The second of a three-part series, this April 20, 2021 webinar from the Center for Health Care Strategies reviews challenges faced by families with young children in light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its economic aftermath. Presentations covered opportunities to support families and connect them with community resources; strategies to increase parents’ knowledge of child development and communications skills while reducing their social isolation; mindfulness practices among staff at a supportive services agency; and the development of a virtual maternal-infant home visiting program. Speakers included representatives from the American Academy of Pediatrics, Families First of Boston, La Cocina of Colorado, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services, and ZERO TO THREE.

Educare schools provide full-day, year-round early care and education for young children living in families from underserved communities. This brief illustrates the experiences and responses of Educare’s early childhood care and education (ECCE) staff during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as systemic inequities that Educare schools encountered. Interviews with staff from 18 Educare schools revealed three common themes: the importance of supporting the ECCE workforce’s physical and mental health and overall well-being; the redefinition of expectations and mechanisms for accountability; and the ECCE workforce’s ongoing commitment to professional development. The brief describes a set of identified challenges for each theme that the ECCE workforce encountered and overcame.

The Urban Institute will host a free webinar on September 20, 2021 from 12:45 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. ET as part of its Strategies for Supporting Young People Transitioning Out of Foster Care Series. The webinar will review how parents in foster care need services and supports as they navigate to parenthood and adulthood. A panel of child welfare professionals and young parents with lived experience will discuss ways that child welfare systems could meet the needs of this population. Panelists include representatives from Chapin Hall, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services, Children’s Village, and the Urban Institute.

The University of Wisconsin’s Institute for Research on Poverty will host a webinar on September 15, 2021 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. ET to explore approaches to better serve children with an incarcerated parent. Presentations will examine the costs of children being separated from their parents due to incarceration, research on how to improve outcomes for children and their parents, and efforts made by law enforcement agencies and their partners to serve these families more effectively. Speakers include Julie Poehlmann-Tynan and Pajarita Charles, both from the University of Wisconsin at Madison, and Dane County (Wisconsin) Sheriff Kalvin Barrett.

The Child Welfare League of America is offering a four-week training session, beginning on September 21, 2021 from 12 noon to 2:00 p.m. ET to support foster, adoptive, and kinship caregivers and social workers as they help improve the school performance of children who have experienced trauma. Training objectives include development of an understanding of common barriers to educational access and engagement, guidance on practical strategies for cultivating resilience at home, knowledge of the education system and supports available to children with special needs and circumstances, and expansion of collaboration and advocacy toolkits for youth affected by trauma. There is a fee for participation in this training.

The integrated service delivery (ISD) approach aims to assist individuals challenged by economic instability in accessing services to attain self-sufficiency. Using the ISD, organizations in the Working Families Success Network (WFSN) strive to meet participants’ needs by providing services in the areas of employment and career advancement, finance and asset-building, and income enhancements and work supports. Researchers conducted a survey of 71 WFSN organizations to identify promising practices for ISD implementation and found that goal setting among participants might support their progression to self-sufficiency. This brief identifies four promising strategies that support goal setting and help connect participants to services.

This report identifies the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food insecurity, housing, and employment hardships. Data tables illustrate the difficulties in accessing enough food, increased inability to make timely rent or mortgage payments, challenges in meeting household expenses, and the concentration of job losses in low-wage industries. Comparative state data on these hardships is also presented.

This research article examined the COVID-19 pandemic’s impact in relation to parental perceived stress and child abuse potential. Participants included 183 parents with a child under the age of 18 years in the western United States. Various tests and analyses were performed to assess the relationships among demographic characteristics, COVID-19 and mental health risk factors, protective factors, parental perceived stress, and child abuse potential.

This brief identifies factors contributing to poor mental health and substance use outcomes among children during the COVID-19 pandemic, focusing on groups of children who are particularly at risk and barriers to accessing mental health care. While data has been limited for this population, the brief draws upon the National Survey of Children’s Health, the Youth Risk Behavior Surveillance System, the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, and surveys conducted during the pandemic.

Hosted in collaboration with Mental Health America and the GlobalMentalHealth@Harvard Initiative, this May 11, 2021 webinar focused on Peer Support and Youth Mental Health. In this 60-minute dialogue, Satvik Sethi of Runaway App, Martin Rafferty and Tia Barnes of Youth Era, and Dr. Cindy Liu of Harvard Medical School discussed the current challenges and successes in youth mental health, ways to empower youth, and tools to support them.