The Assessing Models of Coordinated Services (AMCS) project aimed to improve understanding of approaches to coordinating early care and education services at the state or local level. This brief focuses on findings from telephone interviews with leaders of 18 coordinated services approaches. The interviews provided insights about how coordinated services approaches serve children and their families. Topics discussed in the interviews included information about the development of the coordinated services approach, the partners and funding involved in coordination, the services included in the coordinated services approach, and the coordinated services approach’s use of data, while also offering foundational information for future research or programming efforts.

The Supporting Family Economic Well-Being Through Home Visiting (HomeEc) project seeks nominations of practices to support family economic well-being. Practices can be stand-alone or a component of or add-on to a larger intervention, such as an early childhood home visiting model. HomeEc seeks nominations of practices that:

• Support family economic well-being
• Serve families with young children and/or pregnant women
• Have written protocols, manuals, or other documentation available that describe how to implement or administer the practice
• Are delivered individually or in a group

Submissions are to be sent to HomeEc@mathematica-mpr.com by April 15, 2022.

The Administration for Children and Families will host a webinar on April 11, 2022 from 2:30 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. ET which will cover approaches to integrating Native language and culture into tribal early childhood programs. Part of the Tribal Early Childhood Development Webinar Series, the webinar includes a panel that highlights innovations and promising practices implemented in tribal communities. Participants can discuss highlighted strategies with peers and hear about resources they can use in their own communities and programs.

This American Public Human Services Association and National Association of Counties hub hosts information and resources on tax filing for health and human services agencies that serve families eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the Child Tax Credit (CTC). The EITC is a tax credit available to workers and families with low- to moderate-incomes. The CTC provides financial support to families with children.

The National Center on Domestic Violence, Trauma, and Mental Health held a webinar on February 9, 2022 based on its Core Curriculum on Creating Accessible, Culturally Responsive, and Trauma-Informed Services. This session examined the impact of domestic violence on families and how best to support parenting survivors and their children together. A recording of the webinar and handouts are available for download.

This report includes a review of effective employment and training (E&T) program components and practices published between 2016 and 2020 to provide information that can be used to align SNAP E&T policy and programs to achieve the best training, employment, and wage gains for SNAP participants and integrate the E&T program within the broader public workforce system. The report also provides specific recommendations for building effective SNAP E&T programs, including recommendations related to developing successful workforce system partnerships and identifying the right mix of services to meet participants’ needs.

The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated inequities and fragilities inherent in existing child care markets and decimated the supply of child care in many communities. Despite being deemed essential to the nation’s economy, the early care and education workforce experiences high turnover, low pay and benefits, and limited opportunities for professional development and advancement—all of which undermines the quality and continuity of care for young children. This blogpost identifies three lessons drawn from research which can help increase opportunities for advancement and upward mobility for the child care workforce.

The National Indian Child Welfare Association will hold its 40th annual conference as a virtual three-day event from April 4-6, 2022, addressing tribal child welfare and well-being. The national conference will share the latest research on the well-being of American Indian and Alaska Native children and the most innovative child welfare and children’s mental health service delivery practices, highlight tactics and strategies for financing and sustaining services that impact children, and showcase strategies for involving youth and families in developing services and policies that lead to systems change.

This Annie E. Casey Foundation brief shares six pivotal strategies for coordinating and funding community efforts to support families at risk of entering the child welfare system: invest in infrastructure at the state and local levels, create funding structures that maximize prevention funds, support community-led planning and design, align programs at the state level to better serve families, invest in evaluation, and leverage private and local dedicated funding streams. Strategies presented in this brief include practices from Colorado, Massachusetts, Missouri, Nebraska, Washington State, and the District of Columbia.

The Procedural Justice-Informed Alternatives to Contempt (PJAC) demonstration project, which began in 2016, integrates principles of procedural justice into enforcement practices in six child support agencies across the United States. This guide assists child support agencies to develop more people-centered practices using the principles of procedural justice to build trust, better engage participants, and create a more fair and effective process for serving families and supporting children.