This Administration for Children and Families (ACF) blogpost, co-authored by the Associate Commissioner at the Children’s Bureau and the Commissioner of Administration for Native Americans, highlights ACF resources that can assist tribes and Native Americans in strengthening their children and family systems. These highlighted resources include the Children’s Bureau’s Capacity Building Center for tribes, Diligent Recruitment Plans to help tribes create and enhance their Recruitment and Foster Care programs, and competitive grants for innovative, locally-driven program design.

This online report from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation reviews key findings from the Parents and Children Together (PACT) evaluation. It features quotes and video clips from Responsible Fatherhood program staff and participants. The report describes four programs in PACT, including their available services and program impacts on fathers. Key findings are that fathers believed the programs helped them become better parents, wanted greater access to their children, and reported gaining job-seeking skills.

This report from the Center for Policy Research at Syracuse University’s Maxwell School reviews the implications of childhood exposure to the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) on marriage and childbearing. In particular, the researchers examine whether EITC has intergenerational benefits by affecting the family formation decisions of men and women exposed to EITC in childhood. The research suggests that EITC investment in youth delays for women the timing of first births.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison will hold a webinar on May 15, 2019 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT to discuss research findings from the National Academies report, Cutting the Child Poverty Rate by Half. Two of the report’s authors, Hilary Hoynes and Robert Moffitt, will cover the effectiveness of current assistance programs and their policy and program recommendations to reduce child poverty by half in the next 10 years.

This Chapin Hall report reviews the implementation of a “housing first” approach that addresses the needs of families in the child welfare system. The case study of supportive housing in Connecticut was a demonstration project, funded by the Children’s Bureau of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Researchers used a randomized controlled trial to identify the impact of supportive housing on child and family outcomes to include family reunification, as well as removal from and placement into foster care.

The Administration for Children and Families developed the Prevention Services Clearinghouse to implement the Family First Prevention Services Act (FFPSA) of 2018 funded under Title IV-E of the Social Security Act. The Clearinghouse evaluates programs and services intended to provide enhanced support to children and families and prevent foster care placements. The Clearinghouse rates programs and services in the areas of mental health prevention and treatment options, substance abuse prevention and treatment services, in-home parenting programs, and kinship navigator programs. Their Handbook of Standards and Procedures describes the standards used to identify and review the programs and services, as well as the procedures followed by the Prevention Services Clearinghouse staff.

This National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine report to Congress identifies evidence-based programs and policies intended to reduce child poverty. The report, drawn from experts in psychology, cognitive science, public policy, education, sociology, and pediatrics, presents four packages of policies and programs. Within the existing set of programs, the report discusses expansion of SNAP, the Earned Income Tax Credit, and the Child and Dependent Care Tax Credit programs; it also offers new ideas for a national job training program and universal child allowance.

The 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 developed this Resource Guide to help service providers prevent child abuse and neglect and promote child and family well-being. Content includes protective factors to strengthen individuals, families and communities; model programs that can be implemented when working with families and using the protective factor framework; ways the framework can build community partnerships; and how to protect children from abuse. The Resource Guide also provides parents and caregivers with English and Spanish tip sheets on building and sustaining a healthy home environment for children.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison teamed with the Child Abuse and Neglect Prevention Board to present a webinar on March 27, 2019 on current research, as well as outreach and programming field practices that are responsive to fathers’ needs. Presenters included faculty from the University of Wisconsin’s School of Social Work and practitioners from the Indianhead Community Action Agency (serving Northwestern Wisconsin), the Parenting Network of Milwaukee, and the City of Milwaukee Health Department Men’s Health Unit.

This blog post from the Children's Bureau Office on Child Abuse and Neglect identifies programs and resources that foster safe and stable environments for children and their families. The post highlights an initiative funded under the Community-Based Child Abuse Prevention program, as well as the 2019 Prevention Resource Guide that includes six protective factors promoting child well-being.