Children living in poverty are less likely to participate in structured learning activities during the summer months; Boston After School & Beyond, a citywide program based in Boston, Massachusetts, seeks to address the achievement gap between low-income students and their peers by offering a menu of online learning services and resources to support student enrichment and learning at home during the COVID-19 pandemic. A network of partners provides these enrichment supports, including learning and skills-building, meals delivery, and meeting emergency needs. The partners include: CitySprouts, Breakthrough Greater Boston, Boys & Girls Clubs of Boston, 3Point Foundation, African Community Economic Development of New England, Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center, and others.

This Indian Health Service grant announcement provides 501(c)(3) organizations an opportunity to apply for funding to support a variety of services to improve the healthcare of the American Indian/Alaska Native community through outreach and education efforts. Eligible organizations include those with expertise in representing Tribal governments and administering national health policy and health programs, including work in substance abuse and suicide prevention, domestic violence prevention, HIV/AIDS outreach and education, and diabetes work. The application closing date is June 29, 2020.

In this Aspen Ideas to Go podcast, a panel of child and adolescent experts define anxiety and stress and offer coping strategies to parents to help support them in their interactions with their children at various stages of their development. In the wake of COVID-19, children and teenagers have experienced disruptions in their normal activities and routines, including attending school and play time with friends and family. Many adolescents and teens are experiencing emotional distress, worry, anxiety, depression, and suicidal thoughts. Taking a whole family approach, the panel addresses these behaviors and stressors and provides guidance to parents on being honest and clear with their communications, speaking in age appropriate language, filtering out misinformation, and monitoring the news. In addition, the experts also offer parents guidance on managing their own self-care and mental health during this time of uncertainty.

This blogpost, authored by the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, discusses the Open Table initiative. This initiative supports youth in undergoing “significant life transformation” by using an intensive, relationship-focused, volunteer-based model to help them develop their own life plans; volunteers then use their own social networks to help youth implement these plans. The blogpost highlights Crosswinds Youth Services, a Runaway and Homeless Youth Transitional Living Program project in Cocoa Beach, Florida, where five “tables” were formed to provide group mentoring and help at-risk youth successfully leave the program.

On June 18, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. EDT, this webinar hosted by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine will review research on current programs and policies. The discussion is in conjunction with the project entitled Building an Agenda to Reduce the Number of Children in Poverty by Half in 10 Years.

The featured speakers include: Jeff Madrick, director of the Bernard L. Schwartz Rediscovering Government Initiative; Greg Duncan, distinguished professor of education, University of California, Irvine; Christine James-Brown, president and chief executive officer, Child Welfare League of America; Dolores Acevedo-Garcia, Gingold professor of human development and social policy and director of the Institute for Child, Youth and Family Policy at the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Brandeis University; and Cara Baldari, vice president of family economics, First Focus on Children.

In this June 10, 2020 opening session scheduled from 10:45 a.m. to 12:15 p.m. hosted by the National Partnership for Community Leadership during the online 22nd Annual International Fatherhood Conference, presenters will discuss programs supporting responsible fatherhood, effective parenting approaches, and strengthening family dynamics in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. This virtual Fatherhood Conference brings together parents, policy makers, researchers, and practitioners working with low-income parents and youth to empower them and provide strategies and resources to strengthen family supports. (Please note that registration fees are required to attend the Conference.)

Featured speakers include: Scott M. Lekan, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary and the Acting Commissioner of the Office of Child Support Enforcement in the Administration for Children and Families (ACF); Clarence H. Carter, Director of the Office of Family Assistance and the Acting Director of the Office of Community Services in ACF; Kimberly Dent, Executive Director of the Ohio Commission on Fatherhood/Ohio Department of Job and Family Services; Ronald Mincy, Professor of Social Policy and Social Work Practice and Director of the Center for Research on Fathers, Children, and Family Well-Being; Debra Pontisso, Chair of the National Responsible Fatherhood Roundtable and Visiting Scholar with the Strong Families Commission, Inc. of Pennsylvania; and Jeffrey Johnson, President and CEO of the National Partnership for Community Leadership.

This brief assesses the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on kinship care; it also defines kinship care and the role that kinship caregivers play in their respective families. Ways to support kinship caregivers are illustrated, including increased funding support and temporary changes in licensing requirements.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities has created three websites that provide training on various Executive Function Skills Concepts and Models: EF Works Library, which houses curated resources for human services programs to learn about and implement an Executive Function-informed approach to service delivery, with a focus on services to adults; Goal, Plan, Do, Review/Revise Online Training Course, a practical research-based framework for setting and achieving goals that draws on insights about executive skills, as well as other aspects of brain and behavioral science; and Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, Plan (WOOP), a science-based mental strategy to find and fulfill wishes, set preferences, and change behavior.

In honor of May’s National Foster Care Month, the Associate Commissioner of the Children’s Bureau writes in this blogpost that incorporating family voice into the permanency-planning process and encouraging collaboration between parents and resource parents can help the community, the courts, and related professionals inform a highly supportive child welfare agency culture. The blogpost provides a link to the updated National Foster Care Month website, which includes new resources and outreach tools showing how partnerships between parents and children, agencies, community organizations, and the courts can help support reunification and strengthen family and community connections.

This Child Trends two-brief series highlights information on access to care for homeless children and families. The first brief, Facilitating Access to Early Care and Education for Children Experiencing Homelessness, covers barriers to accessing early care and education among families experiencing homelessness and how states and communities can increase early care and education enrollment of children experiencing homelessness. The second brief, Leveraging Data to Identify Children Experiencing Homelessness, points to the challenges that states and communities encounter when using data to identify children experiencing homelessness who need early care and education.