This research-to-practice brief offers a blueprint of strategies to implement trauma-informed practices under the Family First Services Act. The brief illustrates key considerations in building a systemic approach to trauma-informed care to include: design access and delivery of prevention and kinship navigation services; use of functional assessments to analyze child trauma and traumatic stress when making placement decisions; incorporating trauma-informed treatment approaches and assigning residential facilities that support youth and their families; encouraging trauma-informed family reunification planning; and preparing child welfare professionals to address secondary trauma.

This blogpost identifies how closures and other COVID-19 safety measures pose challenges for victims of domestic violence. The blogpost notes how the Family Violence Prevention and Services (FVPSA) program under the Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) administers funding to support emergency shelters and services for domestic violence survivors. The blogpost also suggests how responding to domestic violence can be part of a community’s disaster and emergency preparedness plans, requiring advance training, partnership building with local domestic violence service providers and state domestic violence coalitions, reviewing plans at the beginning of an emergency to identify effective implementation, and continuous updating of resources as new information emerges. The blogpost also highlights the phone number of the National Domestic Violence Hotline (open 24/7/365) and the availability of online chat services for the hotline.

American workers have suffered loss of work or in some cases a decrease in hours worked because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and this loss has been felt across the country and especially in Hispanic/Latino and African American low-income households. The Center on Education and the Workforce at Georgetown University has released visual presentations of unemployment and job losses data in the U.S. by education level, industry, gender, race, and occupation. Also included are visualizations of the loss of employment income by household. The data covers March through May 2020.

This report, coordinated with the Mobility Metrics Working Group at the Urban Institute, provides a systematic review of socio-economic factors to reflect mobility from poverty over the lifespan of individuals. The metrics identified in the report have predictive capacity to analyze mobility from poverty. The metrics can be used to support strategic planning and priority setting as well as to monitor progress at the local level for narrowing inequality.

This blogpost reviews the operations and procedures of the Safe & Sound Family Resource Center in San Francisco. The blogpost notes the intake interview process where families identify what they perceive as their needs and helps to illustrate how the families are functioning, including their support network, what types of concrete supports they need, and what they see as their strengths. The blogpost also highlights “light touch” services offered to help enhance protection for parents and children, such as parenting and education classes, parenting support groups, counseling, and respite childcare. There is also discussion of the Integrated Family Services program, which offers a more intensive level of services to families living in conditions that create the highest risk for child abuse and neglect; many of these families have three or more adverse childhood experiences.

This blogpost illustrates the implementation of the A Better Life (ABL) program in Massachusetts–an economic mobility model for public housing residents that incorporates comprehensive case management, community partnerships with local service providers, an escrow savings account, and work requirements. The blogpost identifies how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the nature of the coaching provided by the ABL program to help address ABL participants’ basic and mental health needs and how the pandemic has created opportunity for stronger relationships and trust between participants and coaches as these needs are met. Also discussed are shifts in the goal setting process among participants toward meeting immediate needs and how COVID-19 responses have pushed ABL to a “whole family” approach over centering on individual participants.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report assesses and compares the impact of two models offering cash assistance to Michigan’s TANF recipients to find and keep employment: the Michigan Goal Progress Success (MI-GPS) program (enhancement to Michigan’s TANF program) and the two-step program, the Application Eligibility Period (AEP) followed by the “Partnership. Accountability. Training. Hope.” (PATH) program (Michigan’s existing TANF program). The MI-GPS provides goal-oriented coaching as an enhancement, and AEP/PATH focuses on participation in required work activities. The report reviews the two programs’ implementation as well as the differences in the types of services and assistance delivered, and in employment and earnings outcomes.

This report assesses how place-based employment programs can help families navigate support systems, address needs during the pandemic, and help participants reengage with work when the labor market reopens. The report highlights Jobs Plus, an employment program that has been implemented in 35 public housing developments across the country, and includes on-site employment-related services, rent-based work incentives, and a community context supporting work. The community context includes partnerships among local housing agencies, the local workforce development agencies, training providers, employers, and significant social service agencies. The report also highlights evidence of increased earnings among Jobs Plus participants and operational tips for housing agencies as they help families.

This fact sheet briefly outlines the top needs for kin families and potential funding sources to meet these needs. The funding sources include: Social Security Act Title IV-B kinship navigator grants, Family First Transition Act, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, and new (and temporary) Federal Medical Assistance Percentage dollars. The fact sheet also offers some pointers on how to develop partnerships that recognize and enhance kinship care programs.

This research to practice brief from the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation describes examination of findings from nine rural programs that serve child welfare-involved parents with substance use disorders. The examination was unable to provide information on program effectiveness but does focus on the range of services offered, the targeted population, how funding is blended, and collaborative approaches of these programs. Programs covered in this brief are: Children and Recovering Mothers (CHARM) Care Collaborative (Burlington, Vermont); Iowa Department of Human Services Parent Partner Mentoring Program; Kentucky Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Teams (START); Vermont Hub and Spoke Model; Women in Recovery (Tulsa, Oklahoma); The Arizona Families in Recovery Succeeding Together (FIRST) Program; Helen Ross McNabb Center (HRMC) Great Starts Program and Motivating our Mothers to Succeed Silver Linings and Rise to Recovery Models (Knoxville, Tennessee); and Parent-Child Assistance Program (Washington State).