The SNAP to Skills website was recently launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. This new resource will serve as a hub for information and news about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) program. Users can access information about the SNAP to Skills project, SNAP E&T tools and resources, policy briefs, and stories from successful SNAP E&T programs.

In addition to academic, technical, and professional skills, today’s workers also need a set of personal success skills. Personal success skills are skills that allow adults to deal with challenges, relationships, and transitions involved in the workplace. This report from SRI Education and the Joyce Foundation highlights the need for unemployed and underemployed adults to hone these skills in order to build a sustainable career.

This fact sheet from the Institute for Research on Poverty and the Morgridge Center for Public Service examines ways to improve opportunity and reduce poverty for families. Policymakers should consider three main factors—family, education, and work and wages—when developing policies to reduce poverty and increase social mobility.

In this publication, the U.S. Census Bureau presents data on income and poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2016 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC). Authors note that in 2015, the median household income was $56,516, which signified the first annual increase of this measure since 2007. Additionally, the official poverty rate was 13.5 percent, which shows a decrease of 1.2 percentage points from 2014. The data is categorized by demographics such as race, ethnicity, and region.

This study, published by the Opportunity Collaborative, provides a detailed look at barriers to employment across the Baltimore region. Research was gathered through interviews with workforce development managers, as well as a survey of over 1,000 active job seekers. It views workforce barriers not as separate issues, but rather as a complex network requiring comprehensive solutions. Transportation is examined in context to associative issues including social barriers, racism, a lack of education, and housing – making it an important resource for understanding challenges to self-sufficiency. Findings report that low-income neighborhoods, which are constrained by limited public transport, are unable to access job centers across the city. Twenty-five percent of job seekers cannot access jobs via public transport, since job creation is increasingly happening outside of the city. When public transport is available, limited service schedules inhibit its effectiveness. This keeps off-peak workers from getting to and from work, and makes it difficult for individuals to easily travel between home, child care, and work.

This MDRC report provides findings from the evaluation of Project Rise, which was operated between 2011 and 2015 by five organizations: three were in New York City; one in Newark, New Jersey; and one in Kansas City, Missouri. The project served 18- to 24-year-olds who lacked a high school diploma or the equivalent and had been out of school, out of work, and not in any type of education or training program for at least six months. The report describes how the program operated at each local provider, explains the extent to which participants were engaged, and presents findings related to achievement of the desired outcomes.

Jobs-Plus is a place-based workforce development model to help public housing residents find employment. The model was tested in six cities between 1998 and 2006 and is now being replicated across the United States. This infographic from MDRC presents the history of the program, shows the evidence behind the approach, and describes its three core components: on-site employment services, rent-based work incentives, and community support for work.

The Utah Family Employment Program Agreement of Mutual Responsibility establishes terms of partnership between the TANF customer and Department of Workforce Services (DWS) employment counselor to ensure that the customer understands what is required to participate in the Family Employment Program. It is presented here in both English and Spanish.

This report, by Ernst & Young and MENTOR: The National Mentoring Partnership, uses 18 case studies to describe how corporate America is becoming involved in the youth mentoring movement. The authors provide best practices for corporate engagement including the thoughtful development of relationships with partners, investment in evidence-based programming, and targeted employee engagement.