittee on Human Resources within the Committee on Ways and Means in the U.S. House of Representatives. The author critiques TANF for not sufficiently reaching children in poverty, spending limited funds outside the original policy goals, and failing to offer training and education for good jobs, among other issues. She recommends TANF improvements such as setting spending floors for core benefits, furthering 21st century skills and education training, and writing in an explicit child poverty reduction goal. These changes, she argues, will help children in poverty and increase parental socioeconomic mobility as TANF originally intended.