Fathers, children, and families benefit when fathers have healthy coparenting and romantic relationships. Given the importance of healthy relationships, many fatherhood programs address coparenting and romantic relationships in programming and aim to improve skills that are applicable across different types of relationships, including communication, conflict management, and emotional self-regulation. For American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) fathers, it is important to consider the diverse cultural traditions, histories, and unique political status of Tribes as sovereign nations. The purpose of this Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief is to provide practice-based, contextually relevant strategies that fatherhood programs serving AIAN fathers can use to support their healthy coparenting and romantic relationships.

The Child Welfare Information Gateway created a five-part podcast series that illustrated ways that states and tribal jurisdictions have supported kinship caregivers. Part 1 of this series featured a group of kinship-centered services and programs from the Rhode Island Department of Children, Youth, and Families. Topics discussed included:

• Why kinship caregivers should be treated differently by agencies and caseworkers, and the specific challenges kinship caregivers face,
• Strengthening relationships between caseworkers and kinship caregivers,
• The roles and responsibilities of the Rhode Island’s Family Search and Engagement team, and
• Adapting a customer-service approach across the State’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families, and what it means for caseworkers to “manage emotions first.”

This blogpost highlights a new guide from Los Angeles County that describes how community outrage over youth incarceration and overcriminalization led activists and practitioners to transform the way the legal system responds to young people in trouble with the law. The guide tells the story of community collaboration on a plan to systematically steer youth in Los Angeles County away from the legal system at the point of arrest or into community-based services in lieu of formal court processing.

A growing body of research has begun to change understandings of how toxic environments can affect young people, particularly African American boys and young men. The Institute for Research on Poverty, University of Wisconsin at Madison hosted a webinar on August 17, 2022, during which professors Noni Gaylord-Harden (Texas A&M University), Jocelyn Smith Lee (University of North Carolina at Greensboro), and Alvin Thomas (University of Wisconsin at Madison) spoke about risk and protective factors for youth exposed to poverty, racism, and violence. The speakers also noted how research, policy, and practice can incorporate these lessons. A video recording of the webinar is available for downloading.

This year’s publication describes how children in America are in the midst of a mental health crisis, struggling with anxiety and depression at unprecedented levels. It presents national and state data across four domains — economic well-being, education, health and family and community — and ranks states in overall child well-being. The report includes pre-pandemic figures as well as more recent statistics, and shares the latest information of its kind available.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration, Office of Workforce Investment held a webinar on August 11, 2022 to support the workforce system’s understanding of the complex issues around substance use disorder and help them reach and assist individuals and businesses impacted by opioid addiction. Guest speakers from the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services shared an overview of "Strategies for Serving Individuals Impacted by Opioid Use Disorder: A Toolkit for Ohio’s Public Workforce System." The Toolkit is designed to guide and support Workforce Boards and workforce development professionals as they implement policies, processes, and services. It is built around the following key pillars of success: Strong Local Partnerships; Holistic Care Management; Steps to Success; Recovery-Friendly Workplaces; and Knowledgeable Staff. Transcripts of the webinar and the Toolkit are available for downloading.

Supporting healthy development begins in early childhood. To support their children and optimize family well-being, parents need access to high-quality early care and education (ECE) services, as well as support for broader family needs, such as nutrition, home visiting, parenting skills, or employment. ACF sponsored the Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) study to deepen understanding of programs, groups, agencies, or organizations that coordinate ECE with other health and human services (referred to in this report as coordinated services approaches). This report describes the study’s qualitative data collection, presents models of coordinated services at the state and local level, and reports findings about state and local coordinated services approaches.

Student loan forgiveness is one way to recognize the important work of the human services workforce and to motivate individuals to join or remain in public service professions. Employees of a federal, state, or local tribal government agency or a non-profit are eligible for federal loan forgiveness after making 120 payments. The 15-year-old U.S. Department of Education’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program (PSLF) has been overhauled to expand eligibility and make it easier to navigate. This important fix allows more federal student loan borrowers to easily access PSLF and obtain the relief the program promised. These changes are time limited. Some borrowers will need to consolidate their federal loans and/or submit a PSLF form by October 31, 2022 to take advantage of this opportunity.

ACF has created the PSLF landing page that includes resources with information on eligibility and tools for getting the word out. The page includes a recording of the March 31 webinar hosted by the Office of Early Childhood Development in partnership with the Department of Education, attended by over 17,000 early educators. This recording, as well as PDFs and Frequently Asked Questions, are also housed on the site. 

The National Association of Workforce Development Professionals will host a webinar on September 15, 2022 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. CT which will cover how workforce professionals have the opportunity at every customer touch point to make an impact, even through the smallest interactions.

This webinar focuses on making excellence the standard, not the exception, and identifies strategies and tactics to help professionals become more excellent. The webinar will discuss ways to increase excellence in customer interactions, in workspaces, in emotional intelligence, in connections with partners, and in programs. Learning objectives include:

• Defining and understanding what excellence is, and what excellence is not.
• Distinguishing average and excellent, and learning strategies to pursue excellence in every customer interaction.
• Role playing, using specific situations that front line staff face, and taking that situation and implementing strategies to ensure staff are operating in excellence, even in difficult situations.

A registration fee for attendance is required.