A recent release from the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP) analyzed their newly updated 50-State Policy Tracker, an interactive online tool for comparing safety net policies critical to the economic security of working families. It reveals significant disparities between different states, demonstrating that a person’s state of residence can greatly impact his or her future success. This tool includes data by state among ten critical social programs: child care subsidies, child and dependent care tax credit, Earned Income Tax Credit, family and medical leave, income tax policy, Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program, minimum wage, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, and unemployment insurance.

These webinars from the Center for Law and Social Policy (CLASP) provided information to practitioners about implementing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and helping low-income families achieve more economic success. Topics included expanding opportunities for low-income out-of-school youth, developing pathways out of poverty through transitional jobs, and advancing career pathways.

This document from the EMPath explains what is meant by the term "coaching," both in terms of definition and practice. The resource will present the reasons coaching is used at EMPath, define the basic components of how coaching is completed, and focus on usable information for practitioners and policymakers.

This resource provides tables that compile Federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Maintenance-of-Effort (MOE) expenditures from Fiscal Year 2014, as reported by the states.

Wider Opportunities for Women provides a 12-part online course designed to help caseworkers support survivors’ economic independence through better employment. The course is divided into three units: Pathways to Financial Security, Financial Recovery and Growth, and Addressing Barriers to Economic Security. Topics covered in the course include how to match survivors’ skills with good jobs in growing fields, how to help survivors effectively market themselves to employers, how to recover from economic abuse, and how to support survivors with barriers to employment.

Colorado Works, Colorado’s TANF agency, created this handbook to compile best practices that enhance the well-being, safety, and economic security of domestic violence survivors who come into contact with TANF. The handbook provides the business case for collaboration between TANF and domestic violence agencies, describes how domestic violence is interrelated with poverty and TANF, and how application of the Family Violence Option in TANF can help survivors and their children. Best practices include building effective collaboration between TANF and domestic violence agencies and co-locating domestic violence advocates in a TANF agency.

The National Online Resource Center for Violence Against Women created this special collection to provide resources to case managers who want to help domestic violence survivors access the Earned Income Tax Credit and other tax benefits. This collection highlights key resources for the EITC, the Child Tax Credit, Health Coverage Tax Credits, and others. It includes general information and fact sheets, reports and research, information about how tax credits affect eligibility for other federal benefits, as well as state-specific statistics and contact information. Finally, it provides information on free tax preparation services across the country and ways to avoid predatory lending and tax services.

This handbook, created by the advocacy organization Wider Opportunities for Women, provides step-by-step tools for case managers to use to help domestic violence survivors move toward economic security. First, the handbook gives an overview of the basics of economic security and the impact of economic abuse, then it provides information on the four steps necessary for a caseworker to help survivors develop an individual economic security plan: assessment, goal setting, identifying and connecting with resources, and continuing support.

This 2014 memo from ACF provides domestic violence training, resources, and potential opportunities for collaboration between TANF agencies and their partners. Resources include information on TANF’s Family Violence Option, which allows states to establish a special program within TANF to serve victims of domestic violence. There is also information provided on assessing a family’s domestic violence history during TANF intake, and partnering with domestic violence shelter programs to provide training for human services staff. The memo ends with lists of domestic violence hotlines, webinars, culturally specific resources, and other national domestic violence resources.

Many survivors of domestic violence have criminal records due to coerced criminal acts experienced at the hands of their partner. Survivors with a criminal record face significant challenges in accessing employment and achieving economic security. This tool is designed to help survivors better understand their employment rights, and offers tips and resources as they prepare for the job search process.