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.

An evaluation of a randomized control trial in Boston found significant decreases in criminal charges and arraignments for youth who participate in Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs), particularly for African American and Latino males. These declines may be the result of improved social and emotional skills that the employment programs foster by giving participants a chance to learn healthy conflict and stress management. Youth also reported higher academic and career aspirations, better job skills, and more cognizance of future plans and goals, an effect which was pronounced for younger members and members of color.

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.

This brief by the Urban Institute looks at how economic trends and the labor market have changed since the 1970s, when both the labor market and social safety supports were stronger. Because of such changes like fewer work benefits, stagnant wages, and declining labor force participation rates, social safety programs face increasing burdens. Furthermore, the trend toward more outsourced, nonstandard, temporary, and automated work creates further pressures on social safety nets to provide benefits traditionally obtained through stable employment. Some potential solutions include portable benefits for contractors or part-time workers, laws that require minimum benefit levels, state-operated social insurance programs, prorated unemployment benefits, and programs to make the work requirements of safety net programs easier to fulfill.

Skill development and job or educational training are essential tools for low-income or low-skilled workers to increase their labor market prospects and decrease their unemployment rates, so Local Workforce Development Boards (LWDBs) provide these services under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. However, child care barriers can prevent families from fully utilizing LWDB resources. The Urban Institute surveyed LWDBs that actively support child care needs to create a recommended list of best practices and administrative structures in the field. Some findings include working with local government and partners and utilizing government agencies and grants, while common difficulties included sufficient funding and high demand for a limited child care market.

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) from the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) encourages local workforce development boards to create and utilize Youth Committees to provide youth services effectively. New provisions in the requirements allow boards greater flexibility in naming Youth Committees from previous existing youth councils. This posting compiles webinars and a success guide from the DOL’s Division of Youth Services to help stakeholders learn more about and implement their own Youth Committees to bring experts together, generate ideas and discussions, foster partnerships, and ultimately meet the needs of local youth.

This brief from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation is aimed at practitioners interested in helping clients reach self-sufficiency by focusing on goal-making abilities. The brief describes the importance of the ability to set and achieve goals and what, when, and how to measure to determine a program's ability to help its participants with this need. Specific real-world program examples are highlighted throughout the brief.

This report comments on the effectiveness of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families Emergency Fund (TANF EF) in creating subsidized employment and suggests more subsidized job creation to aid low-income families and weather economic downturns. Subsidized employment that offers temporary government-funded work has been widely proven to be beneficial in providing income support, increasing employment, boosting wages, and improving child support and recidivism numbers. TANF EF was particularly effective because it gave states flexibility to administer funds as they saw fit, enabling them to adapt to specific local contexts and create targeted interventions. The author calls for more subsidized employment programs with flexibility, tailored approaches based on program purpose, sustainable funding streams, and built-in triggers to adapt to changing economic conditions like recessions.

Join a U.S. Census Bureau economist and statistician on September 19 as they discuss their research into the recent economic stagnation from the late 1990s through 2015 and its effects. They primarily focus on workers moving onto and up the job ladder and the implications of this movement on hours worked and wages earned. Earnings gains were lowered by previously unemployed hires and increased by those who stayed with their jobs and who changed employers.