The Administration on Children, Youth and Families, Family and Youth Services Bureau (FYSB) announced the release of the Fiscal Year 2022 Transitional Living Program (TLP) Notice of Funding Opportunity (NOFO). The Transitional Living Programs implement, enhance, and/or support effective strategies for successful transition to sustainable living for runaway and homeless youth ages 16 to under 22 and/or pregnant and parenting youth ages 16 to under 22 and their dependent child(ren). Grants awarded under this announcement will have a start date of September 30, 2022 and will be for a 36-month project period. Applications are due by June 21, 2022.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief is an overview of how HPOG 2.0 programs adapted during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued to provide services to participants. It examines changes programs adopted during the first 10 months of the COVID-19 pandemic (approximately March—December 2020). Local HPOG 2.0 staff described strategies that helped them continue operations despite unanticipated implementation hurdles. The brief also highlights promising practices that may be of interest to healthcare training providers and policymakers.

Many low-income families are still bearing the brunt of the economic impact of the COVID-19 global pandemic. This qualitative study was conducted to understand the financial impact of the pandemic on low-income households, with a focus on how families used credit and debt to manage financial challenges during the pandemic. Study findings show that many low-income households of color are using credit products such as credit cards and dangerous payday loans to navigate financial hardships. This research also makes clear that struggling families are barely managing and remain stuck in a cycle of financial insecurity.

Economic assistance programs help provide low-income individuals and families with income stability, with benefits accruing not just to the families receiving assistance but to the economy as a whole. This paper reviews how cash assistance programs—the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), Child Tax Credit, and TANF—and other in-kind supports, such as SNAP, Medicaid, and housing assistance, serve as a backstop for unpredictable income, low income, and joblessness among low-income households who face economic transitions. The paper also highlights the critical role of the expanded Child Tax Credit, which provided families a monthly cash payment between July and December 2021.

The Survey of Youth Transitioning from Foster Care (SYTFC) collected information from youth currently and formerly in foster care in two states who were at risk for human trafficking experiences based on their demographic characteristics, maltreatment allegations, and removal and placement history. The SYTFC was conducted to address knowledge gaps and to provide the child welfare system with information needed to identify and support youth in care who are at risk of human trafficking. This brief focuses on the qualitative recommendations from youth who participated in the SYTFC when asked about the most important ways the child welfare system could support youth leaving care.

This tool is designed to help jurisdictions select evidence-based programs or practices (EBPs) for their Family First prevention plan. Family First prevention plans are developed at the state and local level to guide the design and financing of home visiting and other programs and services which promote the health and well-being of young children and their families. This resource provides overviews of each EBP along with a survey tool. The survey tool can be used to match program fit and usability based on target population, program goals, evidence rating, program intensity and duration, program cost, staffing and training requirements, and other factors. Also included are worksheets for each EBP to help determine program cost based on the projected number of families and children to be served and the number of provider agencies, teams, and individual staff involved.

Child care challenges are getting more attention as the short-term crisis created by the COVID-19 pandemic has turned into a severe, ongoing problem for many working families. However, despite that roughly one-third of all children younger than 6 have parents who work nontraditional-hour schedules, there is little information about the kinds of child care parents want during nontraditional hours. This knowledge gap has hampered policymakers’ ability to ensure their strategies meet parents’ wants and needs. This blogpost summarizes findings from interviews with 41 nontraditional-hour working parents who have young children and explores what kinds of child care these parents recommend and why.

Breaking Barriers was a San Diego-based program that provided employment services to individuals with low incomes and disabilities who were looking for work. The program used the Individual Placement and Support model. This report summarizes findings from an earlier program evaluation report and presents new impact findings based on administrative records from the National Directory of New Hires. These records include information on study participants’ quarterly employment and earnings over an extended, two-year follow-up period.

Today’s infants and toddlers have lived virtually their entire lives during the COVID-19 pandemic, which has shaped every aspect of their growth and wellbeing. The pandemic has directly impacted them, through experiences such as delayed screenings for developmental issues, and indirectly impacted them through the circumstances of other members of their households, including increased parental stress, illness, and job loss. This brief examines how decision makers implementing the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) have used COVID relief funding and policy opportunities to lay the groundwork for longer-term, transformative change by equitably supporting infants, toddlers, and their families. The brief also offers guidance for how decision makers can leverage ARPA across myriad programs to support these children and families now and into the future.