The child support program serves parents in the context of their community. Child support agencies work with community-based organizations to help meet parent needs,and enhance the success of families in child support programs. This compendium reflects the diversity of child support partnerships across the country; it includes resources and fact sheets on employment, reentry, family violence, responsible fatherhood, homelessness, parental education, and preventing the need for child support services by addressing the importance of being emotionally and financially prepared to support a child.

In support of the Administration for Children and Families’ (ACF) mission and strategic plan, ACF has developed a set of materials intended to provide guidance to hard-to-reach populations to increase their awareness and understanding of the array of resources that may be able to assist them. These resources are explicitly designed to be user-friendly and easy to digest. The materials include resources for transition-age youth exiting foster care, families with children ages 0-12, prospective Head Start participants, survivors of domestic violence looking to find and keep housing, fathers looking for benefits programs or parenting tips, and providers supporting those seeking post-disaster housing.

The New Jersey Keeping Families Together (KFT) program is a supportive housing program that combines subsidized housing with voluntary supportive services for child welfare-involved families at risk of homelessness. Urban Institute conducted an evaluation of New Jersey’s KFT program, including the interviews of staff members representing all eight service providers as well as local departments involved in the development and implementation of the program to examine the program model. This report explores the findings of their evaluation, which can be helpful at both the policy and programmatic levels in developing program changes to most effectively ensure consistent and standard models of practice across KFT service providers.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, Office of Family Assistance (OFA) held the 2022 Regions V-VIII State TANF Virtual Meeting on July 19-21, 2022. This virtual event brought together TANF program representatives from OFA Regions V-VIII and focused on how programs can best address the needs of families beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. The meeting included sessions on TANF fundamentals and updates, how the shift to the virtual world has impacted TANF customers and agencies, and changes programs can make to improve their support of customers throughout their TANF journey.

Also, participants chose from concurrent peer-to-peer sessions to attend based on their role within their state (case management, data personnel, or administrative/leadership) to discuss topics including eligibility and work requirements, TANF essentials, the new normal, and refocusing the customer.

The authors of this blog provide data and commentary that highlight three key economic concerns for the summer of 2022: women leaving the labor force, economic contraction erasing job gains by Black workers, and the heightened risk of food insecurity. To mitigate these potential pitfalls, the authors suggest robust fiscal policies such as stronger unemployment insurance and a renewed monthly Child Tax Credit as well as a collaborative effort from the federal government, states, philanthropy, and local community-based organizations to support families vulnerable to food insecurity and homelessness in the coming months.

NPR, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health conducted a five-part polling series in July – August 2020 to examine the most serious health and financial problems facing households across America prior to the expiration of federal coronavirus support programs, with an aim to identify vulnerable populations in urgent need of government help or charitable aid. The findings detailed in this report raise important concerns about disproportionate impacts of the coronavirus outbreak reported by Latino, Black, and Native American households beyond the elevated health risks they face battling COVID-19. In particular, these findings show these racial/ethnic minority households may have limited financial resources to weather long-term financial and health effects of the coronavirus outbreak, as large shares have already depleted their savings and are having major problems paying for basic costs of living, including food, rent, and medical care.

The Urban Institute will host a webinar on October 13, 2021 from 2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. ET to explore persistent rural poverty, which occurs in one in seven rural counties and leaves rural and Native communities lacking capital, quality jobs, housing, infrastructure, and services. The webinar includes presentations from six rural community development financial institutions on what has worked to transform the rural and Native areas they serve into opportunity and the challenges that remain. Speakers include representatives from the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, HOPE, Oweesta Corporation, Fahe, cdcb, Communities Unlimited, and the Urban Institute.

This report identifies the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on food insecurity, housing, and employment hardships. Data tables illustrate the difficulties in accessing enough food, increased inability to make timely rent or mortgage payments, challenges in meeting household expenses, and the concentration of job losses in low-wage industries. Comparative state data on these hardships is also presented.

This report evaluates the Denver Supportive Housing Social Impact Bond Initiative (Denver SIB), which sought to increase housing stability and reduce jail stays among chronically homeless persons with prior frequent involvement with the criminal justice and emergency health systems. Under Denver SIB, supportive housing was provided through a Housing First approach (which had no preconditions or requirements for participants) and a modified Assertive Community Treatment (ACT) model. ACT is a multidisciplinary team-based approach to deliver supportive services, such as case management, crisis intervention, substance use counseling, mental health treatment, peer support, skills building, and connection to primary care.

This report presents interim findings of a national random assignment evaluation of the Family-Self Sufficiency (FSS) program which is implemented in households receiving Housing Choice Vouchers through 700 public housing agencies. FSS consists of two elements: case managers who work with participants to develop individualized self-sufficiency plans, and the creation of an interest-bearing escrow account to support participants’ asset development. The report reviews implementation of the FSS program, program participants’ engagement, and the impacts on labor force participation and government benefits receipt.