This American Indian College Fund guidebook, intended to support Native American college students in developing career pathways, includes culturally relevant resources. The guidebook features tips and inspiring stories on job seeking, resumé preparation, cover letters, references, appropriate dress, internships, enhancing soft skills, personal branding, and interviewing. The guidebook also identifies career information about skilled trades, job opportunities in Indian Country, pursuing graduate school, networking, and joining associations.

This fact sheet from the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Indian and Native American Programs highlights the more than $7 million in spending under the Cherokee Nation’s Respond, Recover and Rebuild spending relief plan, which is designed to increase career opportunities in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. The fact sheet discusses allocations for the tribe’s summer youth employment; a tribal training program known as “day work;” a work experience program; and a tuition assistance program to support careers in health care, construction, truck driving, welding, and other fields. The fact sheet also notes that the tribe is creating a career ladder program in telemedicine and health IT, expanding its online GED programs, and supporting its trade clients with technology needs.

Hybrid and competency-based approaches to Registered Apprenticeship programs are becoming increasingly popular and can be useful to participants who are enrolled in secondary education. This self-paced online course intends to support workforce development professionals, employers, and apprenticeship sponsors in planning, designing, and implementing a hybrid or competency-based Registered Apprenticeship program for youth or adults. Key elements of the course include guidance on how to build a plan, find program samples and create a work process, develop a related technical instruction (RTI) outline, create a wage scale, design a communications plan and identify success measures, and build competency assessments.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report reviews the creation of integrated employment services and treatment programs for persons with opioid and substance use disorders (SUDs) and covers the emerging evidence on this approach’s effectiveness in improving participant employment outcomes. Employment service delivery as part of SUD treatment intends to support individuals in their attainment of sustained recovery and improved economic well-being. The report was prepared as part of the Building Evidence on Employment Strategies for Low-Income Families (BEES) project which evaluates programs that combine employment services with SUD treatment and recovery services. Through these evaluations, BEES strives to increase awareness of effective interventions that support low-income individuals in finding jobs and advancing in the labor market.

The Pathways to Work Evidence Clearinghouse will host a webinar on April 29, 2021 from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET to discuss how TANF administrators and other service providers can find and use information on the Pathways Clearinghouse website about evidence-based interventions and their implementation. Presentations will cover the Pathways Clearinghouse’s relevance and a demonstration of the website’s new features, as well as the website’s information on how over 50 evidence-based interventions were implemented. Speakers include representatives of the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation, the Archuleta County Department of Human Services, the Massachusetts Department of Transitional Assistance, and Mathematica.

This blogpost illustrates how Jewish Family Services (JFS) of Columbus (Franklin County, Ohio) transitioned operations and adapted its practices as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The blogpost focuses on the JFS Journey program; Journey assists low-income individuals engaged with the Franklin County child support agency in obtaining new or better jobs, which helps them meet their support obligations. The discussion covers how JFS worked with local employers in the distribution industry to create placement opportunities for its clients, how JFS transitioned its group employment services digitally, and how new forms of staff and client engagement and procedures may be retained in a post-pandemic environment.

The Urban Institute hosted a virtual webinar on March 31, 2021 which covered findings from a new resource guide for practitioners highlighting how youth-serving organizations adapted their programs to engage youth virtually due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Presenters from Jewish Vocational Service, i.c.stars, Baltimore’s Promise, and the Urban Institute illustrated strategies that the organizations used to provide education and training, employment, career readiness, and mental health services remotely to youth and young adults ages 16 to 24.

This report reviews lessons learned in the implementation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s seven-year Family-Centered Community Change (FCCC) initiative in Buffalo, New York; Columbus, Ohio; and San Antonio, Texas. The FCCC is an integrated two-generation service model offering child care, job training, and financial and employment services. The report presents lessons about collaborating, integrating services, and building strong partnerships at the community level.

The 20th Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) was held virtually on October 13–15 and October 19–22, 2020. The conference sessions were organized in six thematic tracks: TANF Programs, Policies, and Populations; Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market; Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood; Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships; Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data; and Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity. A complete set of videos covering plenary and breakout sessions and a career panel is now available online.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration will host a webinar on March 10, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET which will cover the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment (RESEA) Grant provisions on virtual and remote service delivery and opportunities to leverage and integrate RESEA services within the public workforce system. Discussion will include case studies from state agencies which have implemented innovative remote and virtual service delivery strategies to continue RESEA services during the COVID-19 pandemic. Information on additional resources and electronic tools to support virtual and remote RESEA service delivery will also be presented. Presenters will include representatives from the Office of Unemployment Insurance at the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration; the Rhode Island Department of Employment and Training; the Georgia Department of Labor/Workforce Solutions; and the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development.