Family Strengthening News is a monthly e-newsletter produced by the Family Strengthening Policy Center, an initiative of the National Human Services Assembly funded by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

Family Strengthening: A deliberate and sustained effort to ensure that parents have the necessary opportunities, relationships, networks and supports to raise their children successfully, which includes involving parents as decision-makers in how their communities meet family needs.  - Annie E. Casey Foundation

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Family Economic Success

Underemployment at 14-year high

Underemployment is a more comprehensive measure of labor market slack than headline-grabbing unemployment rates because it also includes part-time workers who want full-time jobs ("involuntarily" part-time workers), and jobless workers who want a job but are not actively seeking employment ("marginally attached" workers). The underemployed currently includes about 9.5 million unemployed workers, 6.1 million involuntarily part-time workers, and 1.6 million workers only marginally attached to the workforce. The fact that one out of every nine U.S. workers is now either unemployed or underemployed is clear evidence of the need for a second stimulus package targeted at job creation. (Economic Policy Institute). Click here.

New Report Recommends Improvement to the EITC
A new report on the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC),  "Metro Raise: Boosting the Earned Income Tax Credit to Help Metropolitan Workers and Families," written by the Brookings Institution and supported by the Casey Foundation, proposes specific expansions to the EITC that would especially help low-income people in urban areas. The report recommends that Congress make three improvements to the EITC program: Increase the EITC for childless workers; reduce the EITC disparity for dual-earning married couples; and provide additional EITC benefits to families with three or more children. It also recommends streamlining the distribution of the EITC so a portion would be available throughout the year, rather than only in a one-time lump sum. To read more..

New Directions for Workforce Development

Urban Institute’s new brief Workforce Development and the Disadvantaged: New Directions for 2009 and Beyond reviews the arguments for a workforce development system, examining the strengths and weaknesses of the Workforce Investment Act, which expired in 2003. Proposals include expanded funding and grants that states could use to target industries and sectors with unmet demands for skilled workers. They would then identify potential "pathways" for different groups of disadvantaged workers to meet those demands. To read more..

What States Are and Aren't Doing to Promote Family Economic Security

The National Center for Children in Poverty’s Staying Afloat in Tough Times highlights some of the ways that state-level policy can help families both avoid and cope with economic hardship. It also identifies some of the limits on what states can do in the absence of stronger federal policies. The report tracks three categories of state policy choices that affect the ability of low-wage workers to achieve financial security: Work Attachment and Advancement; Income Adequacy and Asset Development and Protection. This report focuses only on policies that benefit individual families (as opposed, for example, to broader job creation and economic development strategies) and only on those policies for which 50-state data sources are available. Click here. This report is accompanied by a set of individual state profiles that highlight the policy choices each state has made, along with demographic data on how families are faring economically across the states. Click here.

Family Support Systems

President Signs Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act into Law
On October 7, President Bush signed the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, (P.L. 110-351, Fostering Connections Act) into law. The bill delinks adoption assistance from the AFDC program which allows children 16 and older to be covered starting in FY 2010 (October 1, 2009), with the age of coverage reduced by two years each fiscal year after that. Coverage for those ages 14 and older begins in FY 2011, age 12 and older FY 2012, and so on until eligibility for all children is delinked from the AFDC eligibility requirements by 2018. This provision also includes exceptions for children in foster care for 60 months, and certain siblings. To read more..

A State-By-State Report on Children's Health

A new chartbook, America's Health Starts With Healthy Children: How Do States Compare, from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America examines the health of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds in every state to document how healthy our nation's children are now and how healthy they could be if we as a nation were realizing our full health potential. Click here.  See also Gaps in Children’s General Health Status by Family Income: How Do States Compare?   

Child-Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems: Lessons from Early Adopters of Child-Care Quality Rating and Improvement Systems

This research brief summarizes an assessment of child-care quality rating and improvement systems (QRISs) in five states and provides recommendations for designing, implementing, and refining such systems. One recommendation being to create a robust quality improvement process, providing a mix of staff development, financial incentives, and QI support. (RAND). To read more..

Evidence-Based Practice in Treatment Foster Care

A new resource guide by the Foster Family-Based Treatment Association (FFTA) provides valuable tools and resources to help treatment foster care (TFC) providers implement evidence-based practices in their service settings. The guide includes: An overview of evidence-based practice in child welfare; Tools for assessing and screening mental health to help TFC providers identify children in need of more services; A guide for comprehensive interventions at multiple levels of a child’s life; Parent engagement and youth support strategies; Guidance on implementing evidence-based practices in an organizational context and more..click here.

Thriving and Nurturing Communities

Time to Address the Rural Housing Crisis

The next administration will face significant housing issues well beyond those related to foreclosures and mortgage markets. The housing needs of low-income people in both urban and rural places predated the housing crash and will undoubtedly outlast it. More than one-quarter of rural households pay more than the federal standard of 30% of their monthly income for housing. Most of these cost-burdened rural households have low incomes, and 4 in 10 are renters.  The National Housing Institute has put together an agenda to address the rural housing crisis: Preserve and revitalize affordable rural rental housing, and protect the tenants of properties that cannot be preserved;  implement the recently authorized national housing trust fund, which is targeted to develop rental housing for the very lowest-income Americans.  To read more of the agenda click here. To access National Housing Institute’s Managing Neighborhood Change: A Framework for Sustainable and Equitable Revitalization click here.

Where We Live Matters for Our Health: The Links Between Housing and Health

This issue brief from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America examines the many ways in which housing can influence health and discusses promising strategies to improve America’s health by ensuring that all Americans have healthy homes. The focus is on three important and inter-related aspects of residential housing and their links to health: the physical conditions within homes; conditions in the neighborhoods surrounding homes; and housing affordability, which not only shapes home and neighborhood conditions but also affects the overall ability of families to make healthy choices. To read more..

Quality Schools and Healthy Neighborhoods

Over the last decade, the District of Columbia implemented bold steps to improve its public schools while also experiencing population growth, property value increases, and strong city fiscal health. But its child population (0-17 years old) remained essentially the same and a dwindling share of the city’s children was attending the public schools. This research report from the Urban Institute describes in-depth the relationships between education, housing, and neighborhood development in D.C. and it is the basis for the subsequent policy research report, Quality Schools, Healthy Neighborhoods, and the Future of DC, which outlines recommended policies to make the District a more family-friendly city. Click here.

Release Planning for Successful Reentry

This report from the Urban Institute is designed to help the corrections community, service providers and community groups prepare prisoners for the moment of release from prison and the time immediately following release. It describes the eight most basic and immediate needs returning prisoners have when they exit prison, recommends minimum policies practitioners can institute to meet these needs, and highlights the opportunities and challenges practitioners face when trying to improve their release planning policies. Click here.

Announcements & Additional Resources

New Editions - The Caring Workplaces Online Resource Center  

The Caring Workplaces Online Resource Center recently released a new case study on the American Cancer Society.  The American Cancer Society (ACS) conceptualized a system that integrates both types of staff-employees and volunteers-into a single talent management structure. This case study shows how ACS's innovative approach is providing a great place to work while also increasing organizational effectiveness. To download your free copy, click here. Also see the new Idealist.org: A Caring Workplaces, Committed Employees Case Study, this case study offers other nonprofits insights on how to enhance staff performance and satisfaction while also supporting work-life balance.

NHSA launches Civic Sector Leadership Fellows Program

The Civic Sector Leadership Fellows Program, a new initiative of The National Assembly and the University of Notre Dame Mendoza College of Business, is an executive development program for leaders in human services or civic sector nonprofit organizations. The cohort of Fellows will participate in an intensive, one-week experiential learning program, executive coaching, an ongoing virtual learning community and a culminating capstone weekend. To learn more go to http://www.civicsectorleaders.org

Guide to the Housing Crisis: Ten Questions and Answers   

Many people are still trying to understand how our financial institutions got into so much trouble in the first place, and why the government needs to take action to bail them out. In a new issue brief from the Century Foundation, “A Guide to the Housing Crisis: Ten Questions and Answers,” ten crucial questions about the housing crisis are answered. Click here.

November is National Adoption Month

The 2008 National Adoption Month website provides resources to assist professionals and families in planning activities for November to celebrate adoptive families and raise awareness about the need for adoptive parents for children and youth in foster care. http://www.childwelfare.gov/adoption/nam/

Basic Facts about Low-Income Children

The data for 2007 are in and the numbers tell a troubling story: nearly four out of every 10 American children are growing up in families that face serious struggles to make ends meet. The National Center for Children in Poverty breaks down the facts and figures into three age groups of children: Birth to 3, Birth to 6 and Birth to 18.  

New Toolkit Provides Advice, Examples, Lessons Learned for Community-based Work Support Programs
Communities that are interested in making work supports part of their mission to improve the lives of low-income families will be interested in a new toolkit from the Casey Foundation. Based on lessons learned by pilot efforts in Casey-affiliated places, the new toolkit, Work Supports: Helping Families Reach Self-Sufficiency, looks at work support programs that enhance the purchasing power of low-income families, either monetarily or by offsetting basic expenses, such as food stamps and energy credits.  The toolkit was designed for use by community-based organizations interested in taking on work supports as a new endeavor, or looking to expand existing programs.  Click here.

Conferences & Events

FREE NeighborWorks webinar - October 29th from 2:00pm - 3:00pm EDT

The National Assembly is hosting a presentation by NeighborWorks America to address the underlying causes of foreclosure, industry trends, and responses to the crisis within the government, not-for-profit, and private sectors.  This session is intended not only to outline key concepts and existing programs, but to offer human service providers an opportunity to participate in the response to a national crisis. Registration is limited - E-mail agoldstein@nassembly.org to reserve your spot!

2008 It's My Life Conference

Casey Family Programs is hosting the 2008 It’s My Life Conference Oct. 31 to Nov. 2 in Hollywood, California

It’s My Life convenes over 700 participants—youth in foster care, alumni of care, caregivers, practitioners, and advocates—who share innovative practices designed to guide preparation for adulthood services for youth aging out of foster care

Healthy Teen Network's 29th Annual Conference: Speaking Many Languages: Respecting Diversity, Believing in Equity

October 29-November 1, 2008 Albuquerque, NM 

Healthy Communities • Healthy Youth Conference
November 5-8, 2008, Minneapolis, Minnesota

10th Social Enterprise Summit

April 15-17, 2009  Intercontinental Hotel, New Orleans

For other conferences and events, click here.

Family Strengthening Policy Center Briefs

In addition to producing this newsletter, the Family Strengthening Policy Center has produced analyses of the following promising practices and policies that advance place-based family strengthening.  We do the research and analysis so you don't have to! Please check them out, and please feel free to reference those you find helpful. Click the titles below to view the briefs in PDF format. We particularly commend to you the most recent and over-arching policy brief: Family Strengthening Writ Large: On Becoming a Nation That Promotes Strong Families and Successful Youth

Integrated Materials:

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National Human Services Assembly
www.nassembly.org
The National Human Services Assembly (National Assembly) is an association of the nation’s leading national nonprofits in the fields of health, human and community development, and human services.   The National Assembly's mission is to engage leaders of the sector in collective efforts to advance the effectiveness of health & human services in the United States.  

National Collaboration for Youth
www.collab4youth.org
The National Collaboration for Youth (NCY), a 30-year old affinity group, is a coalition of National Assembly member organizations that have a significant interest in youth development.  This Web site includes NCY's public policy agenda and issues and information about NCY's F.I.L.M. (Finding Inspiration in Literature and Movies) and juvenile justice projects.