This report from the Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University focuses on “core capabilities,” including executive function, and how they can be impacted by toxic stress, leading to challenges with life skills such as parenting and workplace effectiveness. The report discusses how environmental triggers can impact ability to use core capabilities to maintain emotional balance, and reviews how and when these skills develop. The report also includes examples of how excessive stress can alter one’s ability to use core capabilities, and how service providers can help clients build missing capabilities.

The Summer Electronic Benefit Transfer for Children (SEBTC) demonstration was implemented by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) with the goal of reducing summer food insecurity for children. Children eligible for free or reduced-price school meals received Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) or Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) EBT cards. During the first two summers of the demonstration (2011 and 2012), eligible children received a $60 monthly benefit. Summer 2013 compared the impacts of a $30 benefit to a $60 benefit, and summer 2014 examined implementation strategies and benefit use patterns. This USDA report provides an analysis of the data.

Fact Forward, previously South Carolina Campaign to Prevent Teen Pregnancy (SCCAPP), is an entity using TANF funds for teen pregnancy prevention programming. Fact Forward became a national model as one of the first states in the country to utilize surplus TANF funds for teen pregnancy prevention. They developed resources to assist in the development of teen pregnancy prevention programs, which include sample needs assessment tools, program characteristics checklists, and outcome evaluation tools.

The Hawaii Department of Human services (DHS) uses the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant to fund a diverse set of positive youth development (PYD) programs to prevent teenage pregnancy and other behaviors that can negatively affect a successful transition to adulthood. DHS selected a PYD approach because 1) a broader PYD approach is expected to be more cost-effective than a narrower teenage pregnancy prevention (TPP) approach; and 2) a PYD approach yields numerous other social benefits related to fostering self-sufficiency (e.g., staying in school, avoiding abuse of alcohol and drugs, building character, developing job and decision-making skills). The report details Hawaii’s efforts in the development of appropriate performance measures for its TPP and PYD programs.

There is considerable flexibility within TANF to focus on preventing teen and unplanned pregnancy and many states have made good use of this flexibility to invest TANF funds in a variety of strategies to reduce teen and unplanned or non-marital pregnancy. This report from the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy and the American Public Human Services Association (APHSA) highlights teen and young adult pregnancy prevention efforts from various states.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) has posted Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Separate State Program Maintenance of Effort (SSP-MOE) Characteristics data for fiscal year (FY) 2014. The tables provide national- and state-level data for FY 2014 of TANF program recipients by characteristics and financial circumstances. The tables include demographic data on the age, gender, and race/ethnicity of children and adults in TANF families for active and closed cases.

This article in the Stanford Social Innovation Review talks about how social welfare programs can better collaborate and coordinate efforts to collectively address complex social problems. The article shares a conceptual framework on how different systems and programs can best align objectives and service delivery programs toward common community goals.

The DataFinder from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) provides demographic information as well as administrative data on programs that affect low-income people and families. Users can create and download custom tables that present a national picture, a state picture or a comparative look at states and communities.