This final report focuses on Future Steps. In this report, the authors (1) chronicle the design and operation of Future Steps, assessing program participation, service delivery, and costs; (2) examine 30-month impacts on employment, earnings, welfare dependence, self-sufficiency, and well-being; and (3) draw lessons and recommendations about implementing, designing, and testing future welfare-to-work programs in rural areas. The text box that follows provides a brief overview of these three points, with the rest of the report providing a more detailed discussion of each. The authors include a summary of the Future Steps model and a description of the evaluation’s design and analytic methods. (Author abstract)

The Office of Family Assistance began the Rural Communities Initiative in 2008, and many rural areas expressed an interest in learning more about how to utilize technology in their TANF programs and in their communities. This Webinar included presentations from Ms. Mary Campanola, U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), Rural Development, Telecommunications Program; Ms. Sheryl Rehberg, Executive Director, North Florida Workforce Development Board; and Mr. Stan Brodka, Director of Sales, KeyTrain. (author abstract)

The Rockefeller Institute at the University at Albany released a report examining the intersections of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). After conducting field research at six different sites within the United States, the report explains overlaps in the TANF and WIA programs, especially those of training, work preparation and employment. The study focuses on strategies for sharing of resources between TANF and WIA programs, or welfare and workforce agencies. Ultimately, the Rockefeller Institute hopes to generate strategies for more efficient services.

From the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this profile provides information on the working poor in 2009. Around 14.3 percent of the population, 43.6 million people, in the United States was living at or below the federal poverty level. Around 10.4 million individuals were considered working poor who spent 27 weeks in the labor force in 2009, but still below the poverty level, which was an increase of 1.5 million more than in 2008.

This paper is an overview of the Wave 4 Family Employment Program (FEP) Study of Utah. The study included a cohort of participants in the FEP program, and Wave 4 provides data on an additional two years on usage of the program to help guide policy and program development. The average age of participants at entry was 28 years old, 93 percent were female, 64 percent were currently or have been married, 69 percent were in good to excellent physical health, 69.1 percent had a high school or GED degree, and the average number of children was 1.7. Additionally, 63.6 percent of the participants had only one episode of case assistance receipt between April 2005 and September 2010.

On April 28th, 2011, the U.S. Department of Labor announced that about $7.2 million in funding has been distributed among 18 different third-generation grantee organizations. This funding will support programs that assist former offenders return from incarceration, integrate into their communities and gain job skills. Three years after many offenders have been released from prison, 60% will be charged with a new crime, and 66% of those charged will return to prison. The U.S. Department of Labor aims to decrease these statistics by supporting the integration of former offenders into their communities and the workforce.

As part of the Enhanced Services for the Hard-to-Employ Demonstration and Evaluation Project, the Administration for Children and Families, Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation published this report on the Enhanced Early Head Start (Enhanced EHS) program. The program is a two-generational, early childhood development program, which includes services to help address the employment and educational needs of low-income parents. The findings yielded mixed results as the focus on parental employment and education was increased, but implementation was weak.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released new data that revealed 12.4 percent of families included an unemployed person in 2010, up from 12.0 percent in 2009, which is at its highest level since the data began being collected in 1994. These data are from the Current Population Survey (CPS), a monthly sample survey of approximately 60,000 households.

As part of the Employment Retention and Advancement project, this issue brief is from MDRC and offers data from the study three years after its start. The Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project evaluated strategies to promote employment stability among low-income workers. After three years, one in four single parents had advanced. Single parents who advanced worked more consistently over the study period than other parents and, if unemployed, returned to work more quickly.