Brazil's Government Gives Money to Women Because 'They're More Reliable'

Family Rewards is a three-year program in Memphis, which aims to stop inter-generational poverty cycles. The program gives low income families funds that are conditional on bettering the next generation.

After a Housing First program in Brno, the Czech Republic's second-largest city, stabilized families' housing and health status, the city of Jihlava used local and European Union money, plus a charity's services, for a two-year pilot to provide subsidized apartments and social services to a dozen families. Nationwide, EU-supported Housing First projects have found housing for about 400 people in 16 cities. Though often opposed as a giveaway, the programs both longer-term and in the pilot phase have shown that after a family is housed, the resulting stability helps set them up to solve many other problems.

Maryland's punitive child-support policies, which have piled $233 million in largely uncollectable debt on the state's poorest residents and destabilized families and neighborhoods, could be improved by adopting reforms other states have used to increase payment compliance. In Colorado, for example, more support payments have meant healthier families and communities, after the state stopped offsetting welfare payments by whatever child support had been paid. Other states have stopped revoking driver's licenses and work permits as a non-payment penalty, in order to make steady employment more attainable.

Pioneering research has indicated that encouraging low-income families to move to "higher opportunity" neighborhoods improves long-term outcomes for their children. A pilot program in Seattle aims to put this to the test, providing services and support for families who have managed to land a housing choice voucher and move to what researchers have deemed high opportunity neighborhoods. Early results are promising, although questions about longer-term impacts and questions about those "left behind" in lower-opportunity neighborhoods remain.

Brazil's national Happy Child program, modeled after similar initiatives on the local level and in Jamaica, is working to help parents develop their children's motor coordination and cognitive development. The program works by targeting families who receive public assistance and connecting them to social workers and service providers who provide individual support.

Part 3 of the Caregivers Crisis series: In light of a shortage of state group living facilities in Illinois, one family is partnering with a non-profit to retrofit their home into a safe, independent living space for their autistic son, creating a future for him when his aging parents can no longer take care of his daily needs.

For many people experiencing poverty, the struggle to make ends meet and provide for their children is common across generations. In Philadelphia, non-profit programs are recognizing that aspect of poverty and helping to ensure that the next generation is better equipped to be economically secure - not by solely focusing on the children, but by addressing the underlying issue and focusing on parents and grandparents as well. So far, the initiatives are helping families reconnect and create a better future.

A non-traditional program called the Family Independence Initiative (F.I.I.), uses a radically different approach from the traditional American social service model to empower entire families alleviate themselves from poverty. The results in multiple states thus far have been so striking, that this model of self-sufficiency may be able to have a significant impact reducing poverty nationwide.

Studies show that universal basic income programs, which provide monthly payments for participants to use how they see fit, can help reduce food insecurity and improve employment and mental health conditions for those receiving payments. For three recipients of guaranteed income in the Bay Area, the payments helped cover expenses like community college tuition, higher-quality basics and necessities, and paying off past-due bills, but the limited term of the programs made it difficult to truly make a dent in systemic financial challenges.

New Mexico's new universal child care program includes a new provision that exempts grandparents with legal custody or kinship guardianship from work and school requirements, making them eligible for free child care. In the first three weeks since the program launched, 61 new grandparent-headed households have applied and been approved for free child care assistance.