This brief, published by OPRE and MDRC, examines the effects of evidenced-based home visiting programs for families, as well as the financial benefits of home visiting in relation to the cost of the programs. The brief highlights that home visiting programs show improved outcomes for children, while also being cost effective in the long term. Another finding indicated increased earnings and reduced government program spending for families who received evidence-based home visiting.

This 40-minute webinar from the Institute for Research on Poverty features Marci Ybarra of the University of Chicago School of Social Service Administration. She highlights the growing national interest in Paid Family Leave and the many questions about how these policies might extend to low-income women. Beginning with an overview of current family leave policies and research, she then discusses how other public welfare programs may function as temporary supports for poor mothers with infant children, and how expanded paid family leave programs could improve the well-being of families with children.

This Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report details implementation recommendations regarding low-income women and the detection of breast and cervical cancer. Many factors contribute to the likelihood that a woman will be diagnosed with breast and cervical cancer, including age, family history, race, and socioeconomic factors. The report emphasizes decreasing death rates by increasing access to early screenings and services. To provide these services, the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection Program (NBCCEDP) and the CDC identified six priorities in developing research-backed policy recommendations.

This brief from Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago examines the effects of housing instability in adolescence on the transition to adulthood. The brief, the first in a series, uses evidence to seek solutions to avoid missed opportunities to provide not only housing stability, but also stability in other areas of life including sleep, safety, and education. A lack of credible data about youth who experience homelessness has previously been a barrier, and this brief helps provide credible numbers when looking to address this problem in communities.

This brief summarizes current research around those Americans most at risk for falling into deep poverty. It also examines the role of the safety net in preventing and solving deep poverty. It proposes three potential areas of research, including: 1) measurement of food insecurity and other material hardships, 2) work and the effect of the labor markets on those experiencing poverty, and 3) policy – approaches that have worked, and those that have not (for example, looking at what policies can help those most at risk for poverty, such as SNAP, TANF, and child support enforcement).

A virtual roundtable was held on November 30, 2017 from 1:00-5:00 p.m. EST, co-presented by the Office of Family Assistance, the Office of Child Support Enforcement, and the Family and Youth Services Bureau. Via plenaries and breakout sessions, the roundtable  defined family violence, explained good cause, and highlighted examples of excellence across the nation.

The Opening Plenary Session was titled, "Family Violence and Accessing and Applying for Public Benefits and Work Supports: Challenges and Solutions," and was led by Dr. Janet Mickish, Lead Trainer and Manager of Staff Development, Colorado Department of Human Services and Krista Del Gallo, Public Policy Manager, Texas Council on Family Violence (TCFV).

The Plenary was followed by 4 breakout sessions to include:

• Breakout Session #1: Discussion Around Building Good Relationships with DV Coalitions and Programs
• Breakout Session #2: Promoting Disclosure and Safety for Victims Accessing Child Support
• Breakout Session #3: Establishing Good Cause
• Breakout Session #4: Family Violence with Native American Populations

The roundtable closed with a plenary titled, "State and Local TANF/Child Support Programs of Excellence," led by Meghan McCann, National Conference of State Legislatures; Amber Harchuk, Temporary Assistance to Domestic Violence Survivor’s (TA-DVS) Policy Analyst and DHS Domestic Violence Co-Located Advocates Program Coordinator; Belit Burke, Self-Sufficiency Program Administrator, Oregon Department of Human Services; and Traci Underwood, Program Coordinator, Economic Justice Project, Washington State Coalition Against Domestic Violence. 

This toolkit provides a wealth of resources and strategies to communities to help prevent opioid overdose deaths. Some of these strategies include ensuring access to treatment and to naloxone, and assisting providers in preventing overdose. It includes five essential steps for first responders, as well as guidance for those who prescribe opioids. Finally, it provides recovery resources for communities, families, and individuals.

According to GAO's analysis of data in the Census Bureau's Current Population Survey (CPS), on average, low-wage workers worked fewer hours per week, were more highly concentrated in a few industries and occupations, and had lower educational attainment than workers earning hourly wages above $16 in each year GAO reviewed—1995, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2015 and 2016. Their percentage of the U.S. workforce also stayed relatively constant over time. About 40 percent of the U.S. workforce ages 25 to 64 earned hourly wages of $16 or less (in constant 2016 dollars) over the period 1995 through 2016. The combination of low wages and few hours worked compounded the income disadvantage of low-wage workers and likely contributed to their potential eligibility for federal social safety net programs.

About 20 percent of families with a worker earning up to the federal minimum wage (currently $7.25 per hour), 13 percent of families with a worker earning above federal minimum wage to $12.00 per hour, and 5 percent of families with a worker earning $12.01 to $16 per hour were in poverty in each year GAO reviewed (see figure).The extent of poverty varied considerably by the type of family in which a worker lived. For example, single-parent families earning the federal minimum wage or below comprised a higher percentage of families in poverty. In contrast, married families with no children comprised the lowest percentage of families in poverty, and generally had family incomes at or above the poverty line.

This infographic from MDRC describes the behavioral principles applied in the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project. The goal of the BIAS project was to use insights from behavioral science to improve human services programs that serve low-income families. Each letter in the SIMPLER acronym corresponds to a behavioral concept, and the infographic provides a definition for each concept and an example of how one of the BIAS sites applied it.

This study assessed the relationship between the stage of breast cancer diagnosis and the area-level poverty in which the women lived when mammography screening was offered at no cost (author abstract). The conclusions showed that women who had more access to free screenings mitigated the stage of breast cancer at diagnosis.