This brief from the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities provides a broad overview of research and evidence of the positive effect of public benefit programs on poverty rates in the U.S. Programs highlighted include SNAP, Medicaid, and refundable tax credits with a discussion of the current support for low income working families (versus historical policies which did not incentivize work). To conclude, the brief provides research citing improved long-term outcomes for children whose families are supported by public benefit programs. Two appendices provide charts with the number of people kept above the poverty in each state; an interesting and potentially helpful resource for policymakers and program administrators.

This data report from Child Trends provides updated information and recent data related to TANF and its outcomes for children. A summary of trends is provided as well as a series of graphs offering both longitudinal data and point in time data from fiscal year 2010. Various studies are cited which offer both mixed results when examining TANF’s effect on child poverty.

Child Trends released a report that states more than one in five children in the United States lived in households that were food insecure in 2013. The report outlined the effects of food insecurity on children, as well as provided information about the prevalence of this issue among different demographics in the United States.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) released a report that outlines findings from a behavioral intervention that was designed to increase the number of incarcerated noncustodial parents in Texas who apply for child support order modifications. Researchers from the intervention redesigned the mailing materials to better entice the parents, and authors of the report indicated that the redesigned materials resulted in increased application outcomes. According to the authors, these results indicate the promise of incorporating behavioral economic principles to improve programs.

The United States Department of Agriculture released an annual report that assesses household food security in America. According to this report, 85.7% of American households were food secure in 2013.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness (USICH) created a database that pulls information related to efforts to end homelessness from federal, state, and local partners around the country. The database includes resources on exemplar programs and promising practices.

The Institute for Research on Poverty released a discussion paper that explored whether exposure to the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) increased during the Great Recession. The study also examined how participation in the program was divided across various racial/ethnic and socioeconomic groups. Findings from the study demonstrated that age was a prominent indicator of participation in WIC, and that socioeconomic differences decreased due to an increase of WIC participation by children from wealthier families.

This paper documents an approach, used in Connecticut, for outreaching, connecting, and serving low-income, ethnically diverse, non-custodial fathers. The approach focuses on engaging men "where they are" by building their strengths and addressing their needs and helping fathers become positive and healthy role models by increasing their attachment to their children and families. The approach focuses on skill development in several areas, including education, economic stability, family/child support, and mental and physical health.

PolicyLink developed an online access portal for users to browse resources designed to improve healthy food access in communities, build local economies, and enhance public health.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation released a spotlight report that explores the high rates of sexual activity and pregnancy among teenage girls in the second cohort of the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being.