This brief reviews historical policy context and provides an overview of policy, programmatic, and engagement strategies for utilizing economic supports to promote family well-being and prevent child maltreatment. It recommends economic and concrete supports as an alternative to address child maltreatment.

The American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act includes $150 million in funding support for the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting Program (MIECHV). This blogpost outlines how MIECHV ARP funds will be distributed and allowable uses. Under the MIECHV ARP provisions, expanded services offered to enrolled families include home visiting services, technology for virtual visits, emergency supplies (including personal protective equipment, hand sanitizers, and diapers), and prepaid grocery cards. This additional funding can also be used to support the training and expansion of the home visiting workforce.

The U.S. Department of Education seeks applications for the Performance Partnerships Pilots for Disconnected Youth (P3). The FY 2021 P3 authorization allows pilot programs to utilize waivers of requirements that hinder service delivery or impede a holistic approach. These waivers include, for example, blending and use of other federal funds, flexibility in age or income eligibility requirements, use of alternative outcome measures, and others requested in a submitted application. P3 pilots are required to include at least two Federal programs which target disconnected youth or are designed to prevent youth from disconnecting with educational, workforce, or social services supports. Applications are due by August 23, 2021.

This blogpost summarizes findings from two new nationally representative studies under the Couple Relationships and Transitions Experiences (CREATE) study that examines the importance of marital interventions in early marriage. The interventions are offered before and after marriage and are designed to improve relationship satisfaction, communication, and relationship skills. The first study identified participation rates in early marriage interventions and whether these interventions were perceived as beneficial and change producing by the couples. The second study examined whether intervention program participants have better marital outcomes.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation has issued a Call for Papers for the Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) 2022, to be held in-person from June 1-3, 2022 in Washington, DC. The Call invites proposals for full conference sessions, individual presentations, and roundtables on the following topics: TANF programs, policies, and populations; employment and mobility in the labor market; youth well-being and the transition to adulthood; strengthening families, fatherhood, marriages, and relationships; evaluating social programs, building evidence, and using data; and approaches to alleviate poverty and expand opportunity. A virtual information session on preparing and submitting a proposal will be held on July 22, 2021 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET. Proposal submissions are due by August 27, 2021.

This two-part June 23, 2021 podcast explores early childhood programming that includes services and supports to help families by helping fathers. The podcast’s first part examines Bright Beginnings, a Washington, D.C. nonprofit which delivers center- and home-based Head Start programming to children and families. It includes a discussion with the program’s administrator and a maintenance technician who also has been a participating father. The second part examines research from Mathematica and the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation to understand approaches for including and engaging fathers in social service programming.

This report examines the individual, household, and environmental barriers that SNAP participants encounter as they aim to maintain a healthy diet throughout a month. Drawing on a national survey of SNAP participants, the report also covers the interaction between barriers, the coping mechanisms that SNAP participants used to remediate the barriers, and the association of these barriers with household food insecurity.

The Office of Child Support Enforcement has issued the FY2020 Preliminary Annual Report, which includes data from all state child support programs and tables on collections, expenditures, paternities, orders established, and other program-related statistics. Tribal program data is not included in this initial report, but it will be included in the FY 2020 Annual Report to Congress. While the COVID-19 pandemic had widespread social and economic effects on child support programs nationwide that cannot be captured in the child support data collected, the FY 2020 report offers a glimpse of the pandemic’s impact on program performance.

The Administration for Children and Families’ Office of Community Services (OCS) announced a funding opportunity for the Community Services Block Grant CARES Act Rapid-Cycle Impact Projects. The funding will support the CARES Act goal of adapting service models to meet urgent community needs while testing proposed projects’ strategies to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the economic and social impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. Support will be provided for communities to utilize a rapid-cycle learning or continuous quality improvement approach to strengthen the effectiveness of a grant-funded program or service strategy. Up to 20 grants will be awarded. Applications are due by July 26, 2021.

This Dear Colleague Letter, addressed to ACF Grantees and interested parties, requests that ACF grantees raise awareness of the child tax credit for working families which takes effect on July 15, 2021. The letter identifies that families can learn about the credit at www.childtaxcredit.gov and that non-tax filer parents can also qualify for the tax credit by using the IRS’s Child Tax Credit Non-filer Sign Up Tool to apply for benefits. The letter also highlights different ways to engage with working families and raise awareness of this significant benefit.