This recorded webinar from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, as part of the Leading With Evidence: Informing Practice With Research series, illustrates tools piloted by states to assess the fiscal implications of services offered for children and families under the Family First Act. Key webinar features include guidance on how to estimate: costs for delivering evidence-based programs and case management; revenues used to offset costs, including Title IV-E funds and how to assess other revenue sources, such as Medicaid, to cover service delivery; and cost savings in spending on out-of-home placements by implementing prevention services.

This Urban Institute report examines the extension of foster care eligibility to age 21 and the extension of support services for foster care youth through 23 years old. The report looks at the challenges and practices of implementing extensions by child welfare agencies and supportive services providers. The report also covers recommendations for creating child welfare systems that are responsive for young adults.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation brief looks at factors that contribute to readiness of individuals and organizations to adopt quality improvement practices within the early care and education (ECE) field. The brief defines “readiness” and suggests that the measurement of readiness has not occurred widely, in part due to a lack of readiness measures that are customized for ECE. This brief suggests potential new readiness tools and adapts these measures from other fields to support broader use of quality improvement initiatives.

This Administration for Children and Families (ACF) blogpost, published by the Commissioner of the Administration on Children, Youth, and Families, describes activities associated with this year’s observance of National Runaway Prevention Month to raise awareness of the challenges that face homeless youth. This commemoration focuses on prevention services and promotes greater understanding of why young people are homeless; in many cases, youth are asked to leave home or do so because they see no other way to improve their situation. The Family and Youth Services Bureau is cited as a key player in the effort to end youth homelessness, domestic violence, and adolescent pregnancy.

This Child Trends report evaluates Nebraska’s Bridge to Independence (b2i) program for young adults who have recently exited from the foster care system. The program offers supportive services such as medical care, housing, and case management and assists participants as they attain education and employment in coordination with an assigned independence coordinator. This report’s assessment of qualitative and quantitative impacts of b2i are incorporated as part of the Nebraska Children’s Commission 2018-2019 Annual Report and will be used to set future priorities on the b2i program expansion.

This Mathematica report evaluates methods of substance abuse treatment and mental health service delivery and assesses the measurement of opioid misuse. The report also offers economic and epidemiologic tools to improve recognition of unintended consequences and long-term implications of interventions previously used to reduce opioid use.

This Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation report illustrates the research projects of the Division of Family Strengthening in Fiscal Year 2018. The report highlights six sections of activity: Supporting Fatherhood, Strengthening Relationships, Home Visiting: Nurturing Children Through Families, Supporting Positive Youth Development and Transitions to Adulthood, Preventing Family Violence, and Other Cross-Cutting Research.

This Urban Institute webinar from November 8, 2019 identifies insights from the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty on developing a comprehensive definition of mobility from poverty that includes not only economic success, but also increases in power, autonomy, and community presence. The webinar offered opportunities for state and government leaders, philanthropy representatives, and non-profit organizations to provide feedback on these mobility metrics and a prototype dashboard to move the metrics into actionable intelligence.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture, Food and Nutrition Service (FNS) issued a policy memo to share resources and tools that can help state agencies improve and expand their respective Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) E&T programs. These resources include: SNAP E&T policy guidance and clarifications on ways to partner with the public workforce investment system and implement certain 2018 Farm Bill provisions; interactive directives on how to use career pathways across all Federal agencies to deliver services for able-bodied adults without dependents; resources on the SNAP to Skills Project including policy briefs; and a SNAP E&T Operations Handbook on how to grow programs with third-party providers. The memo also noted that FNS will convene a SNAP E&T conference (details upcoming).