In response to several proposed federal changes to safety net program requirements, the Urban Institute developed a Well Being and Basic Needs Survey (WBNS) and published a report on the status of individual and family health and well-being. The data serves as a baseline against which to measure deviations as a result of potential policy change. Despite a low unemployment rate and growing labor market, the first round of WBNS data from 2017 shows that nearly 40 percent of adults had trouble meeting at least one basic need, a number which may increase due to proposed safety net changes. Hispanic, black, female, young, ill, and less educated demographics are the most likely to face hardships. The survey will continue to measure potential effects of policy changes and highlight areas of programmatic need.

This U.S. Department of Health and Human Services blog post highlights Bethany Christian Services (BCS), an organization dedicated to helping foster children transition into adulthood. Using evidence-based curriculum, BCS offers workforce development skills and workforce stipend experiences to youth in foster care, while also providing information on life skills, including pregnancy prevention, career path education, budgeting, resume development, and more. Participants are assigned a case manager to guide them, answer questions about the transition to adulthood, and help them build self-confidence and self-sufficiency. To learn more about BCS or other pregnancy prevention programs funded through the Family and Youth Services Bureau, visit their website.

In October 2017, the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and MEF Associates gathered child support practitioners for a roundtable on the future of child support programs, which served as the content base for this report. They highlight eight issues faced by the child support community, such as compliance, non-traditional families, changing costs of living, and other public benefit receipt, as well as types of research opportunities to further study these concerns. Although not exhaustive, their list is comprehensive and offers concrete research questions for stakeholders to discuss and use to inform their child support policies and operations.

While the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is a popular anti-poverty and pro-work policy that provides a refundable tax credit to low-income Americans, most of its dollars go to families with children. Because there are significantly fewer resources for workers without children, New York City and Atlanta piloted a “Paycheck Plus” program to give single workers more generous benefits. This report by MDRC finds that this program reduced extreme poverty and modestly increased employment rates, particularly for women and the lowest-income men. The researchers speculate that increasing people’s knowledge of employment services may increase the employment effects of the program, which could be an area of expansion for similar interventions going forward. Paycheck Plus also had additional social benefits like increasing tax filing rates and increasing child support payments, leading MDRC to conclude that work-based safety net programs have measured effects on poverty and employment for low-income Americans.

Research shows that children who must be separated from their birth parents fare better when placed in the care of relatives as opposed to non-relatives. This finding is becoming particularly important as the number of foster children increases due to the opioid crisis, and relatives like grandparents increasingly shoulder the responsibility of care for these children. Generations United offers a report with data on the opioid crisis as it pertains to grandfamilies, and also lists policy and program recommendations to help stakeholders in the field. Besides prioritizing placement of foster children with relatives, the report recommends fully using services established under the Family First Prevention Services Act and the National Family Caregiver Support Program, providing legal and foster parent licensing assistance, helping grandfamilies attain funding and support, and creating a National Technical Assistance Center on Grandfamilies.

This MDRC report is an impact evaluation of the U.S. Department of Labor’s Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD) program. The ETJD program was targeted to persons who were either returning citizens or are low-income parents who have had trouble making timely child support payments. The evaluation reviews the impact of the program on participants 30 months after initial enrollment and after nearly all participants had left their transitional jobs.

The U.S. Interagency Council on Homelessness will begin to issue a set of six fact sheets through its blog “Home, Together” to bridge a connection between early care and education providers and housing and homelessness services providers. The fact sheets intend to support a whole-family approach that addresses the needs and strengths of parents and children experiencing homelessness. The sheets also strive to improve the integration of early childhood homelessness data into a broader community-wide planning strategy that seeks to make homelessness a brief and one-time occurrence.

This report from MDRC provides an evaluation of the state of Kansas' Child Support Savings Initiative (CSSI) which was created to help parents pay off child support debt while contributing to their children's future higher education costs. It encourages parents to make direct deposits into 529 accounts, and in return, they receive matching reductions in their child support debt from the state. The search showed a common finding: that it is difficult to engage low- and middle-income families in saving money, as they already face other financial burdens. This is explored in depth in the report.

This resource from the National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse highlights a rural community partnership between a fatherhood program and local child support agency. In this case study, authors describe the development of a partnership in Merced County, California and lessons learned.

This blog post from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services is the fourth installment of the “Self-Sufficiency Series: Solutions from the Field” and highlights Children First SHARP (Supporting Parents, Holistic Case Management, Access to Employment, Reaching Goals, Positive Parenting), an evidence-based model for serving noncustodial parents; this is a collective, one-stop approach between Goodwill Industries, the Kenosha County Child Support Agency, and several other community partners. Services provided include assistance with job searches and resume building, work supports, and a weekly Children First Job Club that facilitates peer support and networking.