When people struggle to make ends meet, public benefit programs have the potential to help them meet their basic needs for food, housing, health care, and cash. Yet many families and individuals do not participate in the programs that could help…

The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act passed in 1996 replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children program with the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. TANF imposed work requirements on…

In recent years, many healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs serving couples with low incomes have offered participants economic stability services in addition to traditional HMRE programming focused on relationship skills.…

The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially challenging for American families with children. The U.S. Surgeon General as well as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Children’s…

The Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) program offers education, training, support services, and employment assistance to prepare Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients and other adults with low incomes for occupations…

This report summarizes the design and implementation of MyGoals for Employment Success (MyGoals), an experimental employment coaching demonstration program, launched in early 2017. The program aims to help recipients of housing assistance in…

Over 3.2 million North Carolinians are poor or near poor, and many more experience economic instability and challenges over time. This report examines the ways that women in North Carolina are caught in the crosshairs of irreconcilable social and…

A study funded by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation was conducted to identify strategies to support high-quality facilitation in healthy marriage and relationship education (HMRE) programs for youth. The basis of the study is a…

Across two rounds of grants, the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program aimed to provide education and training to TANF recipients and other adults with low incomes for occupations in the healthcare field that pay well and are…

There are more than 2.5 million children in the U.S. growing up in “grandfamilies,” meaning they are being raised by relatives (grandparents, aunts, uncles, siblings, etc.) or close family friends without their parents in the home. Research shows…