The American Rescue Plan temporarily increased the child tax credit (CTC) in 2021, including extending the credit to families who had not previously filed tax returns. The Internal Revenue Service automatically sent monthly payments of the CTC to families that had filed a tax return in 2019 or 2020. This report reviews the work of the Birth through Eight Strategy for Tulsa, an initiative to find low-income families who were likely to miss out on receiving the CTC. It also identifies how Tulsa’s existing network of service navigators worked to connect families eligible for the credit with tax preparation services to claim the CTC.

About 20 percent of U.S. American children grow up in poverty, and family income during early childhood is strongly associated with educational attainment and other social and economic outcomes. It can be difficult to separate the effects of family resources, however, from other aspects of a child’s early life, including family structure and stability, parenting styles, and the qualities of a neighborhood and schools. This research brief examines the effectiveness of unrestricted cash support for families facing economic hardship by estimating the long-run causal effects of cash transfers immediately after the birth of a first child.

On January 4, 2022, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a Training and Employment Notice providing local workforce boards, American Job Centers, workforce development partners, and grantees with information on supporting community violence intervention strategies that include an employment or workforce component. This brief offers recommendations for supporting the design and implementation of community violence interventions, based on research and evidence-based practice.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce Investment and the Center for Construction Research and Training (CPWR) will host a webinar on June 9, 2022 from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET as part of a summer series of technical assistance on the role of the workforce system in serving individuals with substance use disorders. Guest speakers from CPWR will discuss how opioid use among the construction workforce has impacted the construction industry and the preventions the organization is currently implementing to fight opioid substance abuse.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development announces a Notice of Funding Opportunity under the Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator (ROSS-SC) grant program, which is designed to assist residents of Public and Indian Housing progress towards economic and housing self-sufficiency by removing educational, professional, and health barriers. HUD provides ROSS-SC grant funding to eligible applicants to hire a Service Coordinator who assesses the needs of public and Indian housing residents and links them to training and supportive services that will enable participants to move along the self-sufficiency continuum. Grant applications are due by July 18, 2022.

Grandparents serve a critical role in the tribal family structure. They are often the glue that holds the family together, providing the place to gather. They are keepers of family stories, cultural knowledge, and calm voices of reason. This compendium provides resources for engaging and supporting grandparents and other extended family members to help Native children and families achieve their best outcomes.

The Reentry and Employment Opportunities – Adult Program (REO) is designed to strengthen urban communities through an employment-centered program that incorporates mentoring, job training, and other comprehensive transitional services. The REO Community website provides new ideas and tools to do the invaluable work of changing lives and renewing futures of former offenders. The website includes information on:

• Improving program practices, including case management and mentoring
• Supporting transitions for ex-offenders, including program and job retention
• Strengthening partnerships to provide strong supportive services and seamless transitions
• Ensuring sustainability for programs

Youth Thrive’s five protective and promotive factors are five essential elements that research tells us help young people thrive, even in the face of adversity. The five factors are youth resilience, social connections, knowledge of adolescent development, concrete support, and cognitive and social-emotional competence. This video reviews why each factor is important, and how taken together they contribute to young people’s overall well-being.

Holistic support services are critical to increasing skills training access, completion, and connection to quality jobs. This webinar video recording examined how intentional investments in supportive services help to address racial wealth gaps and the unprecedented rates of basic needs insecurity facing today’s students — adult learners who are balancing work, school, and family responsibilities. Speakers also discussed how community college, training provider, and community partner staff can help learners navigate education, public benefit, and resource options to ensure that resources go to those who need them the most.

This practice guide is a resource for a broad range of human services and fatherhood programs striving to be more inclusive of and responsive to fathers. Building on literature from the field and interviews with human services providers that engage fathers in services, this guide outlines the benefits of developing community partnerships between father-focused and other human services programs. It also describes various strategies programs can use to develop partnerships that can increase father engagement in programming and improve outcomes for fathers and their families. The guide’s goal is to help programs develop strategic partnerships that are mutually beneficial and can increase father engagement in their communities.