Since the establishment of the Child Support Enforcement Program in 1975, child support policy has played a central role in improving the economic circumstances of children living apart from one of their parents. Prior research has documented the policy’s positive effects on family economic wellbeing at the time of receipt. But little work has examined the effects of child support receipt as a child on economic outcomes in adulthood. This report uses analytic approaches to test whether adults who received support as children have higher earnings, are more likely to be employed, have lower public program participation, receive less in public benefits, and are less likely to have an open child support case than those who did not receive child support or received very little.

This article discusses how partners within the County of San Diego formed two programs, Developmental Screening & Enhancement Program (DSEP) and KidSTART, aimed at ensuring that children in foster care 5 years old or younger receive needed services to maintain placement stability, achieve timely permanency, and reach their full potential. Both programs operate under Rady Children’s Hospital San Diego. DSEP provides developmental and behavior screening and service linkages for all young children involved with the County of San Diego’s Child Welfare Services (CWS), while KidSTART provides comprehensive services to young children with complex needs, regardless of system involvement.

The Strengthening the Implementation of Responsible Fatherhood Programs (SIRF) project uses rapid learning cycles in an effort to improve the enrollment, engagement, and retention of fathers in nine current federal Fatherhood Family-focused, Interconnected, Resilient, and Essential (FIRE) grantees and one former recipient of a federal fatherhood grant. This brief illustrates how SIRF and program teams used a human-centered design technique called customer journey mapping, a collaborative process that puts the needs and goals of participants at the center of efforts to design or improve a product or service. Mapping helped both the program and SIRF teams to better understand fathers’ program experiences and perspectives, and to identify where program processes might be restructured to increase fathers’ participation.

This brief describes the experiences of nine families with low incomes and their children during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic, from March through September 2020. The research was conducted by interviews with 9 adults from three major U.S. cities in September 2020. Its key findings were that families experienced a sense of uncertainty and constant, unpredictable change in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, as the pandemic evolved, the multiple life fluctuations it caused significantly affected their economic circumstances and emotional well-being.

This OPRE report provides key findings from the Childhood and Family Experiences Study which seeks to understand how children, adolescents, and parents who participate in social safety net programs such as TANF perceive and experience poverty. The report notes the study is interested in learning more about the perspectives of those who may be eligible for social safety net services but do not receive them.

Based on the rapid size and growth of the Hispanic population, this blogpost points out how vital investment in Latino youth is to the U.S. economy. This includes early investment in degree completion to improve Latino labor market prospects and social integration, as well as family, social, and economic investment to enhance an already strong foundation of earnings, health, and parenting among Latino families with children.

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program provided education and occupational training to TANF recipients and other adults with low incomes. HPOG training is for healthcare occupations that pay well and may experience labor shortages or be in high demand. This report details common themes from interviews with working students of 14 HPOG 2.0 programs. It highlights common experiences and challenges they faced pursuing and completing their training, which include the competing demands of working to pay for household expenses and caring for family members. The report is part of a series of briefs describing lessons from HPOG 2.0 participants. The series aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of motivations for enrolling in a career pathways program; managing work, training, and life balance; and services that facilitate their success.

The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), Office of Justice Programs (OJP), Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) seeks applications for funding under the FY 2022 Supporting Vulnerable At-Risk Youth and Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care program. This solicitation supports the establishment of pilot demonstration program sites to develop, implement, and build replicable treatment models for residential-based innovative care, treatment, and services. The primary population served by these pilot programs will include adolescents and youth transitioning out of foster care who have experienced a history of foster care involvement, child poverty, child abuse or neglect, human trafficking, juvenile justice involvement, substance use or misuse, or gang involvement. Eligible applicants can provide services to youth and young adults up to and including age 25. Grant funding of $600,000 will be made available to 6 project sites under Category 1 of this solicitation with a project start date of October 1, 2022. Applications are due on Grants.gov by August 15, 2022.

This brief highlights key findings from the Promoting a Positive Organizational Culture in TANF Offices: Final Report produced through the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation’s TANF Office Culture study. It documents how six TANF programs implemented organizational change and sought to promote and sustain a positive organizational culture. The brief includes a discussion of the challenges that staff and clients experienced. Its findings provide concrete examples for human services practitioners and policymakers interested in improving service delivery.

This brief looks at ways to assist young parenting students (ages 18–25) that are highly motivated to pursue a college education to improve their own well-being as well as their children’s. It focuses on the challenges they face in seeking higher education and services to support themselves and their families, and presents navigation services as a promising strategy that communities are using to support them in their journeys through higher education.