This brief provides a general overview of the two Healthy Marriage (HM) grantees involved in the Parents and Children Together Evaluation (PACT), provides participation rates in services, and documents how the two grantees integrated job and career advancement services for parenting couples into their programs. This brief uses data obtained through staff interviews and program observations during site visits; ongoing interactions with program leadership; and data from a management information system that programs use to record data on couples’ receipt of services. (author abstract)

Family living arrangements have shifted over time, and fewer children now reside with their fathers. This has led to an increasing focus on non-resident fathers’ support of and involvement with their children. This study uses data from the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study to explore the connection between fathers’ financial support payments and their involvement in coparenting. Findings suggest that there is a reciprocal relationship between coparenting and the amount of fathers’ payments, with coparenting having a greater effect on payments than the effect that making payments has on coparenting.

Youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood need many supports to navigate the challenges they face. Over the past three decades, federal child welfare policy has significantly increased the availability of those supports. In 1999, the Foster Care Independence Act amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (the Chafee Program). This amendment doubled the maximum amount of funds potentially available to states for independent living services and gave states greater discretion over how they use those funds. More recently, a provision in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 gave states an option to extend eligibility for Title IV-E foster care for youth beyond age 18 until age 21. In states that have taken this option, young people can receive an additional three years of foster care support to prepare for the transition into adulthood.

ACF contracted with the Urban Institute and its partner Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to plan for the next generation of evaluation activities funded by the Chafee Program. This brief focuses on employment programs. The brief reviews what we currently know about employment outcomes of youth formerly in foster care, considers the existing evidence on the effectiveness of employment programs, and concludes with issues for the field to consider as we move toward the next evaluation of the Chafee Program. (author abstract)

Youth transitioning out of foster care and into adulthood need many supports to navigate the challenges they face. Over the past three decades, federal child welfare policy has significantly increased the availability of those supports. In 1999, the Foster Care Independence Act amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program (the Chafee Program). This amendment doubled the maximum amount of funds potentially available to states for independent living services and gave states greater discretion over how they use those funds. More recently, a provision in the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 gave states an option to extend eligibility for Title IV-E foster care for youth beyond age 18 until age 21. In states that have taken this option, young people can receive an additional three years of foster care support to prepare for the transition into adulthood.

ACF contracted with the Urban Institute and its partner Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago to plan for the next generation of evaluation activities funded by the Chafee Program.  This brief focuses on programs that promote financial literacy and asset building.  The brief reviews what we currently know about challenges impacting the financial stability of youth as they transition out of foster care, considers the existing evidence on the effectiveness of financial literacy programs, and concludes with issues for the field to consider as we move toward the next evaluation of the Chafee Program. (author abstract)