During the COVID-19 pandemic, human services agencies faced unique challenges to adapt services to meet new needs while supporting the staff delivering these services. The impact of this period is still felt today, with families adjusting to ending pandemic programs and communities experiencing human services workforce shortages. However, these challenges also spurred innovation in how people support each other. This Administration for Children and Families resource discusses how ACF catalyzed a new employee-centric program that has helped define their agency culture and advanced their work in communities.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief explores Addiction Recovery Care (ARC), a large-scale program in Kentucky combining residential clinical treatment for substance use disorders (SUDs) with employment services. ARC operates in several locations across the state, but is located primarily in rural, Appalachian areas hard-hit by the opioid crisis. This SUD residential treatment and recovery service is combined with employment services including job readiness training, internships, and online courses leading to a range of short-term occupational certifications. Employment services are provided in the later phases of the residential program when participants are relatively stabilized in terms of their SUD recovery. This brief offers recommendations for those implementing similar programs or that are interested in developing them.

The Native Wellness Institute is hosting a virtual training on July 16 and 17, 2024. The training will focus on providing an understanding of trauma on the brain, on behavior, how it plays out in the workplace and community, and how to begin to address trauma and healing in your community. The training will also include how programs in their policies and delivery of services can be trauma and healing informed.

The training is intended for tribal and urban workers representing health and social service programs, tribal leaders, TANF staff, behavioral health, administrative staff, and others wanting to learn about trauma on the brain, behavior, and policies. There is a fee required for participation.

Nearly 83% of individuals in the United States have experienced some form of trauma in their lifetime. Employees’ response to trauma may manifest in the workplace in various ways. When left unaddressed, it can lead to poor performance, absenteeism and burnout. This Office on Trafficking in Persons factsheet provides tips, strategies, and resources to support staff at all organizational levels in creating and sustaining a trauma-informed workplace.

Although the relationship between hardship and child welfare system, CWS, involvement seems straightforward, it is far more complicated. On average, families encountering the CWS tend to have lower incomes, and rates of CWS involvement are highest in the sections of New York with the highest concentrations of families with incomes below the poverty level. Among those who are involved with child welfare services, co-occurring conditions such as substance misuse and mental health challenges, which hardships exacerbate, are also correlated with CWS involvement regardless of income. This Urban Institute report examines the relationships between hardship and CWS involvement.

This Chapin Hall report evaluates implementation of Multisystemic Therapy for Emerging Adults in Cook County, Illinois, which helps emerging adults with behavioral health needs reintegrate into community after time in an Illinois Department of Juvenile Justice youth center.

The National Center for State Courts (NCSC), Kansas Judicial Branch, and the National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health hosted a webinar where experts delved into the multifaceted challenges families often face, from mental health issues to trauma, violence, and substance use disorders.

Presenters also discussed the Well-Being in Family Court effort, which provides individual and systemic changes that help judges and staff:
· Understand the impact of stress and trauma on judges and court personnel.
· Assist families experiencing trauma and mental health conditions.
· Leverage early case interventions to improve case handling and stretch community resources.
· Navigate cases where mental health is potentially weaponized.
· Provide for child safety and well-being during family transitions.

Over 2.4 million children in the United States are living in grandfamilies. These are families where grandparents, other relatives, or close family friends are raising children because the children’s parents are unable to do so. This Generations United report aims to bring attention to the mental health and emotional wellness of grandfamilies, shed light on their resilience and challenges they face, and provide innovative solutions and resources to better support them. The report also includes policy and program recommendations for strengthening these families.

In 2022, the Center for Advancing Policy on Employment for Youth (CAPE-Youth), in collaboration with the White House Office of Public Engagement, hosted a virtual roundtable discussion on “Improving Mental Health Service Delivery for Youth and Young Adults with Marginalized Racial Identities.” The event highlighted how mental health policies can help states promote positive long-term outcomes such as higher employment rates for youth and young adults (Y&YAs), including Y&YAs with disabilities who belong to marginalized racial groups. This CAPE-Youth brief provides a summary of various ideas and strategies participants raised during the roundtable discussion, highlighting:

• Expanding culturally responsive mental health care;
• Increasing access to mental health supports; and
• Embedding mental health programs and supports into workforce systems.