This 20-minute podcast mediated by National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families Project Director Robyn Cenizal and former Colorado Human Services Provider Mary Roberto discusses Ms. Roberto’s previous role and experience, family violence options, and the importance of outreach for survivors and the community. The podcast serves as a proactive resource for programs when expanding their outreach and building educational resources for the community on family violence.

This journal article presents findings from a longitudinal study which examined the relationship between intimate partner violence (IPV), five mental disorders (depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social phobia, panic attack, posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD]), alcohol abuse/dependence, drug abuse/dependence, treatment seeking (from physician, counselor, and self-help group), employment, child support, and welfare participation. Drawn from records extracted from the study "Violence Against Women and the Role of Welfare Reform" (VAWRWR), a key finding was that experiencing controlling behaviors reduced likelihood of welfare participation, while experiencing physical abuse increased it. Panic attack, drug abuse/dependence, and employment wielded significant impact on welfare participation rates; treatment seeking and child support made no significant impact on welfare rates.

This article features a nationally representative study of safe, stable, nurturing relationships among children and youth in the United States ages 1 month to 17 years. Researchers discovered that almost 1 in 4 children and adolescents resided in family environments with just modest levels of safety, stability, and nurturance, while approximately 1 in 15 experienced consistently low levels of these factors. Lack of safe, stable, nurturing relationships seems to most strongly affect older adolescents and children in nontraditional family structures and appear to have critical implications for future functioning of these youth. The article includes a discussion of the associations among the indicators of safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and their implications for policy and practice.

This recent Council for a Strong America report profiles the opioid epidemic in Wisconsin and how parental substance abuse should be considered a significant Adverse Childhood Experience (ACE) that impedes childhood development. The report notes how high-quality early care and education programs, Head Start, and home visitations support children as they grow up by preparing them to avoid crime, raise families of their own, and contribute to the workforce. The implications of the epidemic in Wisconsin have a broader national impact.

The Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH) assembled a comprehensive list of practical materials for stakeholders helping the unsheltered homeless. Their suite of resources focuses on data and analytics, policies and practices, agency coordination, and communications and includes provider tools, draft policies, and system templates that can be freely used and adapted to fit the needs of local providers. CSH also encourages feedback from users on the efficacy, lessons, and adaptions of its toolkit to understand best practices in the field and to increase the effectiveness of future resources.

New research from the Center for Poverty Research illuminates the links between low socioeconomic status (SES) and metabolic syndrome, a family of conditions that make a person more likely to experience heart disease, strokes, and diabetes. These conditions affect nearly one-fourth of the world’s population, and children raised in poverty are 83% more likely to suffer from metabolic syndrome than children of a high SES after controlling for other factors. Adult SES has a less pronounced effect on metabolic syndrome risk. This poses to policymakers an evidence-backed opportunity to improve long-term productivity, health, and well-being outcomes by targeting young children currently growing up in poverty.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation-funded (OPRE) study illustrates the early implementation of the Ramsey County, Minnesota, Lifelong Learning Initiative (LLI). Research has found that chronic stress associated with living in poverty can hinder executive skills, such as planning, decision-making, and organizing. The LLI uses a goal-oriented approach to help TANF recipients set their own employment-focused goals by breaking them down into more manageable tasks and develop these executive skills as they work toward employment outcomes.

This Urban Institute brief reviews states’ efforts to curb opioid misuse from 2012 through 2015. The brief covers the insights and experiences collected in 2015 from the first seven states participating in the National Governors Association’s Prescription Drug Abuse Reduction Policy Academy.

The National Governors Association (NGA) produced a white paper to outline the challenges persons with disabilities face entering and maintaining employment. Drawn from NGA’s participation in the State Exchange on Employment and Disability (SEED) initiative supported by the U.S. Department of Labor, the white paper also includes strategies as a result of a learning lab in May 2018. Strategies reflect four priority areas: preparing people with disabilities for careers; supporting and retaining employees with disabilities; engaging employers in education and training; and coordinating services and supports across state agencies.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) Regions I through IV hosted the OFA Regions I-IV East Coast TANF Directors’ Meeting, Leveraging Partnerships to Help Families Achieve Economic Stability, on July 24-26, 2018 at the Westin Boston Waterfront in Boston, Massachusetts. The meeting convened representatives from TANF programs from Regions I-IV and provided TANF representatives with an opportunity to learn about promising practices, discuss shared challenges faced by TANF programs, and share ideas with peers from other states about how to respond to the needs of low-income families. The meeting also included practitioners and researchers who shared information about their own work, and who looked to TANF representatives and federal partners for future research opportunities. Representatives attended presentations from experts and program administrators, and worked with other states to think of innovative practices during Team Work sessions.