The Personal Responsibility Education Program (PREP), a key program of the Family and Youth Services Bureau of the Administration on Children, Youth and Families, was created to address teen pregnancy. PREP grantees are required to include the Positive Youth Development (PYD) approach in their program design. PYD provides a framework to create and implement effective programs to prevent teen pregnancy and sexually transmitted diseases among youth using six adulthood preparation subjects (APSs) that support youth in the transition to adulthood. These APSs include healthy relationships, adolescent development, financial literacy, parent-child communication, education and career success, and healthy life skills. This brief offers PREP grantees an overview of the PYD key concepts and evidence base. The brief also includes a set of PYD practices and a table of examples where PYD can support APS programming, drawn from PREP grantees.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews the creation of integrated employment services and treatment programs for persons with opioid and substance use disorders (SUDs) and covers the emerging evidence on this approach’s effectiveness in improving participant employment outcomes. Employment service delivery as part of SUD treatment intends to support individuals in their attainment of sustained recovery and improved economic well-being. The report was prepared as part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families (BEES) project which evaluates programs that combine employment services with SUD treatment and recovery services. Through these evaluations, BEES strives to increase awareness of effective interventions that support low-income individuals in finding jobs and advancing in the labor market.

This Advisory, based on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s Treatment Improvement Protocol 42, Substance Use Disorder Treatment for People with Co-Occurring Disorders, presents guiding principles that counselors and administrators can follow to properly screen, assess, diagnose, and manage the treatment of individuals with co-occurring substance use and mental disorders.

Co-regulation is a process where practitioners create safe spaces and nurturing relationships and coach youth in the use of self-regulation. The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has developed this guide to show how integrating co-regulation may improve program implementation and outcomes. The guide highlights the ACF-sponsored Self-Regulation Training Approaches and Resources to Improve Staff Capacity for Implementing Healthy Marriage Programs for Youth (SARHM) project, which builds on a set of resources for educators in the Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs for youth ages 14 to 24. Research questions raised in the guide include what key elements of co-regulation strategies can program facilitators use to support youth self-regulation, what capacity building supports are needed by program facilitators, and how feasible are co-regulation strategies in the implementation of youth HMRE programs.

The Urban Institute hosted a virtual webinar on March 31, 2021 which covered findings from a new resource guide for practitioners highlighting how youth-serving organizations adapted their programs to engage youth virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters from Jewish Vocational Service, i.c.stars, Baltimore’s Promise, and the Urban Institute illustrated strategies that the organizations used to provide education and training, employment, career readiness, and mental health services remotely to youth and young adults ages 16 to 24.

The 20th Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) was held virtually on October 13–15 and October 19–22, 2020. The conference sessions were organized in six thematic tracks: TANF Programs, Policies, and Populations; Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market; Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood; Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships; Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data; and Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity. A complete set of videos covering plenary and breakout sessions and a career panel is now available online.

This blogpost examines the implementation of the Washington State’s Department of Social and Health Services’ Division of Child Support (DCS) Alternative Solutions program, a different approach for child support enforcement for noncustodial parents. The DCS model is based on a philosophy that puts more emphasis on consistent child support payments over time rather than “over-enforcing” child support orders that cannot be sustained. The blogpost illustrates how the Alternative Solutions program examines the barriers that prevent noncustodial parents from meeting their obligations, works with these parents to develop Individualized Solutions Plans, and connects them with other social services providers in the community to help meet their goals. The blogpost also covers the supplemental training that Alternative Solutions staff receive on trauma-informed case management, motivational interviewing, and family-centered coaching, and the ways that DCS staff have remained connected and work collaboratively with nonresident parents during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This updated interactive mapping tool highlights aspects of communities associated with safe children and strong families. The research-based framework, composed of select community indicators, is offered to communities nationwide. The tool maps community indicators at geographic levels defined by the user, from the state level to neighborhoods. Most indicators are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The tool was informed by significant evidence of the community factors correlated with child maltreatment and a healthy community framework developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Factors include child and family wellbeing, economics, education, and housing. The tool includes new indicators, such as COVID-19 data and resource accessibility, and breaks down many of the data indicators by race and ethnicity. Training videos on how to use the tool are available.

Case management assists patients with substance use disorders (SUDs) by addressing other needs while allowing patients to focus on their SUD treatment and recovery. This Advisory is based on the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration’s (SAMHSA) Treatment Improvement Protocol (TIP) 27, Comprehensive Case Management for Substance Abuse Treatment. The Advisory surveys case management principles and models, explores why SUD treatment providers might consider implementing or expanding case management use, and lists case management resources and tools.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison will hold a webinar on February 10, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to discuss research findings on how COVID-19 has affected the mental health and well-being of essential workers and parents with children who are distance learning. Jevay Grooms of Howard University will discuss her research on the mental health of essential workers, particularly among persons of color, and whose children are learning remotely. Anna Gassman-Pines of Duke University will present results from a survey on hourly workers with children and the impact of COVID-19 on the mental health of these workers.