This evaluation report provides early findings of the Breaking Barriers pilot program that provides adults on probation with a time-limited rental housing subsidy and housing retention services, along with case management and employment support. The report reviews the program’s impact on reducing recidivism, improving housing stability among program participants, and increasing employment incomes enough for participants to take over rental payments without the subsidy at the end of the two-year program period. Additionally, the report examines factors that supported and hindered the program’s implementation and lessons learned from implementing Breaking Barriers at the field level.

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance seeks applications for technical assistance and training providers for Second Chance Act (SCA) grantees to improve reentry and reduce recidivism. Providers are sought to support site-based SCA grantees in one of the following three categories of technical assistance: Corrections and Community Engagement; Education, Employment, and Community Engagement; and Behavioral Health, Housing, and Family Support. Submissions are due by April 28, 2020.

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.

This Administration for Children and Families (ACF) blogpost, published by the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, describes activities associated with this year’s observance of National Runaway Prevention Month to raise awareness of the challenges that face homeless youth. This commemoration focuses on prevention services and promotes greater understanding of why young people are homeless; in many cases, youth are asked to leave home or do so because they see no other way to improve their situation. The Family and Youth Services Bureau is cited as a key player in the effort to end youth homelessness, domestic violence, and adolescent pregnancy.

This Child Trends report evaluates Nebraska’s Bridge to Independence (b2i) program for young adults who have recently exited from the foster care system. The program offers supportive services such as medical care, housing, and case management and assists participants as they attain education and employment in coordination with an assigned independence coordinator. This report’s assessment of qualitative and quantitative impacts of b2i are incorporated as part of the Nebraska Children’s Commission 2018-2019 Annual Report and will be used to set future priorities on the b2i program expansion.