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.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief summarizes findings from three different demonstration projects that are designed to support noncustodial parents: the Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD), Parents and Children Together (PACT), and the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED). The evaluations assessed whether employment and other supportive services to disadvantaged noncustodial parents affect participants’ earnings, parental engagement, and ability to make child support payments. Findings from these projects showed significant impacts on improving noncustodial parents’ employment and earnings compared to prior evaluations of similar programs. ETJD and CSPED examined child support payments, and neither study found an impact on the amount of child support paid. However, unlike previous evaluation studies, PACT and CSPED, which had parenting workshops as a core service, generated positive impacts on father-child contact.

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.

This brief analyzes the relationship between educational stability (measured by school enrollment and dropout rate) and justice involvement among youth of color. Using data from 2001 to 2016, the brief focuses on 10 California counties with the strongest relationships between educational stability and justice involvement. The brief also discusses possible uses of the data, which may include guiding funding sources’ investment in education and juvenile justice systems and other supports as protective factors from youth justice involvement.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will host a webinar on March 4, 2021 from 12:00 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. ET to discuss the uses of CareerOneStop for individuals currently inside correctional facilities who will be returning to the community. The webinar will also cover pathways, tools, and resources to assist individuals with prior criminal records in engaging in employment and training activities. Presenters include representatives from ETA and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) hosted a webinar on January 28, 2021 to demonstrate how CareerOneStop can provide virtual services to help job seekers find immediate employment and file for unemployment benefits. This webinar was a deeper dive into two CareerOneStop user pathways that were initially presented in the September 24, 2020 “Using CareerOneStop to Provide Virtual Career and Job Services” webinar. Presenters included representatives of the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.

This toolkit is a synthesis of a blogpost, reports, and links to previous webinars to offer health and human services leaders guidance as they design and evaluate programs targeting young families. The resources offered in this compendium are divided into several topics, including economic well-being, education, foster youth, mental health, pandemic response, policy, program design, and youth voice.

Developed by the Center for the Study of Social Policy, the Strengthening Families Protective Factors Framework impacts how child- and family-serving programs operate and support healthy development and well-being. This brief highlights survey findings from organizational partners and members of the Strengthening Families National Network that may use the framework in their own community-based approaches. The survey results capture their viewpoints on community conditions that support child and family outcomes, including equal access to essential/basic needs, social support and connection, racial and social justice, and a change in the “social contract” toward involving community in bettering child and family well-being.

This research-to-practice brief discusses implementation of the Individual Placement and Support (IPS) employment model by the Family Service League in New York and Asian Human Services in Chicago during the COVID-19 pandemic. The IPS model was initially developed to provide employment services to individuals with serious mental illness, but is now used for a broader range of populations who have significant barriers to employment. Four core components of the IPS model are rapid job search, coordination between employment services staff and mental health providers, identification of client preferences in the types of jobs, and smaller caseloads for case workers. According to interviews with organization leaders, IPS implementation included embracing remote communications and video conferencing, offering initial help to the most vulnerable to support their health and safety, developing new employment plans, and actively matching employees and employers.

Supported by the Office of Family Assistance’s Peer Technical Assistance (PeerTA), the Roadmap Series highlights responsive leadership and management practices to support the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies and their partners in adapting to new ways of work and connection amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Faced with myriad COVID-19 challenges, TANF staff may experience secondary traumatic stress or compassion fatigue. This OFA PeerTA resource suggests three fundamentals — listening, trusting, and encouraging staff — to help TANF program managers strengthen their organization’s ability to thrive amid complex change. Examples include listening by being sensitive to the well-being of others; building trust by showing compassion and validating another person’s experience to increase understanding; and encouraging staff to practice professional and emotional self-care to reduce burnout and increase compassion satisfaction.