Supporting Early Childhood Success - outlines a wide range of steps that municipal leaders can take to reap the many benefits of supporting parents and promoting early childhood success.

Improving Public Schools - highlights roles that municipal leaders can play to enhance the quality of public education in their communities, even when they have no direct authority over local school districts and school boards.

Expanding Afterschool Opportunities - highlights strategies that municipal leaders can use to promote learning, keep children and youth out of trouble and meet the needs of working families during out-of-school time.

Promoting Youth Participation - focuses on youth participation in municipal government and youth involvement in local communities by highlighting strategies to establish a youth council; plan through Community Youth Mapping; host a youth summit; and promote youth service.

Helping Working Families - focuses on outreach steps that town/city officials can take to assist low-income working families -- such as enabling them to benefit from the Child Health Insurance Program, Food Stamps, and the Earned Income Tax Credit.

Protecting Children and Youth - highlights steps municipal officials and community leaders can take to help prevent youth violence and reduce child abuse and neglect.

Hundreds of millions of dollars are left on the table each year by people who are eligible for -- but fail to claim -- the EITC. You can help promote a greater awareness of this benefit, thereby helping put money into the pockets of some of your neediest residents.

The EITC is a refundable federal tax credit for certain working individuals and families. It reduces the amount of tax owed by such people, and it may result in them receiving a tax refund.

The EITC has several important purposes, including to: (1) reduce the tax burden on workers; (2) supplement their wages; and (3) make work more attractive than welfare.

The EITC is an economic development tool, not just for people but also for local economies. For example, the credit brought an estimated $247 million into the Connecticut economy in 2003 (via 158,585 families who received the EITC). That money was spent in neighborhood stores and deposited at local banks, recirculating it throughout the region’s economy.

Research Report: Trends in Black Male Joblessness and Year-Round Idleness: An Employment Crisis Ignored - a study by the Northeastern University’s Center for Labor Market Studies indicating the employment rate for America's black men in June 2004.

Strengthening Families in America's Cities Survey - This national survey of 501 municipal elected officials was supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. The survey findings are reported in a series of publications produced by NLC's Center on Research and Municipal Programs. The findings share conditions, policies, and resources for the nation’s children and families.

Municipal Finance for Child and Family Services – the results of a national survey to determine the kinds of things families are doing to deal with difficult fiscal times.

Family Economic Security – a national study focusing on strategies towns and cities use to bolster the financial stability of low-income working families.

These and other publications are available on the NLC web site here.