This tip sheet identifies a continuum of activities that engage employers in workforce activities, beginning with how to start a new relationship toward a strategic partnership. Levels of engagement include advising, capacity-building, co-designing, convening, and leading.

This research to practice brief identifies a set of established, promising, and developing practices that serve to improve low-income families’ economic well-being comprehensively. The practices cover financial security, workforce development, housing, and case management and highlight research on each area’s benchmarks and measures of success and the organizations that are engaged in these programmatic areas.

The American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) will host a webinar on March 11, 2020 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET to cover how Sonoma County, California changed its service delivery model to improve client outcomes. Discussion from Sonoma County Department of Health Services, IBM, and APHSA representatives will cover changes in information sharing across departments, collaboration in multi-discipline teams, client consent for data sharing, and creation of an integrated data hub to track results.

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals (NAWDP), in conjunction with Dynamic Works, is hosting a five-part series of fee-based workshops to support career coaches’ professional development. Workshops start on April 1, 2020 at 11:00 a.m. ET and will be held on successive Wednesdays throughout April. NAWDP members and non-members may register for one or more of the workshops.

This U.S. Department of Labor policy brief reviews approaches to incorporate Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) services into career pathway programs at the state level. These approaches include selecting SNAP E&T partners already offering career pathway services to SNAP participants and helping the partners expand their reach, and collaborating with SNAP E&T partners in filling service delivery gaps. Integrating SNAP E&T services and participants into career pathways may strengthen SNAP E & T’s alignment with the workforce system, which is a priority under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).

This free online career pathways platform includes a user-friendly assessment to measure literacy, numeracy, and workplace skills. The platform offers an assessment-based set of career pathways; recommendations on occupations, online tools, and local training providers; and resources on popular jobs, advice on interviewing, and personal goal setting. The career recommendations that the platform supports are drawn from O*NET data from the U.S. Department of Labor.

This discussion paper on a case study from the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta studies the concept of benefits cliffs, which happen when earnings are offset by the loss of public benefits, resulting in a financial disadvantage to working. The study highlights a fictional young mother of two and suggests that career advancement can result in financial gain over a lifetime. Two policy interventions are discussed: a gradual child care subsidy phaseout, and transitional public benefits with asset mapping. The paper concludes that it is important for those helping low-income individuals to recognize not only their short-term barriers, but also the return to investment that career advancement can create.

This Urban Institute report examines the professional development and workforce development systems in place for home visiting staff funded under the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting (MIECHV) Program. The report includes analysis of a national survey of all MIECHV-funded local implementing agencies (LIAs) and 26 LIAs. The survey assesses why home visitors enter, stay in, or leave the home visiting field; their backgrounds and qualifications needed to enter the field; and their work environments and opportunities for advancement.

The Office of Family Assistance hosted a webinar on Wednesday, February 26 entitled Improving Employment Outcomes for TANF Recipients with Substance Use Disorders. The webinar outlined employment-focused strategies that can contribute to, rather than inhibit, substance use treatment and featured experts with backgrounds in research and practice on working with TANF recipients who have substance use disorders. Speakers discussed national trends in substance use disorders and strategies to move those with substance use disorders towards treatment, employment, and economic stability.

Speakers included:

• Dennis Romero, Regional Administrator, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

• Dr. Christine Cauffield, Chief Executive Officer, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Managing Entity, Lutheran Services Florida

• Kim Griswold Releford, University of Kentucky, Opioid Use Disorder Project, Targeted Assessment Program