The Center for Work & Family released a new summary report titled "The New Dad: A Work (and Life) in Progress." This report is a part of the "New Dad" series of published research that reports on the changing roles of fathers. These reports have studied the transition to fatherhood, how men manage career and family priorities, how they share caregiving responsibilities with their spouses, and what supports fathers look for and receive in their workplaces. "A Work (and Life) in Progress" provides information on fathers and work-life, as well as outlines specific recommendations for both fathers and fatherhood organizations.

Child Trends released an article discussing recent research findings that support the notion that the presence of a nurturing and loving father can improve outcomes for children, families, and communities. In addition to this discussion, a list of key inferences and conclusions that emerged from the Young Unwed Fathers report is also included.

The Administration for Children and Families presents the Strengthening Families Evidence Review. This website includes catalogs of research on programs for low-income fathers and couples, information on the review process, and a searchable database of studies.

The Institute for Research on Poverty hosted a podcast titled "Family Change, Father Involvement, and Child Food Insecurity." In this podcast, Daniel Miller of the Boston University School of Social Work discusses his research on measuring child food insecurity in the context of family type, changing family structure, and father involvement. Miller states that there is still a lot not known about food insecurity for kids, but that understanding the connections between family change and food insecurity has a lot of promise in giving a better picture of the problem.

Fathers' involvement in their children's lives has been shown to produce both economic and social benefits. This paper by MDRC examines two different approaches to strengthen fathers' involvement and their family relationships, fatherhood programs for low-income noncustodial fathers and relationship education for parents who are together. Both approaches have shown positive effects on the quality of family relationships.

This report displays and discusses some of the data related to the poverty of children and their living arrangements and data on male employment and earnings, educational attainment, and incarceration. It then provides information on federal programs that could play a greater role in addressing poverty of children through the fathers of these children (nearly all noncustodial parents are fathers). These programs provide economic assistance, family support, and job training and employment to eligible participants. The report also examines federal programs that have the purposes of preventing teen pregnancy and helping disadvantaged youth obtain the skills and support they need to make the transition to adulthood. The underlying premise of these programs generally is that the aid or services received from these programs by low-income noncustodial fathers can help them in meeting their financial commitments to their children (or future children) and providing emotional support to their children. The report concludes by presenting several public policy approaches proposed by the policy community that might improve the lives of low-income noncustodial fathers and their children. For example, social policy could play a role by expanding economic assistance programs to noncustodial fathers, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP); and implementing strategies to prevent the build-up of unpaid child support through early intervention. (author abstract)

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) hosted a Webinar on August 23, 2012, that provided ideas and resources to help increase father involvement in schools and their children's education. Information was provided on various initiatives that have helped engage fathers and father figures, inspire children, reduce bullying, and generally improve the educational environment in order that men may become more involved in the lives of their children.

This National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) hosted a Webinar that presented strategies and approaches you can use in your program to raise awareness and change behavior, and had an emphasis on working with men in a fatherhood context and empowering them to take these conversations to family, friends and community. Topics included: ways to raise fatherhood program participants' awareness of the realities of violent and controlling behavior and the negative impacts for children; emphasize communication, mutual understanding, and healing; and, ways to use fatherhood groups to reinforce the message and build mutual support systems to change behavior.

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse (NRFC) hosted a webinar that provided ideas and resources to guide work with fathers who are returning to the community from prison. This webinar offered participants an improved knowledge and understanding of: Federal Department of Justice prisoner re-entry priorities, supports, and guidance; research findings from a review of prisoner re-entry programs; and effective strategies and lessons learned from programs having success helping fathers who are returning from prison. The NRFC is funded through the Office of Family Assistance (OFA) and serves as a national resource for fathers, practitioners, programs/Federal grantees, States, and the public at-large who are serving or interested in supporting strong fathers and families.