This report from the Foundation for Child Development highlights the benefits of dual-generation programs in terms of children’s outcomes. Specifically, research shows the many disparities between children whose mothers had not graduated from high school and children whose mothers had obtained a bachelor’s degree. Children whose mothers had not graduated from high school experience higher rates of poverty, lower rates of mathematics and reading proficiencies, a lower likelihood of graduating high school on time, and poorer overall health. The report also spotlights dual-generation programs in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Los Angeles, California. Finally, the authors offer policy options for all levels of government to develop and implement successful dual-generation programs.

In most of the two-generational strategies and programs, the attention is mainly focused on mothers. However, this brief from the Center for Law and Social Policy explains the early evidence from research that shows if noncustodial parents - mostly young men - are successfully employed and in healthy relationships in their own lives, they can also contribute to more successful outcomes for their children, both financially and emotionally.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Office of Family Assistance (OFA), hosted the Gateway to Opportunity: Improving Parental Employment and Family Well-Being Outcomes national TANF convening on September 1 – September 3, 2015 at the Renaissance Washington D.C. Downtown Hotel. The convening brought together TANF program administrators and national experts to promote dialogue around topics such as job-driven and career pathways training, TANF-WIOA coordination, client assessment and case management strengthening, the role of executive skills in employment outcomes, and two-generation approaches to family economic security. Gateway to Opportunity: Improving Parental Employment and Family Well-Being Outcomes provided attendees with opportunities to engage with their peers and experts from the field, to discuss best practices and the latest research, to converse with federal commissioners and ACF staff, as well as to plan ways to improve TANF programming for low-income families in their communities.

This report describes program design and implementation of four Responsible Fatherhood programs that are part of the Parents and Children Together evaluation. The report presents data on enrollment, initial participation, retention, and the amount of services fathers received from December 2012, the beginning of PACT enrollment, through August 2014. The report then discusses two approaches to service delivery adopted by the grantees and describes how these approaches may inform patterns related to program inputs and outputs and future Responsible Fatherhood programming. (author abstract)