Service Coordinators Can Support Public Housing Residents during the Pandemic Recovery and Beyond

Record Description

This blogpost illustrates findings of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s Resident Opportunity and Self-Sufficiency Service Coordinator program (ROSS-SC). ROSS-SC provides funding to local public housing authorities to support public housing residents—primarily seniors, persons with disabilities, and very low-income families. The blogpost identifies how ROSS-SC helped residents to access food and transportation, deal with health emergencies, address domestic violence, and access child care.

(See also Resources on "intimate partner violence" in the Resource Library)

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-05-24T20:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-05-25
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

Importance of SNAP and Child Support Payments to Child Food Security and Well-Being

Record Description

This blogpost summarizes a podcast, “Child Support – A Tool to Enable Families and Their Children to be Food Secure,” which included interviews with the National Child Support Enforcement Association, the Food Research & Action Center, and the Maine Department of Human Services. It highlights the positive impact of child support programs under the Office of Child Support Enforcement, and notes the ways that SNAP offers short- and long-term benefits for infant and child health and well-being. The blogpost also links to the full podcast.

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-04-15T20:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-04-16
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

Grandfamilies and Kinship Care Provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021

Record Description

This webinar discusses new federal investments in kinship navigator programs, grandfamilies housing, and relevant child welfare programs that can help grandfamilies. It highlights how funds can be utilized to assist families in critical areas during the pandemic, such as housing, lawyer fees, transportation, technology, food, and emergency support for older youth aging out of foster care.

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-02-09T07:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-02-09
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

COVID-19 Working Paper: Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program and Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer Redemptions during the Coronavirus Pandemic

Record Description

The economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic include loss of employment and income, higher food prices, and other barriers to food access. This has resulted in a rise in the dollar amount of benefits issued by U.S. Department of Agriculture food assistance programs. This U.S. Department of Agriculture report examines the growth in food assistance benefits redeemed during the COVID-19 pandemic and explores changes in monthly SNAP and P-EBT redemptions through September 2020. The report also compares the usage of these benefits to recent years and redemption locations, including super stores, supermarkets, convenience stores, and online sites.

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-03-14T20:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-03-15
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

2020 RECS Videos Now Available

Record Description

The 20th Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS) was held virtually on October 13–15 and October 19–22, 2020. The conference sessions were organized in six thematic tracks: TANF Programs, Policies, and Populations; Employment and Mobility in the Labor Market; Youth Well-Being and the Transition to Adulthood; Strengthening Families, Fatherhood, Marriages, and Relationships; Evaluating Social Programs, Building Evidence, and Using Data; and Approaches to Alleviate Poverty and Expand Opportunity. A complete set of videos covering plenary and breakout sessions and a career panel is now available online.

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-02-28T19:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-03-01
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

The Community Opportunity Map 3.0

Record Description

This updated interactive mapping tool highlights aspects of communities associated with safe children and strong families. The research-based framework, composed of select community indicators, is offered to communities nationwide. The tool maps community indicators at geographic levels defined by the user, from the state level to neighborhoods. Most indicators are from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. The tool was informed by significant evidence of the community factors correlated with child maltreatment and a healthy community framework developed by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Factors include child and family wellbeing, economics, education, and housing. The tool includes new indicators, such as COVID-19 data and resource accessibility, and breaks down many of the data indicators by race and ethnicity. Training videos on how to use the tool are available.

Record Type
Combined Date
2021-01-27T19:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2021-01-28
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

Funding Programs for Young Parents & Families

Record Description

This brief summarizes potential federal funding sources and programs that can be used to address barriers facing young parents and families, such as unemployment, disruption to education, financial instability, and lack of child care access, parenting experience, or family supports. Programs listed include, but are not limited to, TANF, SNAP, SSBG, Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program, Child Care Development Block Grant, WIOA, and the Family First Prevention Services Act Prevention Funds.

Record Type
Combined Date
2020-11-30T19:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2020-12-01
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

The Effectiveness of Different Approaches for Moving Cash Assistance Recipients to Work: Findings from the Job Search Assistance Strategies Evaluation

Record Description

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report, a summary of the Job Search Assistance (JSA) Strategies Evaluation, compares the effectiveness of different approaches for finding and keeping jobs among individuals applying for or receiving assistance under TANF. The report reviews findings from three sites: Genesee and Wayne Counties in Michigan; New York City; and Sacramento County, California. In each of these sites, TANF applicants or recipients were randomly assigned to one of two programs that provided employment-related services. The study measured outcome differences (in public benefit receipt, employment, and earnings) between people assigned to each of the two programs in each site. The report’s findings address three key questions regarding the frequency, mode, and content of the employment-related services for the TANF recipients in the two programs; the two programs’ impacts on employment and earnings; and the effects on receipt of TANF and SNAP due to participation in the two programs.

Record Type
Combined Date
2020-11-01T19:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2020-11-02
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

The Community Opportunity Map 2020

Record Description

This interactive mapping tool reflects the community factors associated with safe children and strong families. These factors include child and family well-being (children living in poverty and children without health insurance), educational attainment, economic status (unemployment rate, poverty rate, and median household income), housing factors (average number of hours working at minimum wage needed to afford housing, and percentage of unoccupied housing units), accessibility (access to healthy food, number of SNAP benefit recipients, computer access, and reduced/free lunch eligibility), and COVID-19 metrics (through November 2, but continuously updated). Data and indicators can be mapped at geographic levels defined by the user from the state level to the neighborhood level (by census tract).

Record Type
Combined Date
2020-10-25T20:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2020-10-26
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)

More than One in Six Adults Were Food Insecure Two Months into the COVID-19 Recession

Record Description

This Urban Institute brief highlights how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted food insecurity, access to school meals, and charitable food distribution for adults and their families in the U.S. Based on data pulled from the first wave of the Urban Institute’s Coronavirus Tracking Survey, more than one in six adults ages 18 to 64 (17.7 percent) and more than one in five parents living with children (21.8 percent) reported in May 2020 that their households experienced food insecurity during the previous 30 days. The brief notes that this represents a moderate 3.2 percent drop from 20.9 percent in March/April 2020. While the increase in Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits alleviated strain on food budgets for many, the brief concludes that despite the moderation in reported food insecurity over time, SNAP will continue to be a crucial key in alleviating food insecurity.

Record Type
Combined Date
2020-07-14T20:00:00
Source
Region
City/County
Publication Date
2020-07-15
Section/Feed Type
Latest Information from Network (Home)