This fact sheet from Workforce3One highlights WIOA reforms for One-Stop Centers. Since WIOA presents an opportunity to improve career options for workers and job-seekers through an integrated, job-driven public workforce system, this resource shares how One-Stop Centers will gain improved access to comprehensive services, enhanced and streamlined operations, and better public recognition.

In this publication, the U.S. Census Bureau presents data on income and poverty in the United States based on information collected in the 2015 and earlier Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplements (CPS ASEC). It notes that in 2014, the median household income was $53,657, which was not statistically different from the 2013 median household income of $54,462. The official poverty rate was 14.8% (46.7 million individuals) in 2014, which was not statistically different from the 2013 poverty rate. The data is also categorized by demographics such as race, ethnicity, and region. For most demographic categories, income estimates did not statistically differ between 2013 and 2014.

The Office of Family Assistance recently published the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) caseload and application for the third quarter of Fiscal Year (FY) 2015. During that quarter, an average of 1.6 million families were receiving TANF and Separate State Program (SSP) assistance per month. This indicates a decrease of about four percent from the same time period in FY 2014.

This Office of Family Assistance Program Instruction (PI) reminds TANF jurisdictions that federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) funds cannot be used to provide juvenile justice services. The Office of Family Assistance identified that several states are using federal TANF and/or MOE funds to provide services to individuals who are under the jurisdiction of the state's juvenile justice system. This PI is to remind TANF agencies about established policy in this area.

In November 2014, Congress reauthorized the Child Care and Development Block Grant (CCDBG), a federal child care program, for the first time since 1996. The law strengthens CCDBG’s role as a major early child education program, as well as a work support program for low-income families. It aims to: protect the health and safety of children in care through more consistent standards and monitoring of those standards, improve the quality of care through increasing support for child care providers, and enable families to easily access child care assistance that can be coordinated with other programs. This implementation guide from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) and the National Women’s Law Center (NWLC) is intended to help policymakers, advocates, and other stakeholders gain a better understanding of the full implementation of the law. It includes summaries of key sections of the reauthorization legislation and recommendations, as well as areas of caution for States. One important aspect of this reauthorization is that it was not accompanied with a guarantee of new federal funds, so in many States, the new law will come with substantial costs.

As part of the Marriage and Family Strengthening Grants for Incarcerated and Reentering Fathers and their Partners (MFS-IP), twelve grantees received funding from the Office of Family Assistance to implement activities to support and sustain marriages and families of fathers during and after incarceration. Grantees also provided reentry, parenting, education, and employment services. The evaluation includes publications such as research briefs, reviews of promising practices, and implementation data.

The National Initiative on Mixed-Income Communities at Case Western Reserve University published this “State of the Field Scan” that explores how a mixed-income housing approach has transformed deteriorating public housing complexes into safer and more attractive developments for residents from a range of income levels. The report describes how mixed-income developments provide services to improve well-being and self-sufficiency. The authors conducted an online survey with representatives from 60 mixed-income housing developments to gather information on the demographics of the community as well as data on the types of supportive services provided, how developments tracked service use, and the developments' perceived outcomes of services provided.

This new career pathways website is a hub for information about career pathways research from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE). It includes the PACE study, the Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) research portfolio, and other programs being evaluated.

This report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) provides detailed information about the planned impact analyses for the Pathways for Advancing Careers and Education (PACE) project. The PACE Impact Study is designed to answer questions about the overall program effectiveness for the nine programs in PACE, each involving a different configuration of career pathways design components. This resource provides a description of the nine programs studied, summarizes the characteristics of the sample enrolled in each program, and specifies the hypotheses that PACE will test in separate analyses for each of the programs in the study.

From the Social Impact Research Center, this resource presents findings from an 18-month evaluation of a Michigan statewide program designed to link participants with employment barriers to both training and subsidized jobs. The report focuses on program design, implementation, and outcomes. The authors recommend providing basic skills training if a program’s target population has complex barriers to employment, as well as emphasizing the high level of value that employer partners gain from these types of programs.