This brief summarizes potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to address barriers facing young parents and families, such as unemployment, disruption to education, financial instability, and lack of child care access, parenting experience, or family supports. Programs listed include, but are not limited to, TANF, SNAP, SSBG, Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program, Child Care Development Block Grant, WIOA, and the Family First Prevention Services Act Prevention Funds.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will host a webinar on January 8, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET which will discuss their process for exploring vendor capacity to develop a state level holistic case management system across Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) partner programs. WIOA requires that American Job Center (AJC) partners support aligning technology and data systems to improve service delivery. Stakeholders, including workforce practitioners, local and state government representatives, ETA program operations professionals, and information technology professionals from AJC partners, are invited to participate in the discussion and ask questions. Presenters will include the Administrator and the Enterprise Program Advisor of the Office of Workforce Investment at the ETA.

The U.S. Department of Education, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education published a Request for Information (RFI) on Expanding Work-Based Learning Opportunities for Youth. This RFI supported efforts to implement the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act of 2006 and the amended Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act (Perkins V). The RFI solicited information on approaches to expand work-based learning, including paid internships, work study, cooperative education, apprenticeships, and pre-apprenticeships. The input received was useful to support lessening the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on youth employment. Input can be provided by states, tribes, state and local educational agencies, community-based and other nonprofit organizations, employers, industry associations, philanthropic organizations, faith-based organizations, researchers, and other engaged stakeholders. Responses to the RFI were due by January 13, 2021.

REDF will host a free virtual Lab for Employment Social Enterprise Leaders from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT on December 11, 2020, January 15, 2021, and February 19, 2021 (participants will have an opportunity to sign up for one of these three event dates). Geared toward leaders of employment social enterprises, this lab will offer an overview of REDF’s Accelerator program and will help participants assess their interest in applying for this program when the application cycle resumes in February 2021. The lab will also provide leaders with networking opportunities and will support them in setting goals and identifying stakeholder needs.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report, a summary of the Job Search Assistance (JSA) Strategies Evaluation, compares the effectiveness of different approaches for finding and keeping jobs among individuals applying for or receiving assistance under TANF. The report reviews findings from three sites: Genesee and Wayne Counties in Michigan; New York City; and Sacramento County, California. In each of these sites, TANF applicants or recipients were randomly assigned to one of two programs that provided employment-related services. The study measured outcome differences (in public benefit receipt, employment, and earnings) between people assigned to each of the two programs in each site. The report’s findings address three key questions regarding the frequency, mode, and content of the employment-related services for the TANF recipients in the two programs; the two programs’ impacts on employment and earnings; and the effects on receipt of TANF and SNAP due to participation in the two programs.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will host a webinar on December 14, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET which will cover the agency’s vision for implementation of the Training and Employment Guidance Letter (TEGL) 07-20. The TEGL describes the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) requirement that individuals who are basic skills deficient, low-income, or public assistance recipients must receive priority when receiving individualized career services training under the WIOA Adult program. ETA staff will highlight the requirements in TEGL 07-20, ETA’s method of monitoring these requirements using performance data, and how other resources can be leveraged to support WIOA adult priority populations.

This report reviews models and success factors of successful American Apprenticeship Initiative (AAI) grantees. AAI, which commenced in 2015, was a $175 million five-year grant program with a goal of registering 34,000 new apprentices in health care, IT, and advanced manufacturing by 2020. AAI success factors discussed in the report include sustainability of funding from other federal sources, partnerships with employers and industry to design apprenticeship programs, a simplified process for identifying and registering apprenticeship programs at the state level and for complying with federal and state regulations on these programs, and flexibility to meet employers’ and apprentices’ needs.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration hosted the third plenary session of the H-1B Apprenticeship Virtual Grantee Convening on October 22, 2020 to discuss innovative sector-based approaches to apprenticeships. These approaches can help improve apprenticeship programs, quicken employer recruitment, and benefit smaller employers. Speakers included representatives of the Aspen Institute/UpSkill America, Lorain County Community College (Ohio), the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association, and the Alabama Community College System.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief presents four models to illustrate how program activities of Responsible Fatherhood (RF) programs may contribute to intended outcomes. The four models in the brief depict linkages between RF activities and, as measured in the Parents and Children Together (PACT) Evaluation, four intended outcomes of RF programs to include healthy relationships between co-parents, father development and well-being, consistent employment, and parenting skills and father involvement. The models also include research question recommendations for future evaluations to build the evidence base.

This fact sheet summarizes the features and functions of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse, which offers reliable information about what works to help low-income job seekers find and keep gainful employment. The Pathways Clearinghouse contains a listing of interventions intended to improve employment outcomes, address employment barriers, and support self-sufficiency among low-income populations, including TANF-eligible individuals. The Clearinghouse identifies studies of these evaluations, rates those studies on their quality to assess the evidence provided, and determines the evidence of effectiveness for those interventions. The Clearinghouse shares these results, along with other products such as synthesis reports, to help users understand how this evidence could apply to their questions and contexts.