Child support is a critical source of income, especially for the growing population of children born to unmarried mothers. Given many single mothers’ limited earnings potential, child support from non-custodial fathers is also important. This paper uses data from a statewide randomized experiment conducted in Wisconsin in order to address the effects of child support on custodial mothers’ labor supply, and whether policies that increase child support receipt will discourage mothers’ employment. The evidence indicated that there is no negative effect of child support on the likelihood to work for pay or the number of hours worked in a given week. These results suggest that custodial mothers’ child support collections and their labor supply may be compatible and that the absence of a negative labor supply effect strengthens the potential antipoverty effectiveness of child support.

The College & Career Readiness & Success Center recently released a brief on career pathways initiatives across the U.S. The brief describes major national and regional career pathways programs and presents lessons learned for States considering developing and implementing their own initiatives and programs. Out of the 29 States already participating in career pathways initiatives, eleven are involved in multiple initiatives.

This fact sheet from the Annie E. Casey Foundation presents data from the Supplemental Poverty Measure (SPM). The SPM measures the impact of various social programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), as well as accounts for the rising costs and other changes that affect a family’s budget.

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.