This study, prepared by Mathematica, is the fourth annual report to Congress that evaluates 10 SNAP Pilot Projects in California, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. The report identifies grantees’ enrollment goals and services, as well as their respective programs’ achievements and challenges. The evaluation used a random assignment research design to assess the level of support offered to SNAP participants on job search assistance, training, and basic and vocational education, as well as subsidized and unsubsidized work experience.

This Casey Family Programs issue brief looks at the use of peer mentors (“parent partners”) who work with parents entering in and engaging with the child welfare system. These parent partners have already encountered and worked with the child welfare system themselves, and the mentoring that they offer can encourage and instill hope for parents initially interacting with the system. The brief outlines these parent partner programs’ benefits and program research evaluation findings, and provides guidance on how these programs are structured and funded. It also provides brief summaries of three parent partner programs: Parents Anonymous^®, the Kentucky Sobriety Treatment and Recovery Team (START) Program, and Iowa’s Parent Partner Program.

This U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service report reviews demonstration projects and innovative strategies to address childhood hunger and food insecurity. Authorized by the 2010 Child Nutrition Act, findings from the planning and implementation stages of projects within Chickasaw Nation, Kentucky, Nevada, and Virginia are presented and are drawn from document reviews, technical assistance phone calls, field interviews, and focus groups convened at each location.

This National Academy for State Health Policy report spotlights initiatives undertaken by Kentucky, New Hampshire, and Virginia to combat the opioid crisis and support citizens affected by opioid use. Interviews conducted with state officials in Medicaid, child welfare, and behavioral health provision roles resulted in recurring themes of effective practices, including care access for at-risk children and parents, family-focused and trauma-informed care, and sharing data and funding across systems. After discussing multi-agency strategies for helping those affected by opioids, the report also offers ways to support children and families. These include expanding training for child-service professionals, removing stigma against medication-assisted treatment so that children can remain in their biological homes, coordinating funding streams, and bridging gaps between state systems serving children and families.

This brief examines the Accelerating Opportunity initiative that began in 2011, which helps adults with low basic skills obtain well-paying jobs through increasing their credentials. It reviews the implementation, impact, and cost benefits evaluations of the program in Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, and Louisiana. It showed promising gains for low-skilled adults in the area of education, but earnings impacts were mixed.

The chronic stressors faced by low-income rural families – including unemployment, low wage markets, lack of access to health care and nutritious food, substance abuse, and relative isolation – are issues that culturally responsive healthy marriage and relationship education can help to alleviate. This brief explores the challenges of delivering healthy marriage and relationship education in rural communities and the strategies that one program, Gateway Community Services Organization in the Appalachian region of Kentucky, uses to overcome them. One such strategy is addressing external stressors in tandem with relational concerns, by integrating job coaching with budgeting and financial management skill-building.

Throughout the past three years, the National Governors Association (NGA) Center for Best Practices has provided technical assistance to Alaska, Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, Michigan, New Mexico, Puerto Rico, Rhode Island, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming to develop statewide plans to improve outcomes and reduce cost of care for high-need, high-cost Medicaid enrollees. This road map from NGA can be used by states across the country that are interested in housing as an element of improved health and a reduction of costly health services.

Kentucky has been providing education-focused and work participation-driven case management to the TANF population since 1998. The TA Requestor, Ms. Shauna King-Simms, Director of Transitional Education Programs at the Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) heard a description of Crittenton Women’s Union’s (CWU’s) Mobility Mentoring® Model and was interested in integrating components of it into Kentucky’s program. Kentucky conducts similar case management activities with its Ready to Work and Work and Learn programs, but was interested in enhancing the current practices using this model. CWU is an economic mobility organization and the largest provider of transitional housing for homeless families in the greater Boston area. The organization provides job readiness training, parenting programs, and adult education. Almost 1,300 individuals are served each year. Ninety-two percent have a high school education or less. CWU’s clients are largely TANF participants with average earnings of $730 per month per family and the population is racially diverse. Their Mobility Mentoring® Model is the long-term developmental partnership between trained staff and program participants through which participants acquire the resources, knowledge, and skills necessary to attain and preserve economic independence.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services requested TA to support the integration of components of CWU’s Mobility Mentoring® Model for case management. The OFA PeerTA team agreed to support this request and created a TA plan with the following objectives:

• Collaborate with CWU to provide Kentucky with a tailored, two-day training on CWU’s Mobility Mentoring® Model for their Ready to Work staff at the KCTCS system office in Versailles, Kentucky. The training was prepared to accommodate approximately 45 Kentucky Ready to Work staff and three staff from the Department for Community Based Services (a Kentucky TANF agency), with a maximum of 50 participants in total.
• Support an outcomes-focused training that encourages implementation and sustainability of what is learned, so Kentucky can integrate the core concepts learned into their program(s) at a statewide level.

This report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) summarizes key findings from the implementation of the adapted version of the Reducing the Risk comprehensive sex education program in the Barren River and Lincoln Trail District Health Departments in Kentucky. In both districts, health educators delivered the program in relatively low-income, mostly rural high schools. The report describes the supports established to help health educators as they implemented the curriculum; adherence to the implementation plan; and the level of youth engagement with the curriculum.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), Regions IV, V, VI, VII, and VIII hosted the Tribal Technical Assistance Meeting on May 3‐5, 2016 at the Hilton Minneapolis/St. Paul Airport Mall of America Hotel in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The meeting brought together Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Native Employment Works (NEW) stakeholders to discuss innovative strategies and collaborations to promote economic and social well‐being for individuals, families, and tribal communities. During the meeting, tribal representatives engaged in talking circles and listening sessions, shared best practices, and participated in workshops and action planning in order to more successfully serve the program participants in their communities.