This report discusses the Behavioral Interventions to Advance in Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project, which utilizes tools from behavioral economics to improve the livelihood of low-income individuals and their families. The report illustrates how the project draws on principles of behavioral economics to develop solutions for ACF programs and shares insights from three case studies.

In 2010, 2.7 million children in the United States had a parent in jail or prison. This fact sheet from the Institute for Research on Poverty highlights the various impacts that incarceration of a parent can have on a child. Some of these effects include the loss of daily contact, changes in family structure, negative family dynamics, emotional instability, poverty, and social behaviors and stigma. The author offers several policy options that could help mitigate these impacts.

In this blog entry from the Brookings Center on Children and Families, Budgeting for National Priorities, Ron Haskins introduces a two-pronged approach to substantially reduce poverty rates. He argues that the combination of work and work-support elements of the current system reinforce one another and contribute to alleviating poverty. Haskins also references his testimony before the House Ways and Means Committee on the same subject.

The Family Violence Prevention and Services Program, a Division of the Family and Youth Services Bureau in the Administration for Children and Families, provides support for domestic violence programs across the nation. It also supports the National Domestic Violence Hotline, a tool used for victims of domestic violence to reach out for help.

The Office of Family Assistance (OFA) hosted a webinar entitled Integrating Executive Functioning Principles, Soft Skills Activities, and Case Management Coaching in order to Improve Economic Success for TANF Recipients. This Webinar provided resources and step-by-step recommendations to help participants better integrate case management approaches based on the work of the Crittenton Women's Union, the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities- Building Better Programs initiative and the Minnesota's Ramsey County activities. The overarching goals of the Webinar were to: 1. Provide an overview of executive functioning, the emergence of brain science research within the human services and the intersection of executive functioning and soft skills as a means to improve social and economic development from the Building Better Program's initiative developed by the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities; 2. Provide integration insights from the Crittenton Women's Union approach to improving executive functioning and economic mobility among TANF recipients and low-skilled individuals; and 3. Share lessons learned and implementation strategies from Ramsey County, Minnesota which has been rigorously evaluated and has been shown to improve economic outcomes for clients.

Career pathways programs link education and training services to enable students to advance to higher levels of employment or education in a given occupational sector. As the career pathways approach becomes more common, Spotlight on Poverty and Opportunity’s Jodie Levin-Epstein discussed its implications on the American workforce with Vickie Choitz, Senior Policy Analyst at the Center for Law and Public Policy, in this webcast.

A recent study initiated by the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) focused on the supports, strategies, and considerations influencing coordination across TANF and WIA programs in the U.S. This report highlights promising practices from eight states and 11 localities regarding the coordination of TANF and WIA services. It also provides readers with 12 strategies used by the study sites, which fall under the following components: administration and management, funding, policies and procedures, program missions and knowledge, services for customers, and accountability and performance measurement.

This report discusses the current state of financial security in American households. It provides information about the three components of family balance sheets: income, expenditures, and wealth. In addition, the report details how these three components have changed through the past decades and more.

The Administration for Children and Families presented this Webinar titled in November 2014. The Webinar provided information about the implications of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) for ACF programs, including TANF, the Community Services Block Grant and Homeless Youth, and Foster Care.

This National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families toolkit uses a backdrop of significant historical events as a foundation for understanding perspectives, improving communication, and strengthening relationships with those in the African American community. This toolkit is grounded in current research and draws on the experience of practitioners to provide practical suggestions for engaging and serving this population, particularly for incorporating healthy marriage and relationship education skills into service delivery systems as part of a comprehensive family-centered approach to promoting self-sufficiency.