Data analysis in this U.S. Government Accountability Office report shows that nearly 2 million at-risk college students did not report receiving SNAP benefits. The report also highlights the risk factors for food insecurity among this population. This analysis is based on survey results from 14 colleges and discusses resources that these higher education institutions provide to students to address food insecurity and help them apply for Federal food and nutritional assistance programs.

This U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service report illustrates the demographics and economic circumstances of SNAP participants, including age, disability status, household size and composition, benefit level, and households with earnings and those receiving other cash welfare benefits. Changes in SNAP participant characteristics over time are also discussed.

This Mathematica report follows a 36-month evaluation of the Linking to Employment Activities Pre-Release (LEAP) grants, which the U.S. Department of Labor awarded to 20 local workforce development boards. The grants were made to test methods of establishing jail-based American Job Centers (AJCs) to support incarcerated persons with employment services for successful reintegration. The report provides a descriptive implementation analysis of the strategies that the grantees identified as well as design challenges in this environment.

Family engagement has been identified as a key factor in children’s early learning and development at a cognitive and social level. Since few ways exist for early care and education (ECE) programs to determine the strength of family engagement supports and to identify areas for improvement, the Georgia Family Engagement Assessment and Planning Tool (FEAP-T) was developed. This National Center for Children in Poverty report presents findings from a FEAP-T pilot, suggests that the FEAP-T be revised, and highlights ways a revised tool could help strengthen family engagement practices in Georgia’s ECE programs.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation blogpost features lessons from Maryland MENTOR to illustrate how to improve the quality and quantity of mentoring programs. Also mentioned are projects that Maryland MENTOR has initiated to increase the number of mentors, including convening town halls, building professional development skills for mentors, and creating a database to connect volunteers with young people looking for mentors. While this organization’s scope is limited to Maryland, some findings noted in the blogpost can be used to help grow and support mentoring programs nationally.

This Jobs for the Future report identifies how rural community colleges offer academic and non-academic support for adult and non-traditional learners’ college retention and completion. While important for all first-generation students and adult learners, these supports are typically less available within rural communities as a result of distance and fewer institutional resources.

The Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) developed this Administration for Children and Families Family Room Blog, which highlights three FYSB programs working to prevent or intervene against teen dating violence: the Specialized Services for Abused Parents and their Children grant program, the Adolescent Pregnancy Prevention Program, and the Runaway and Homeless Youth Program. Each of these programs offers direct services such as parent education, fosters the creation of support groups, or engages in behavioral interventions. This blog post also discusses partnerships between FYSB and other Office of Family Assistance programs, including the launch of PAIVED (Preventing and Addressing Intimate Violence when Engaging Dads) within the Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood initiative, which reviews approaches that federally funded Responsible Fatherhood programs could take regarding domestic violence prevention among fathers.

The Administration for Native Americans (ANA) seeks reviewers and chairpersons for the 2019 ANA Objective Panel Reviews. In May and June 2019, they will conduct remote reviews for the following panel sessions: Native Languages: Esther Martinez Immersion (EMI), Preservation and Maintenance (P&M), Environmental Regulatory Enhancement (ERE), Social and Economic Development Strategies for Alaska (SEDS-AK), and Social and Economic Development Strategies (SEDS). A two-week online training will be available in mid-March and is a requirement to be assigned to a panel review session. Information about reviewer and chairperson requirements, remote review expectations, and indication of interest is provided. If interested, please click here to participate.

This MDRC research-to-practice brief profiles the PACE Center for Girls, a Florida-based nonprofit organization serving school-aged girls at risk of involvement with the justice system. This brief identifies the uniqueness of PACE’s gender-responsive approaches that are tailored to meet the specific challenges of middle and high school-aged girls at risk. The PACE evaluation suggests ways that researchers can collaborate with practitioners in producing actionable social-sector evidence and translating evidence into practice to improve interventions.

This Pew Trusts fact sheet illustrates the lack of capacity within rural communities to provide access to treatment for opioid use. Strategies to close the treatment gap include expanding the healthcare provider workforce, using technology and telemedicine models for medication management, and developing innovative and local responses.