This brief from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service provides states with information about 50 percent reimbursement funds. First, the brief details the staffing and infrastructure that may be necessary to implement an expanded Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment & Training (SNAP E&T) program. Additionally, it offers states recommendations for identifying and accessing important resources to support this added capacity.

As of November 2015, more than 2.5 million children, many younger than six years old, are homeless each year. This report from the Bassuk Center presents strategies to end family homelessness, including assessing all family members, addressing trauma, and providing permanent affordable housing.

This study, conducted by Social Policy Research Associates for the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service, reviews research on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Employment and Training (SNAP E&T) programs and practices. The study also includes data on the effectiveness of different aspects of E&T that are offered by other federal agencies, state agencies, and private organizations.

This brief from Health Affairs discusses opportunities through Medicaid to address supportive housing needs. In addition, the brief highlights other tools provided by the Affordable Care Act that can support individuals with disabilities living in community settings.

The SNAP to Skills website was recently launched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service. This new resource will serve as a hub for information and news about the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Employment and Training (E&T) program. Users can access information about the SNAP to Skills project, SNAP E&T tools and resources, policy briefs, and stories from successful SNAP E&T programs.

The U.S. Census Bureau released data on health insurance coverage in the United States in 2015, based on information collected in two surveys: the Current Population Survey Annual Social and Economic Supplement (CPS ASEC) and the American Community Survey (ACS). The data suggests that the uninsured rate decreased by 1.3 percent between 2014 and 2015. For all or part of 2015, 90.9 percent of individuals were covered by health insurance.

Jobs-Plus is a place-based workforce development model to help public housing residents find employment. The model was tested in six cities between 1998 and 2006 and is now being replicated across the United States. This infographic from MDRC presents the history of the program, shows the evidence behind the approach, and describes its three core components: on-site employment services, rent-based work incentives, and community support for work.

The National Hire Network Clearinghouse provides contact information for state-specific government agencies and community-based organizations that can assist people who have criminal records. Assistance may include providing job-related and legal services, answering questions from individuals with criminal records, or offering referrals to other useful organizations.

In this report from the Urban Institute, the authors identify and discuss 13 building blocks that they deem fundamental to advancing the economic mobility of low-income Americans. The building blocks include: family formation and stability; parenting skills; high-quality child care and early learning; elementary and secondary education; postsecondary education; employment and training; wages, wage supplements, and work supports; cash or near-cash safety net; asset formation and access to capital; health and mental health; criminal justice and safety; housing; and community building and social capital.

The U.S. incarceration rate remains exceptionally high, especially for socioeconomically disadvantaged groups, and the incidence of involvement in child protective services (CPS) is also quite high among disadvantaged groups. This confluence of incarceration and CPS involvement may have various impacts for parents, children, and families as a whole. The authors of this Institute for Research on Poverty brief examined data from Wisconsin to demonstrate and describe the overlap between parental incarceration and child CPS involvement, as well as between adolescent CPS involvement and later incarceration in young adulthood.