Kansas City

The objective of the Family Options Study is to provide research evidence to help federal policymakers, community planners, and local practitioners make sound decisions about the best ways to address homelessness among families. The study will compare four combinations of housing and service interventions for homeless families who have been in emergency shelters for at least seven days. The study is conducted as a rigorous, multi-site experiment, to determine what interventions work best to promote family stability and well-being.

To help individuals successfully reenter society after time in jail, the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) awarded $10 million in grants to 20 local workforce development boards (LWDBs) in June 2015 for the Linking to Employment Activities PreRelease (LEAP) initiative. Central to the LEAP initiative was creating jail-based American Job Centers (AJCs) with direct linkages to community-based AJCs.

This volume and its companion volumes are the first of two reports designed to share the experiences of the 17 Early Head Start research programs with others. The first report focuses on the programs early in their implementation (fall 1997), approximately two years after they were funded and one year after they began serving families. Volume I examines the characteristics and experiences of the 17 research programs from a cross-site perspective, focusing on the similarities and differences among the programs in fall 1997.

Highlights findings from an in-depth study of collaborative community initiatives to improve low-income families' access to good-quality care for infants and toddlers. Focuses on three types of initiatives launched in diverse communities. Notes that paying for care and ensuring good-quality care are cross-cutting concerns. (Author summary)

Since 2005, Congress has funded Responsible Fatherhood (RF) grants to support programs for fathers that promote responsible parenting, economic stability, and healthy marriage. Although many fathers voluntarily enroll in these programs, service providers often struggle with program attendance and completion (Zaveri et al. 2015). RF programs cannot achieve their intended outcomes if fathers participate minimally or not at all. Factors related to fathers’ circumstances and the programs that serve them may explain what leads some fathers to participate more than others.

Research indicates that most families using emergency shelters stay briefly—one to four or five months—and rarely return (Culhane et al. 2007). However, some families remain homeless for long periods of time or experience repeated episodes of homelessness. These families may have characteristics and service needs that differ from those of families who leave shelter quickly and permanently. Communities and homelessness practitioners might benefit from identifying those families’ characteristics and experiences to improve targeting of services.

These PowerPoints are from the 2018 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS). The Homeless Families Research Briefs project uses data from a large randomized controlled trial, the Family Options Study, to answer questions that are of interest to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This panel included presentations on three aspects of homeless families that may help HHS ensure that the agency’s programs and policies are used to assist families that have experienced homelessness in becoming self-sufficient. Amanda Benton (U.S.

These PowerPoints are from the 2018 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency (RECS). Established in 2005, ACF’s Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood (HMRF) programs provide services to promote strong, healthy family formation and marriage, responsible fatherhood and parenting, and economic stability. This plenary session presented impact findings from Parents and Children Together, a multi-year, rigorous evaluation of a subset of HMRF programs.

The Homeless Families Research Briefs project, conducted by Abt Associates, is producing a series of research briefs on issues related to the well-being and economic self-sufficiency of families and children experiencing homelessness. Using data collected from the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD) Family Options Study, these briefs build on the data and analysis already being conducted for HUD to answer additional questions of interest to HHS. 

Presented at the 2018 Research and Evaluation Conference on Self-Sufficiency, these slides summarize impact findings from Mathematica’s evaluation of six Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood programs. Released under the Parents and Children Together project, this work is part of a growing body of evidence designed to better understand what works in creating healthier families. (Author abstract)