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.

Reentry is multisystemic, multifaceted, and highly complex, and making sense of how best to improve outcomes for people leaving prison and jail can be daunting. This U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance-sponsored toolkit is designed specifically for reentry coalition leaders and local city, county, and community leaders who want to play an active role in improving reentry policy, practice, and outcomes. Part I of this toolkit, “Fundamentals of Reentry,” covers the essential elements of system change that are necessary to carry out an effective reentry strategy at the local level. Part II presents “Tools for Change” to help advance local reentry priorities through three fronts: linking and leveraging resources, changing policy and practice, and building broad community support.

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.

The National Governors Association launched the Strengthening Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Systems of Care (SUD Learning Collaborative) in June 2020. The purpose of the SUD Learning Collaborative was to improve coordination across the continuum of prevention, treatment, and recovery services for individuals affected by SUD and opioid use disorder. From June 2020 through March 2021, Governor-appointed teams from six states — Kentucky, New York, Oregon, Virginia, West Virginia, and Wyoming — engaged in strategic planning analysis, with the goal of addressing their state’s respective linkage to SUD care and treatment priorities. This report helps states address challenges related to these focus areas.

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.

Congress passed The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) in 1978 to protect American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) children and families. ICWA recognized core values and principles of child welfare best practice by requiring active efforts to keep children safely in their homes and connected to their families, communities, and culture. The values and spirit embedded in ICWA are critical to the well-being of AI/AN children, youth, and families and should form the basis of child welfare practice for all. This brief describes four key principles inherent in ICWA, provides examples of these principles in practice, and offers questions for consideration to help agencies further explore how they should apply these principles to support the permanency and well-being of both Native and non-Native children, youth, and families.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation compendium provides detailed summaries of each family self-sufficiency research project that was active or newly funded during FY 2021, along with brief overviews of past projects, and highlights select findings released in FY 2021. The studies in this report are organized into five sections:

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
• Employment and the Labor Market
• Education and Training
• Behavioral Science
• Cross-Cutting and Other Safety Net Research

The University of Wisconsin at Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty will host a webinar on April 27, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT which will examine the mental health of fathers. Fathers, like mothers, are vulnerable to depression in the period surrounding the birth of a new baby, and this depression can have serious consequences for children and families. Presenters will draw on their research and practice experience to discuss the prevalence and presentation of depression and other mental health challenges among new fathers, and the impacts of fathers’ mental health on parenting, family relationships, and child development.