This research-to-practice brief identifies strategies that can support caregivers and teachers as they engage with families virtually as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond. This family engagement is conducted to support families and children in building positive and goal-oriented relationships. Strategies in this brief include using engaging online lessons to support parent learning, implementing virtual communication to help parents integrate learning in real-life contexts, using technology to offer information and resources to parents more readily, and creating online forums and virtual group meetings. The brief also includes factors that communities may consider in delivering virtual family engagement services.

Helping families meet their basic needs has a direct impact on lowering their stress, especially during a crisis like COVID-19. The Center on the Developing Child at Harvard University produced a short paper that focuses on how parents and caregivers can build up and strengthen resilience as they face challenges due to the pandemic. The paper suggests ways program staff can help families and staff reduce sources of stress, including connecting parents and caregivers with programs and services that can help meet their basic needs; encouraging parents, staff, and co-workers to practice self-care; and giving parents a break from child care responsibilities. The paper notes that moving past the pandemic, strengthening core life skills and building and practicing executive function and self-regulation skills will go a long way towards managing daily life so parents are better able to provide care for themselves and family members. Practical tips are provided, such as signing up for text reminders of important appointments, using tools like daily schedules and grocery list apps, and creating checklists for completing important applications.

This KIDS COUNT report utilizes survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to measure how low-income households and children have been affected by COVID-19. The report first illustrates the rates of child well-being before and during the pandemic. The report also presents findings on health insurance coverage and mental health services access, and measures economic instability during the pandemic as well as data on changes in children’s learning environments since the pandemic’s start in spring 2020. The report then provides strategies that can be implemented at the federal and state levels to address future needs of families and children.

As part of its M.A.N. C.A.V.E. (Men All Need to be Caring, Actively-Engaged, Vested, and Encouraged) Fatherhood Initiative, which aims to improve child well-being and promote positive relationships between fathers and their children, the City of Phoenix Head Start Birth to Five Program is sponsoring a free Fatherhood Virtual Summit on December 3, 2020 and December 4, 2020 from 9:30 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. ET. This event will combine keynote presentations and breakout sessions geared toward parents, grandparents, foster care providers, educators, and others who work with or raise boys.

This interactive mapping tool reflects the community factors associated with safe children and strong families. These factors include child and family well-being (children living in poverty and children without health insurance), educational attainment, economic status (unemployment rate, poverty rate, and median household income), housing factors (average number of hours working at minimum wage needed to afford housing, and percentage of unoccupied housing units), accessibility (access to healthy food, number of SNAP benefit recipients, computer access, and reduced/free lunch eligibility), and COVID-19 metrics (through November 2, but continuously updated). Data and indicators can be mapped at geographic levels defined by the user from the state level to the neighborhood level (by census tract).

This Resource Guide supports service providers in their work with parents, caregivers, and their children to prevent child abuse and neglect and promote child and family well-being. It was created by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Children’s Bureau, Office on Child Abuse and Neglect, its Child Welfare Information Gateway, and the FRIENDS National Center for Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention.

This July 2020 webinar from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation presented three Pathways-to-Outcomes models of Healthy Marriage and Relationship Education (HMRE) programs. The models are based on research evidence to find the association between specific program activities and the impact on HMRE participants for observed outcomes. The models might have applicability for program design and implementation for other HMRE programming for observable outcomes.

The effects of trauma on teens and young adults can be far reaching. The Dibble Institute will host a webinar on November 11, 2020 from 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET to present findings and lessons learned from a study conducted by researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. In the study, a trauma-informed approach utilizing relationship education was implemented with over 100,000 young people over four years in San Antonio. The speakers will define trauma, its effects on young people, and their reactions to trauma, and will discuss adverse childhood experiences. The webinar is intended for Federal- and state-funded grant managers, program supervisors, teachers, health care staff, and others who work with high-need youth.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison will host a webinar on October 29, 2020 from 12:15 p.m. to 1:30 p.m. CT to discuss research findings on how the EITC contributes to intergenerational mobility and family self-sufficiency. The webinar, a part of the Institute’s Seminar Series, will include a presentation from a representative of the U.S. Census Bureau’s Center for Economic Studies.

The Aspen Institute’s ASCEND initiative will host a webinar on October 28, 2020 from 2:00 p.m. to 3:15 p.m. ET to discuss the role of social capital as part of the 2Gen approach. Social capital, the “secret sauce” of the 2Gen approach, is demonstrated by increased peer support, greater sense of community belonging, and connections with family, friends, and neighbors. Social capital is also manifested in participation in community- and faith-based organizations, outreach by schools and the workplace, and engagement with case managers or career coaches. This webinar will include presentations from leadership and staff at the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, who will cover the identification and dissemination of emerging practices for measuring and using social capital. There will also be discussion of how practitioners can use a 2Gen approach to help their clients build relationships to attain their identified goals.