This Annie E. Casey Foundation blogpost features lessons from Maryland MENTOR to illustrate how to improve the quality and quantity of mentoring programs. Also mentioned are projects that Maryland MENTOR has initiated to increase the number of mentors, including convening town halls, building professional development skills for mentors, and creating a database to connect volunteers with young people looking for mentors. While this organization’s scope is limited to Maryland, some findings noted in the blogpost can be used to help grow and support mentoring programs nationally.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) presents a set of 14 videos which profile participants who completed training programs and have moved into economic independence from public assistance to employment. These success stories demonstrate that OFA programs are making a meaningful difference in people’s lives across the country.

This U.S. Department of Labor-sponsored webinar will be convened on March 7, 2019, 12 noon to 1:30 p.m. ET and will present the requirements and process for state agencies to request a waiver from Title I Wagner-Peyser regulations. The webinar will provide guidance on how states can prepare and develop quality waiver requests for review and approval. Speakers will include representatives from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration and the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry.

This Office of Family Assistance-sponsored webinar on February 26, 2019 discussed the complexities of engaging two-parent families in TANF, and featured strategies to improve employment outcomes through relationship education. Representatives from the Oklahoma Department of Human Services, Insight Policy Research, Public Strategies and the Urban Institute participated.

This National Skills Coalition issue brief outlines effective industry partnerships for work-based learning that are designed to meet both business and worker needs. Four case studies are presented in addition to lessons about work-based learning and the need for partnership with employers to align workforce, education, and human service systems; these case studies cover models in Georgia (health care apprenticeships), Oregon (work-based learning), Texas (women in construction trades), and Indiana (advanced manufacturing).

This issue brief from the Council of State Governments’ National Reentry Resource Center is a self-assessment tool with which programs can assess their delivery of integrated reentry and employment interventions for citizens returning from incarceration. This tool focuses on helping reentry practitioners improve the capacity of their programming and services to reduce the likelihood of their clients’ return to incarceration and to increase long-term job retention.

This Jobs for the Future report profiles the Opportunity Works program, a national effort to create postsecondary education and career pathways for over 2,000 out-of-school and out-of-work youth. The research in this report identifies four strategies for program success: place community-based organizations at the center, locate the “sweet spot” of a guiding model, provide excellent programming, and plan for program sustainability from the beginning.

This recent Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews the implementation of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) 2.0 program. The report examines how the 32 grantees in this funding round developed their five-year annual performance projections; performance metrics data are used and interpreted to develop and revise performance outcomes for successive years of program implementation.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison will hold a webinar on March 6, 2019 between 2:00 p.m. and 3:00 p.m. ET to cover findings following the Family Options Study that was conducted for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Researchers from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will review patterns of public assistance receipt, employment, family separations, the well-being of adolescents and young children, adult behavioral health, and predictions for reoccurrence of homelessness. Findings related to the experiences of homelessness in parents and children will also be presented.

This policy evaluation from the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison assesses the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration project. The report covers 18 implementation sites, where half of the 10,161 demonstration project enrollees received enhanced child support services, employment assistance, parenting education delivered in a peer-supported format, and case management. The other half of enrollees were in a control group and did not receive extra services. Report findings suggest that future programs might invest in strong partnerships and communication systems as well as support customer-oriented approaches for enrollees. There are also recommendations on recruiting staff who can manage large caseloads and designing and delivering services to support sustained engagement among program participants.