On December 12, 2013, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), Region X held a webinar, "Strengthening TANF and Low-Income Families through Strategic Non-Custodial Supports." The webinar, open to State TANF Directors and staff, local TANF agencies, and contractors, focused on how promoting the financial and personal responsibility of non-custodial parents (NCPs) can increase their participation in the lives of their children, improve their employment and career path outcomes, and improve the long-term outlook for children in single-parent families. The presenters highlighted specific programs and provided an overview of innovative ways to serve NCPs, improve their engagement with TANF families, and develop partnerships that meet their needs.

The Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE), Administration for Children and Families released a report outlining their portfolio of research related to welfare and family self-sufficiency projects for the fiscal year 2013. OPRE's research focuses on four major areas: TANF and the Safety Net, Employment and the Labor Market, Education and Training, and other relevant cross-cutting research.

The National Resource Center for Healthy Marriage and Families released a brief on healthy relationships, employment, and reentry. This brief provides an overview of the evidence supporting the interrelatedness of employment, healthy relationships, family well-being, and recidivism. It also gives the perspectives of expert program practitioners who are successfully integrating programming related to employment, prison reentry, healthy relationships, and responsible fatherhood. Finally, this brief offers program and policy recommendations for leveraging the positive impacts of healthy relationships on employment and reentry and vice versa.

The Urban Institute released a paper discussing the negative effects of instability on child development. This paper reviewed and synthesized research on five areas of instability: family income, parental employment, family structure, housing, and the out-of-home contexts of school and child care. It also discusses some of the key pathways through which instability may affect development and provides recommendations for policy and practice to alleviate instability's impact. In addition to the report, the Urban Institute released a fact sheet that highlights the key findings from the report.

This brief, using qualitative data collected during the Hispanic Healthy Marriage Initiative Grantee Implementation Evaluation, describes the adaptations and refinements undertaken by study sites to make their services more culturally responsive to address the backgrounds and life circumstances of people of different cultural, racial, ethnic, or socio-economic backgrounds. The adaptations included addressing issues of language, diversity, racism, and immigration, and incorporating cultural constructs like familismo, confianza, personalismo, and respeto. These adaptations were made to improve the recruitment, retention, overall participation, and effectiveness of the programs. The study was not designed to examine the overall efficacy of these adaptations, but rather to document them. More research is needed to examine whether these adaptations contribute to program outcomes.(author abstract)

This U.S. Census Bureau report shows that the number of households with children under 18 who had at least one unemployed parent rose by 33 percent, from 2.4 million to 3.2 million, between 2005 and 2011. In some States, the rise was much sharper. Using statistics from the American Community Survey and Current Population Survey, the report provides an updated picture of the composition and living arrangements of families and households in the U.S. It covers specific topics such as same-sex couple households, young adults living in their parents' home, and multigenerational households.

This report from the Pew Research Center demonstrates that the roles of mothers and fathers in American society are converging in terms of how they spend their time and how they feel about work-life balance. It compares the attitudes of moms working outside the home with those who do not work outside the home, as well as married moms versus unmarried moms. Results indicate an increase in perception of difficulty in managing work-life conflicts.

The Administration for Children and Families' (ACF) vision for fatherhood is that every parent is actively engaged in his child's healthy development, and intellectual, emotional and financial well-being. ACF has provided a resource page with links and information about various Native Fatherhood support programs, Native Fatherhood grant opportunities, as well as local Tribal events.

The National Responsible Fatherhood Clearinghouse hosted a webinar, "Working with Dads: Fathers of Children with Special Needs." This webinar focused on issues faced by fathers and families with children of special needs and provided useful information and resources for practitioners and fathers. Issues faced by fathers raising children with chronic illnesses or developmental disabilities, practical things that dads of special needs children can do to support each other and their children, and ways that fatherhood practitioners can identify and provide support to fathers of special needs children were addressed.

The Center for Work & Family released a new summary report titled "The New Dad: A Work (and Life) in Progress." This report is a part of the "New Dad" series of published research that reports on the changing roles of fathers. These reports have studied the transition to fatherhood, how men manage career and family priorities, how they share caregiving responsibilities with their spouses, and what supports fathers look for and receive in their workplaces. "A Work (and Life) in Progress" provides information on fathers and work-life, as well as outlines specific recommendations for both fathers and fatherhood organizations.