Resource Library

Financial support from fathers can lead to important improvements in child well-being. Financial support from noncustodial fathers, often provided through formal child support payments, can make up a substantial part of the income of single-parent families and lead to reductions in child poverty (ACF 2016; Sorensen 2010; Meyer et al. 2008; Takayesu 2011). Child well-being can be improved when child support programs enable and enforce fathers’ financial support for children...

This report includes key information on the Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey 2014-2018 (FACES 2014) study design; in addition, a set of data tables presents descriptive statistics for the characteristics of programs, centers, classrooms, and teachers serving Head Start children and families in spring 2017. Data are drawn from the spring 2017 round of FACES 2014.

Bayesian methods are emerging as the primary alternative to the conventional frequentist approach to statistical inference. This brief provides an overview of the Bayesian perspective and highlights potential advantages of Bayesian inference over frequentist inference. In light of the increasing value and viability of Bayesian methods to contemporary...

Home visiting programs send trained staff to the homes of expectant parents or parents of young children to provide individualized information and supports to address families’ needs. The families served by these programs...

Securing employment in a competitive labor market can be difficult for job seekers with limited education or work experience, especially if they are single parents or caring for young children. Some public assistance programs — Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, for example...

Subsidized employment and transitional jobs programs seek to increase employment and earnings among individuals who have not been able to find employment on their own. First-hand accounts of participants’ experiences in these programs can inform efforts to improve long-term employment outcomes for various “hard-to-employ” populations.

This study is part of two federally funded multisite projects — the Department of Labor’s Enhanced Transitional Jobs Demonstration (ETJD) and the Department of Health and Human Services’ Subsidized and Transitional Employment Demonstration (STED) — testing various subsidized employment models. These programs targeted a variety of disadvantaged populations, including welfare recipients, people returning to the community from prison, and low-income parents who do not have custody of their children (“noncustodial” parents, usually fathers) and who owe child support. The projects tested programs that enhanced the subsidized job model with case management and other support services, job-readiness training, and job search assistance intended to help participants move into unsubsidized employment.

Access to reliable transportation is a common challenge in rural communities across the country, especially for low-income families who may have few public transit options, if any. Human services providers, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) programs, regularly encounter this issue with the families they serve. The La Plata County...

This brief describes the National Domestic Violence Hotline Services Assessment Framework based on Theory (SAF-T) project’s use of a participatory approach to engage a range of stakeholders throughout the process of developing a theoretical framework to explain how the National Domestic Violence Hotline (The Hotline) empowers...

Human service agencies and employers have compatible goals with respect to workforce development among low-income populations. Low-wage workers often experience high rates of job turnover and difficulty advancing...

New evidence from neuroscience, psychology, and other behavioral sciences suggests that TANF programs may be able to improve participants’ outcomes by applying the science of self-regulation. Self-regulation refers to a foundational set of skills and personality factors that enable people to control their thoughts...