The National Women's Law Center reports that unemployment among women who maintain families -- who have no other income to fall back on and are especially vulnerable -- jumped to 11.7 percent, an increase of 17 percent in three months.

New hires often lack the basic skills they need to do the job and efforts on the job to help them fill the gaps are only moderately successful. This report from Corporate Voices for Working Families argues that corporate America needs to strengthen partnerships with community colleges to prepare entrants before they enter the workforce.

First passed in 1998, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) is up for reauthorization. Jobs for the Future has specific recommendations to strengthen a modernized workforce development system. This system should be powerful enough to build and maintain a 21st century workforce, multifunctional to meet the needs of youth, workers, employers and communities, and flexible enough to adapt to a dynamic, competitive global economy.

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities reports that proposals being considered by the Senate Finance Committee to change subsidies that help low and moderate-income families afford health insurance could push more poor families out of the system.

Turning Point: The Long Term Effects of Recession-induced poverty

Following four cohorts of children who lived through post-war American recessions for up to twenty years of adulthood, researchers at First Focus compared the differences in outcomes along income, employment, education, and health variables for three different categories of children: those who fell into poverty during a recession, those who stayed out of poverty during a recession, and those who were already living in poverty even before the recession began.

A July 8 Congressional briefing hosted by the Food Research and Action Center (FRAC) and the Afterschool Alliance laid out some surprising facts and inspiring optimism about this fall’s opportunity to build a better food program for the nation’s vulnerable children. CFK has this field report.

At this time of tight budgets and high price tags, overlooking opportunities to invest in youth is the biggest mistake Americans can make, according to a July 2009 Capitol Hill briefing hosted by the Coalition on Human Needs and co-sponsored by Sen. Dodd (D-CT) and Rep. McDermott (D-WA).

Congress passed the Helping Families Save Their Homes Act, which includes the HEARTH Act reauthorizing the HUD McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act programs. Is it good for children and youth? Yes—but there's a major missed opportunity, according to an analysis from the nonpartisan advocacy group First Focus.

Filing tax forms may not be much fun for anyone, but it can bring relief to struggling families, especially during these tight times. The federal Earned Income Tax Credit lifts more than 4 million people—over half of them children—out of poverty each year; it’s the nation’s most effective antipoverty program for working families. Here’s how it works.

If you hire staff you are in a position to let your employees know about the earned benefits they may be entitled to, using this short, practical guide from the National Human Services Assembly before April 15!