This set of resources identifies toolkits, tip sheets, webcasts, and other guidance on how to address partnerships for specific youth populations under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. These resources cover several topics, such as employer engagement, serving homeless and runaway youth, collaborative opportunities for vocational rehabilitation, serving youth in foster care or with juvenile records, rural youth, and partnerships with TANF.

This report assesses the Families Forward Demonstration (FFD), which aimed to integrate employment and training within child support programs. The FFD program included free occupational skills training, employment services, and wraparound supports. FFD emphasized “responsive” child support services that helped parents understand their support obligations, and suspended some enforcement actions as parents participated in the program. FFD was implemented in five jurisdictions: Cuyahoga County, Ohio; Franklin County, Ohio; Calhoun and Jackson Counties, Michigan; Benton, Franklin, and Walla Walla Counties, Washington; and New York City.

The National Association of Workforce Boards will host its annual meeting as a hybrid event on June 24, 2021 to June 26, 2021. Sessions covering four primary topics—Thought Leaders; Demonstrating Results; the Future of Work; and Building Skills - Reaching the Learner Where They Are—support the Forum’s theme, “Pathways to Excellence” as the key areas in which workforce development boards need to focus their attention and resources to meet the individual and employer needs of their communities. There is a fee to register for this event.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has released a funding opportunity announcement to provide funding and technical support for evaluation-related activities to organizations implementing interventions to improve self-sufficiency among families with low incomes. These 24-month cooperative agreements are intended for organizations that seek to strengthen and evaluate coordinated, client-centered approaches to improving self-sufficiency. No prior experience in research and evaluation is required. Grantees will work with federally funded, third-party evaluation technical assistance providers that will offer customized support to recipients in designing, implementing, and evaluating their proposed interventions. A letter of intent is due by June 2, 2021 and a full application is due by July 2, 2021.

This brief is a case study that reviews the relational factors between two Cleveland-based employment training programs–Youth Opportunities Unlimited and Towards Employment–as they came together to develop a Youth Adult Resource Center (YRC). It discusses how YRC incorporated positive youth development approaches at the staff level, and presents how these approaches helped to improve YRC’s ability to meet the needs of Cleveland’s youth and young adults.

This resource list covers general information and guidance to create new youth apprenticeship programs as well as approaches for employer engagement and participant recruitment. The resources also include industry-specific information on advanced manufacturing, agriculture and food systems, construction, energy, financial services, information technology (for cybersecurity), healthcare, hospitality, transportation, distribution, and logistics.

This fact sheet identifies four promising practices in Summer Youth Employment Programs (SYEPs) that were implemented in 2020 to respond to the economic and health challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. It draws from a survey of 73 SYEP providers and local funders and highlights how SYEPs offer short-term, paid opportunities for youth and young adults to gain career exposure, training, and work experience.

The Performance Partnership Pilot (P3) in New York City targeted fathers and mothers between 17 and 24 years old who did not have a high school credential, lacked other basic skills or had other risk factors, and resided in the city. P3 supported participants’ efforts to complete high school equivalency and earn occupational credentials. This report examines how P3 augmented Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act services for out-of-school youth by allowing participants to receive these services for up to two years. The report also includes a program impact assessment of the use of child support navigators for P3 participants and the incorporation of waivers for funding and performance measures in data reporting.

This podcast presents trends and reasons for declining labor force participation among working women, particularly those who are mothers, since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. The podcast also reviews the ways mothers have previously been supported so they could enter the labor force and how the lack of supports for working parents during the pandemic could reverse earlier gains made by women. The podcast is hosted by Kathryn Anne Edwards of the RAND Corporation.

State and local governments can use public sector apprenticeships as a workforce and economic development tool. The Urban Institute will host a webinar on May 11, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET, which will cover the advantages of public sector apprenticeships, how states can apply and receive support to launch or expand apprenticeships, and the benefits from apprenticeship consortium participation. Speakers include representatives of the Denver Public Schools, The Council of State Governments, and the Urban Institute (including a former Kentucky Secretary of Education and Workforce Development).