This Office of Family Assistance-produced resource guide intends to support HPOG grantees’ ability to implement stronger employer engagement and employment services. The guide includes case studies and tools created as a result of the HPOG Employment Virtual Learning Cohort technical assistance activity that involved 10 HPOG grantees meeting virtually for learning opportunities.

The Administration for Children and Families (ACF), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) proposes data collection activities as part of the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) program. ACF has developed a multi-faceted research and evaluation approach to better assess HPOG activities and their results. Under a second round of HPOG grants awarded in 2015, ACF provided grants to five tribal-affiliated organizations and 27 non-tribal entities. The Office of Management and Budget approved data collection for this round, and the first submission of data, approved in August 2015, included baseline data collection instruments and the grant performance management system, followed by a second submission approved in June 2017 that included additional data collection for the National Evaluation impact and descriptive studies and the Tribal Evaluation. A third submission for National Evaluation impact study data collection was approved in June 2018. The proposed data collection activities will provide data for the impact, descriptive, and cost-benefit studies of the non-tribal grantees. Comments are due to ACF by February 27, 2019.

This live webcast hosted by the Brookings Institution on January 24, 2019 will discuss potential workplace reforms for older workers and the supports necessary for labor force participation among those who want to work longer. Former U.S. Department of Labor officials and Social Security Administration staff will share presentations at the webcast moderated by the president and chief executive officer of the National Bureau of Economic Research.

This University of Maryland report, a part of the annual Life After Welfare series, reviews the outcomes of households that are no longer on TANF caseloads. The report examines the characteristics, employment, and earnings outcomes of 12,597 families who left Maryland’s Temporary Cash Assistance (TCA) program between January 2004 and March 2017. The findings suggest that these families improved their financial situations after exiting TCA, compared to their circumstances before TCA enrollment. However, these families still struggle to maintain independence from cash assistance following exit from the program.

Texas’s Summer Earn and Learn (SEAL) program and the Promoting Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) programs in Arkansas are identified as successful examples of collaboration between vocational rehabilitation agencies and workforce boards. This Mathematica report also identifies key features of the programs so that policymakers can choose, develop, and adapt similar partnerships within their own context.

This Jobs for the Future issue brief includes data and infographics that outline Federal programs designed to serve opportunity youth in poverty by bridging improved educational and economic outcomes, including TANF, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Pell Grants.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation-supported study, authored by Brookings and Child Trends, identifies three factors that contribute to future economic progress among low-income youth: a post-secondary education (potentially equalizes young adults searching for high-quality jobs), labor market experience at an early age (predicts higher wages and job quality later in life), and relevant high school work-based learning experiences (involve positive relationships with adults and have a positive effect on job quality).

This fact sheet by the University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty reviews the challenges of low-wage jobs and identifies factors of economic instability; these factors include irregularity in work schedules and monthly income. The fact sheet considers how unpredictability can be a complicating issue for safety net program eligibility and affects the workers’ well-being.

A January 9, 2019 webinar will discuss the implementation and outcomes of the Individual Placement and Support-Supported Employment practice for TANF families. This webinar will feature the Project Director for SAMHSA’s Transforming Lives through Supported Employment Program (SEP) in Washington State and a representative from the grant program’s evaluation team.