This report covers lessons learned from the first phase (January 2020 to September 2020) of the Southeastern Cohort on Young Parents and Families. The Cohort is an initiative aimed at enhancing and aligning programs, policies, and systems to better support young parents (ages 18-24) and their families in Georgia, Kentucky, and South Carolina. The report presents findings on four key areas: understanding and engaging young parents, continuous improvement through data and feedback, service collaboration and alignment, and service delivery adaptations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The National Association of Social Workers will host a webinar on January 28, 2021 from 1:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET which will review the child protection approach to child welfare. The webinar will review the effectiveness of the approach and how it offers a rights-based process of protecting children and providing services to child welfare clients and their families. The webinar also explores the implications of the approach on social work practice. A registration fee is required for this webinar.

This KIDS COUNT report utilizes survey data from the U.S. Census Bureau to measure how low-income households and children have been affected by COVID-19. The report first illustrates the rates of child well-being before and during the pandemic. The report also presents findings on health insurance coverage and mental health services access, and measures economic instability during the pandemic as well as data on changes in children’s learning environments since the pandemic’s start in spring 2020. The report then provides strategies that can be implemented at the federal and state levels to address future needs of families and children.

The U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration (ETA) will host a webinar on January 8, 2021 from 3:30 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. ET which will discuss their process for exploring vendor capacity to develop a state level holistic case management system across Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) partner programs. WIOA requires that American Job Center (AJC) partners support aligning technology and data systems to improve service delivery. Stakeholders, including workforce practitioners, local and state government representatives, ETA program operations professionals, and information technology professionals from AJC partners, are invited to participate in the discussion and ask questions. Presenters will include the Administrator and the Enterprise Program Advisor of the Office of Workforce Investment at the ETA.

The Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin at Madison hosted a webinar on December 2, 2020, which covered father-specific parenting programs targeting expectant and new fathers and young, low-income, and unmarried fathers. Presenters highlighted peer-to-peer programming for new fathers led by the African American Breastfeeding Network; a Dads Matters effort that brings fathers into perinatal home visiting programs; and the work of the Milwaukee Fatherhood Initiative that offers father-focused legal, health, and education services and parenting support.

REDF will host a free virtual Lab for Employment Social Enterprise Leaders from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. PT on December 11, 2020, January 15, 2021, and February 19, 2021 (participants will have an opportunity to sign up for one of these three event dates). Geared toward leaders of employment social enterprises, this lab will offer an overview of REDF’s Accelerator program and will help participants assess their interest in applying for this program when the application cycle resumes in February 2021. The lab will also provide leaders with networking opportunities and will support them in setting goals and identifying stakeholder needs.

This issue brief explores the need for expanding the early care and education workforce. The brief highlights the T.E.A.C.H. Early Childhood® Initiative in 20 states, which provides scholarships to teachers and child care providers interested in improving their formal professional credentials. The brief also discusses approaches to increase the wages and benefits that early care and education providers can offer their staff. There is also a section on improving working conditions in the field that includes coaching and professional development for teachers. In addition, the brief offers support to providers in sustaining their child care businesses with curricula on fiscal management, marketing, and personnel management.

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.

This new webinar series entitled Moving Upstream: Transforming Systems to Advance Well-Being will examine structural barriers to and opportunities for moving to a coordinated system of services to support and strengthen families. The first webinar in the series will occur on January 14, 2021 from 1:15 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. ET. The webinar will examine how housing and economic mobility programs can coordinate to promote child and family well-being. Presenters will include representatives from Mercy Housing, Casey Family Services, Compass Working Capital, and Abt Associates.

This Office of Family Assistance dataset includes financial data tables, interactive maps, and national and state pie charts to illustrate the uses of TANF and Maintenance-of-Effort funds and transfers in FY2019. The charts break down expenditures for TANF-allowable purposes into 15 categories, including basic assistance; work, education, and training activities; child care; refundable tax credits (state Earned Income Tax Credit programs); child welfare services; pre-K/Head Start; out-of-wedlock pregnancy prevention; non-recurrent short term benefits; work supports and supportive services (transportation, mental health/substance abuse counseling, domestic violence services, and financial education); services for children and youth (home visiting, mentoring, and after school enrichment); fatherhood and two-parent family programs; transfers to Social Services Block Grant programs; and program management for TANF administration.