Brief
This FRPN research brief reviews some of the ways in which federal, state and local initiatives in the U.S. have attempted to ensure that father involvement is reflected in programs and policies dealing with children and families. It begins with a summary of how father involvement issues emerged at the national level and describes key federal funding mechanisms. The brief provides examples of state and local initiatives, most of which focus on providing direct services to fathers in the child support system to increase their employment, child support payments and parent involvement,…
Brief
Since the 1970s, Americans’ household incomes have become more volatile, fluctuating year-to-year and week-to-week. Increased income volatility is particularly prominent among low-income families, many of whom are served by the U.S. system of means-tested income support programs. These programs provide income, goods, and services to families who prove that their income (and sometimes assets) are low enough to qualify for a particular program and meet other program requirements. At initial application, during benefit receipt, and at recertification periods, each income support program has…
Brief
This report highlights the changing socio-demographic composition of program participants for AFDC/TANF, SNAP and SSI between 1988 and 2015 and discusses the importance of addressing the needs of program participants from diverse backgrounds. (Author abstract)
Brief
The Learn, Innovate, Improve (LI2) process is a systematic, evidence-informed approach to program improvement. LI2 involves a series of analytic and replicable activities, supported by collaboration between practitioners and applied researchers, to help human services programs design, implement, and iteratively test programmatic changes. As a continuous improvement process, LI2 is intended to build practitioners’ capacity for better using and producing high-quality evidence; ultimately, this process can be institutionalized within the program environment.Human services programs (such as…
Brief
Integrating financial security services into workforce development programs can achieve more impactwithout requiring significantly extra cost and time. Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) and TheFinancial Clinic (the Clinic) have partnered to analyze the impacts of financial security services onworkforce development programs, with results released in four upcoming issue briefs. (Author abstract)
Brief
Low-skilled men, especially minorities, typically work at low levels and provide little support for their children. Conservatives blame this on government willingness to support families, which frees the fathers from responsibility, while liberals say that men are denied work by racial bias or the economy--either a lack of jobs or low wages, which depress the incentive to work. The evidence for all these theories is weak. Thus, changing program benefits or incentives is unlikely to solve the men's work problem. More promising is the idea of linking assistance with administrative requirements…
Brief
The social safety net is widely recognized as having been quite successful in providing major financial support to low-income families during the Great Recession, one of the most severe economic downturns in modern U.S. history. Safety net expenditures grew in aggregate and were widely distributed to all types of needy families. Before the recession, however, while aggregate transfers to the low-income population also exhibited steady growth, the growth was not equally shared across different types of families. Transfers grew much more for the elderly and disabled relative to the nonelderly…
Brief
In this briefing paper we provide an overview of the support needs and experiences of the young men in our study (31 young men in our longitudinal sample and four others recruited as clients of particular services, aged between 14 and 24 at the point of entry into parenthood). Drawing on both client and practitioner accounts, we consider how young fathers are perceived and treated in their various encounters with professional agencies. In seeking to contribute new insights on the effectiveness of such support,we address a key question posed by Hadley (2014): Are young fathers hard to reach?…
Brief
As part of the "Looking Forward" series, which provides policymakers with memos that suggest ways to make progress on critical issues, MDRC presents the topic of balancing welfare support for poor families and children with promoting self-sufficiency through work.
Brief
Child Protective Services (CPS) and domestic violence centers are two institutions dedicated to ensuring the safety of families. Child maltreatment and domestic violence often occur within the same families, thus CPS and domestic violence centers share many mutual clients. Despite their shared goals, CPS and domestic violence centers have different service philosophies and procedures that can come into conflict when working with families who are involved with CPS and also receiving domestic violence services. This new brief describes the lessons learned from the first year of a pilot…
