First of a two-part series, this research-to-practice brief examines the shift from in-person to virtual coaching as part of the Detroit Early Learning Coaching Initiative (DELCI). The brief discusses the origins and goals of the DELCI model, which offers instructional coaching to early childhood education (ECE) center teachers and home-based child care providers as well as state-approved curriculum and assessment resources. The DELCI model states that coaching should be goal-focused, data-informed, and practice-based to support the needs of early childhood educators and children. Also, the brief reviews the preparation undertaken in response to COVID-19 and ECE program closures to ensure that relationships were maintained and initial supports offered to early childhood education teachers and providers virtually.

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.

States have discretion and flexibility in how they use TANF funds to provide services to families experiencing or at-risk of experiencing homelessness. Some states partner with their state-level housing departments, direct providers of homelessness services, local public housing agencies, and/or Continuums of Care (specifically Emergency Solutions Grants programs). This research-to-practice brief includes findings from a 2019 state TANF administrators survey, a review of state TANF plans, and a county TANF administrator survey highlighting differences between state and county approaches to identifying and assisting families experiencing homelessness.

The 2018 Family First Prevention Services Act supports funding for effective, evidence-based kinship navigator programs. This brief illustrates how kinship navigator programs operate and identifies common challenges in program evaluation. These challenges include defining the program models, selecting a comparison group, determining the sample size for the evaluation, and selecting appropriate reliable and valid measures. The brief also offers potential solutions to address these methodological problems in evaluation.

The COVID-19 pandemic has created challenges for home visit screenings and efforts to identify and support families when intimate partner violence (IPV) occurs. This research-to-practice brief reviews research evidence that explores the following key questions: how does IPV affect families?; what is home visiting's role in addressing IPV?; what are the challenges and opportunities of virtual home visits?; how can home visitors safely screen for IPV during virtual visits?; and how can home visitors support families experiencing IPV?

(See also Resources on "domestic violence" in the Resource Library)

This guide supports stakeholders in thinking through and documenting key elements in the design of a Whole Family Approach Design Plan. The guide is organized by 12 plan components; each component includes a set of questions to prompt the strategic planning process. The Design Plan is an adaptation from earlier efforts, including the Rural Integration Models for Parents and Children to Thrive (IMPACT) and two-generation/whole family approach learning efforts delivered by the Aspen Institute Community Solutions Group.

This blogpost assesses strategies state program administrators can use to support parents in managing COVID-19 pandemic-related stress through maximizing home visiting services. The blogpost notes how early childhood home visiting programs, including those federally funded by the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting program, offer three levels of support: direct information on child health and positive parenting practices; screening to identify potential needs, risks, and stressors; and connection of families to resources to address these risks or attain goals set by parents. Childhood home visiting programs can also offer cognitive behavioral therapy techniques to help parents address stress and more serious forms of parental depression. The blogpost describes how additional resources are available to promote early literacy, enhance parent-child interactions, and help parents manage their children’s behaviors and pandemic-related stressors.

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic include loss of employment and income, higher food prices, and other barriers to food access. This has resulted in a rise in the dollar amount of benefits issued by U.S. Department of Agriculture food assistance programs. This U.S. Department of Agriculture report examines the growth in food assistance benefits redeemed during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores changes in monthly SNAP and P-EBT redemptions through September 2020. The report also compares the usage of these benefits to recent years and redemption locations, including super stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and online sites.

A portion of the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program supporting home visits for mothers and families with young children is designated for home visiting in tribal communities. This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report is a systematic review of home visiting models within tribal communities and includes a description of the review process and findings. The report also includes information about the evaluated models and summary conclusions about the models’ effectiveness. The review was first published in February 2011, and the updated edition covers results from research through September 2018.

A prevailing belief suggests that having a job brings financial security, though many workers hold jobs that do not support financial stability. WorkRise and the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program (FSP) will host a webinar on April 28, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET on research covering workers’ financial health and on building pathways to support financial security and economic mobility. The webinar will also present a new report explaining how work arrangements relate to worker benefit provisions and how work and benefits can determine whether workers can attain financial security. The report examines the disparity in financial security outcomes among low- and moderate-income workers, particularly for persons of color, women, and younger workers. Speakers include representatives of the Aspen Institute’s Financial Security Program, Institute for the Future, the Plousha Moore Group, WorkRise, and the Urban Institute.