Nearly half of young children in the United States are growing up in low-income families. There are 10 million low-income families with children age 8 and under in which parents have limited skills, low wages, and inflexible work schedules. The two generation (two-gen) approach suggests that children succeed when parents succeed, and vice versa. CAP Tulsa and Garrett County Community Action Committee have been implementing two-gen strategies designed to promote stability and vitality for families by addressing the needs of children and parents together. This brief provides an overview of those strategies and identifies lessons learned from each program.

This brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation (ASPE) presents information from a multi-site study of the impact of incarceration on father-child relationships. The findings indicate that fewer fathers lived with or financially supported their children after release than before incarceration. Fathers who had more contact with their children during incarceration were more likely to live with their children after release, as were fathers who had happier relationships with their children’s mothers. Also, fathers of younger children reported higher parental warmth and better relationship quality with their children than fathers of older children.

A recent symposium focused specifically on low-income urban men for several reasons. First, nearly two-thirds of young low-educated men are fathers, and fathers represent an important potential source of family income and financial support for children. Next, since 2000, low-income urban men have retreated from employment as median wages for low-skilled workers have dropped and their incarceration rate has shot up. Finally, research on the 1990s' welfare reforms focused on disadvantaged single women with children, whereas relatively little attention has been paid to disadvantaged men. Despite their importance to families and society, the plight of urban men with a high school education or less has not been widely documented. This brief from the Institute for Research on Poverty highlights this demographic, the trends affecting them, and promising practices to improve their lives and the lives of their children.

The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) supports millions of single parents and their children each year. Though the majority of EITC recipients are single mothers, many single fathers receive this benefit as well. In 2014, 4.2 million single fathers were eligible for the EITC. This blog post from the Brookings Institution provides more information about eligible fathers and includes a link to EITC commentaries and resources.

This dataset from the Annie E. Casey Foundation is part of an annual series that assesses child well-being across the United States. The KIDS COUNT index uses four domains to capture what children need most to thrive: 1) Economic Well-Being, 2) Education, 3) Health, 4) Family and Community. Each domain includes four indicators that are used to rank states on overall child well-being. Despite mounting economic inequality and increasingly unaffordable college costs, the 2016 data show that today’s youth are healthier and completing high school on time. The report focuses on key trends in child well-being and offers recommendations for policymakers to ensure these positive trends continue.

Early childhood home visiting programs typically target pregnant women and mothers of young children, but some programs have started to include fathers, as well. A recent study from the Urban Institute aimed to understand how home visiting programs engage fathers, what fathers’ experiences are in those programs, and the perceived benefits of fathers’ participation. This report discusses approaches that home visiting programs use to engage fathers, the challenges they face, the strategies they use to overcome these challenges, and benefits of participating from the perspective of fathers and program staff.

The Jobs-Plus Public Housing Revitalization Initiative was designed to raise and sustain the employment and earnings of residents of public housing developments. It had three parts: (1) employment services offered at on-site job centers, (2) changes in rent rules that provide financial incentives to work, and (3) community support for work through neighbor-to-neighbor conversations. The initiative was subject to a rigorous evaluation that found that Jobs-Plus boosted residents’ annual earnings by 16 percent, or $1,300 per year. This report from MDRC investigates how Jobs-Plus was replicated in more contemporary settings, analyzing the early implementation experiences of a community-based provider in the Bronx and the San Antonio Housing Authority in Texas.

Two-parent families’ lower TANF participation rates appear to result from differences in policies and practices. The dynamics of family relationships and personal feelings, especially of men, about seeking assistance may contribute to this difference as well. These families may also receive fewer support services than single-parent families because of either formal rationing of services or staff assumptions about their needs.

This report documents these findings by analyzing administrative data, phone interviews, and site visits, highlighting key findings about:

1. the characteristics of two-parent families participating in or eligible for TANF;
2. the variety of services two parent families are receiving through TANF;
3. how state policies help or hinder families participation in TANF; and
4. how beliefs, attitudes and perceptions of state and eligible families help or hinder families’ participating in TANF. (author abstract)

This May 2016 presentation to Connecticut’s Two-Generational Interagency Workgroup, which supports legislative pilot projects across the state, was provided by Alice M. Forrester, PhD, Chief Executive Officer of the Clifford Beers Clinic in New Haven, CT. She discussed the importance of understanding trauma and its effects on behavior and development when implementing two-generation approaches.

The National Crittenton Foundation, in partnership with Ascend at the Aspen Institute, developed this toolkit to guide use of the Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) survey in direct service, education, and policy settings. The toolkit is designed to promote healing for individuals impacted by childhood trauma, educate the community about the impact of childhood adversity, and encourage implementation of two-generation policies to prevent ACEs for future generations. Materials provided include a tip sheet, sample protocol, case studies, testimonials, and links to additional resources.