The Office of Family Assistance published data tables to illustrate the characteristics and financial circumstances of TANF recipients in FY2019 for all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, and Guam. These tables provide information about adults and children in the TANF program, including data regarding age, gender, race/ethnicity, educational attainment, and employment status, as well as breakdowns by the average monthly dollar level of TANF received and other cash support received. There are also data tables on recipients who receive assistance under Separate State Programs Maintenance-of-Effort (SSP-MOE) funding and closed cases.

While behavioral health providers and staff are particularly at risk for compassion fatigue, they are also in a unique position to enhance resilience among themselves and within their school communities by using trauma-informed care approaches. The National Council for Mental Wellbeing hosted a webinar on December 15, 2020 entitled “Tips and Tools for Leveraging Trauma Informed Care Techniques to Reduce Stress for Students, Teachers, and Providers” which explored trauma-informed care techniques that behavioral health providers, school staff, and caregivers can use to improve behavioral healthcare provided to students, and addressed traumatic stress occurring during the on-going COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar recording and accompanying slides are available for download.

This report presents data and graphics to illustrate the variation of young children in deep poverty by race and ethnicity and health and development, including low birth weight, physical impairments, intellectual disability and developmental delay, participation rates in early intervention and special education, child behavior, lack of health insurance, obesity, and elevated blood lead levels. The report also examines parent characteristics by poverty status, such as their overall mental health status, income status among single parent households, level of neighborhood support, educational attainment, and rates among parents without health insurance and rates among unemployed parents.

In April 2020, the U.S. Department of Education expanded the Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative to include 67 new higher education institutions in the program, beyond the 63 colleges that had already been providing postsecondary education programs in prisons. This initiative and its expansion offer unique challenges for colleges responding to this nontraditional student population. This guide offers examples and practical operational support to both colleges and corrections departments for establishing postsecondary education programs in the prison environment. These programs strive to balance affirming the dignity of these nontraditional students with delivering comparable in-person educational quality to traditional classroom settings.

This interactive mapping tool reflects the community factors associated with safe children and strong families. These factors include child and family well-being (children living in poverty and children without health insurance), educational attainment, economic status (unemployment rate, poverty rate, and median household income), housing factors (average number of hours working at minimum wage needed to afford housing, and percentage of unoccupied housing units), accessibility (access to healthy food, number of SNAP benefit recipients, computer access, and reduced/free lunch eligibility), and COVID-19 metrics (through November 2, but continuously updated). Data and indicators can be mapped at geographic levels defined by the user from the state level to the neighborhood level (by census tract).

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a major impact on tribal communities across the country. Working in partnership with tribal communities, the Johns Hopkins Center for American Indian Health supports public health interventions in approximately 140 tribal communities across 20 states. The Center has produced COVID-19 materials to educate tribal leaders, providers, caregivers, children, and the public, and has developed COVID-19 related radio public service announcements and social media templates for tribal use.

The purpose of this Indian Health Service grant is to address the opioid crisis in American Indian/Alaska Native communities by developing and expanding community education and awareness of prevention, treatment, and recovery activities addressing opioid misuse and use disorder. The grant intends to increase knowledge and use of culturally appropriate interventions and support an increased use of medication-assisted treatment. The program will assist tribal and urban Indian communities in providing prevention, treatment, and recovery services to address the opioid crisis’ impact within their communities. Applications are due on December 15, 2020.

This Urban Institute brief highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted food insecurity, access to school meals, and charitable food distribution for adults and their families in the U.S. Based on data pulled from the first wave of the Urban Institute’s Coronavirus Tracking Survey, more than one in six adults ages 18 to 64 (17.7 percent) and more than one in five parents living with children (21.8 percent) reported in May 2020 that their households experienced food insecurity during the previous 30 days. The brief notes that this represents a moderate 3.2 percent drop from 20.9 percent in March/April 2020. While the increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits alleviated strain on food budgets for many, the brief concludes that despite the moderation in reported food insecurity over time, SNAP will continue to be a crucial key in alleviating food insecurity.

This July 2020 webinar from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation presented three Pathways-to-Outcomes models of Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs. The models are based on research evidence to find the association between specific program activities and the impact on HMRE participants for observed outcomes. The models might have applicability for program design and implementation for other HMRE programming for observable outcomes.

This blogpost by the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau identifies this year’s National Adoption Month theme as “Engage Youth: Listen and Learn” and features a link to the Adoption Month’s website, which provides resources to engage youth and prepare them for adoption or guardianship. These resources are intended for child welfare professionals who work with youth to ready them for adoption, and for legal professionals to provide guidance on how the judicial system can support youth well-being. Tips are offered for case planning with older youth, removing barriers for permanency, and collaboration with child welfare agencies. Also included on the website are videos of real-life stories of young people who have transitioned out of foster care to adoption, guardianship, or independent living.