This info brief from the National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability explores the crucial role of families in career planning, job search, and job retention of youth with disabilities. The brief discusses ways that families can be involved, including practical tips and suggestions around benefits and supports. Youth benefit from school and workforce programs, but families that consider themselves partners in preparing their children for employment are key to workplace success.

This brief from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago examines the effects of housing instability in adolescence on the transition to adulthood. The brief, the first in a series, uses evidence to seek solutions to avoid missed opportunities to provide not only housing stability, but also stability in other areas of life including sleep, safety, and education. A lack of credible data about youth who experience homelessness has previously been a barrier, and this brief helps provide credible numbers when looking to address this problem in communities.

From the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, these three briefs address issues associated with prolonged youth homelessness, the role of mental health, as well as interventions that have been attempted to prevent and stop youth homelessness. Factors include history of childhood maltreatment, involvement in the justice system, and higher high school dropout rates, among others. Mental illness is also prevalent among the chronically homeless, including youth. Supportive housing interventions can provide safe and stable housing for these populations. Other interventions include programs to support education and employment, as well as those that reduce substance abuse. However, none of these interventions have been rigorously tested and merit further investigation.

Work-based learning combines paid training at a work site with classroom education that leads to an industry-recognized credential. This National Skills Coalition toolkit provides resources to state policymakers and advocates who want to implement paid work-based learning programs for out-of-school youth and disadvantaged adults. The toolkit explains key policies that support work-based learning, provides examples of current state and local work-based learning practices, and provides a legislative template for state work-based learning policies. States can also use the toolkit to help align work-based learning policies with other workforce development strategies.

While youth involved in Child Welfare or Runaway and Homeless Youth systems are at high risk of being trafficked, there has been no consensus screening tool available for providers to use to identify victims of human trafficking. This Urban Institute report describes the pretesting of a Human Trafficking Screening Tool (HTST) for 617 youth involved in the child welfare or runaway and homeless youth systems in New York, Texas, and Wisconsin. The HTST took about two minutes to administer, and the researchers found that it covered key dimensions of youth’s trafficking experiences, could be used in both child welfare and runaway and homeless youth settings, and correctly predicted trafficking victimization. The researchers conclude that the HTST is an effective, accessible tool for youth ages 12-24, but they recommend additional testing for youth under age 18 in child welfare settings.

Youth aging out of the foster care system face a variety of challenges, but building healthy and supportive relationships can help improve their outcomes. This Brookings Institution report highlights experiences from recent relationship-building programs targeted toward foster youth. The authors found four important lessons that researchers and policymakers can use when designing relationship-building programs for foster youth. Those lessons include the need for child welfare agencies to measure a youth’s relational capacities, designing relationship-based interventions for foster youth, tailoring services to the needs of each youth, and obtaining support from all partners involved in a foster youth’s case to reinforce relationships.

Employment is crucial for preventing and ending youth homelessness, and programs need to be well-designed and implemented to help these youth find and keep jobs. The Heartland Alliance is hosting this webinar to share policy approaches, program models, and best practices aimed at helping youth experiencing homelessness find employment. Speakers will include representatives from the National Alliance to End Homelessness, A Way Home America, and Heartland Alliance’s National Initiatives, as well as practitioners from New Moms/Bright Endeavors in Chicago and Daybreak Dayton/Lindy & Company in Dayton. The webinar will take place on Wednesday, September 27th from 2:30 to 4:00 PM EST.

This Jobs for the Future brief details the Opportunity Works initiative, which funded seven community-based organizations across the country to develop education and training programs for youth who are disconnected from school and work. Halfway through the three-year grant period the organizations already had learned several lessons, such as the importance of helping youth see why they need careers, allowing enough time for youth to build rapport with their coaches, and creating partnerships with colleges to help youth complete postsecondary education. The brief also includes a summary of each site’s progress in the initiative thus far and profiles of youth participants.

The Young Adult Internship Program (YAIP) in New York City was recently evaluated; this report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation presents implementation and early impact results from the evaluation. The YAIP program serves youth between ages 16 and 24 who are disconnected from school and work and offers support services and a temporary paid internship. The early outcomes indicate that program participation did increase the likelihood of employment and higher earnings for these youth, compared to participants in the control group, during the year after random assignment.

USAID and the International Youth Foundation put together this report to help youth providers conduct labor market assessments to design demand-driven training programs. The authors provide eight steps to conducting a labor market assessment. First, an organization must assemble a group of advisors and then set goals for the labor market assessment and devise key research questions. Next, they identify target sectors, conduct field research to understand the local labor dynamics of those sectors, and review the findings. Finally, the organization designs the training program and then rechecks and redesigns the training as necessary. The toolkit also includes tips, case studies, and ways to adapt the assessment process to more challenging regions.