enforcement of child-support laws while providing job training and help in finding employment for noncustodial parents.

The Foundation also assists studies of how an assured child-support benefit or guaranteed minimum child-support payment might work in states and on a national scale. Grants support assessments of public service jobs for recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children and others unable to find jobs in the private sector. Other grants assist efforts to expand the earned income tax credit to reinforce the notion that changes in employment and welfare policies should help make work pay.

The Foundation's Family Development program complements efforts to improve economic conditions for poor families with social services that strengthen family functioning. Funds support policy reforms at the state and city level aimed at promoting more comprehensive, family-oriented, and community-based approaches to the delivery of social services. Grants also underwrite technical assistance to states and cities, research on key issues related to family development and the integration of services, and innovative training programs for "front-line" family-service workers. Finally, grants aim to strengthen the informal supports that families can turn to in their neighborhoods.

The Foundation's work on behalf of youth has two goals. One is to learn more about comprehensive approaches that yield positive results for low-income urban youth between the ages of 13 and 24. This goal is pursued primarily through support for national intermediaries, such as the Academy for Educational Development, that are distilling general principles about effective ways to help young people. A related Foundation concern is to increase knowledge about the factors that foster resilence and achievement among low-income urban youth.

The second goal is to encourage efforts that strengthen the ability of organizations serving youth to implement comprehensive, holistic approaches. A central objective is to foster the development of a supportive network of institutions and people to help youth address challenges in healthy ways and give them opportunities to demonstrate their value to society.

To promote the optimal growth and development of young children living in poverty in American cities, the Foundation funds efforts to provide a safe and nurturing environment in the home, in child-care arrangements, and in the community. The high level of stress under which poor urban families live calls for adaptations of traditional forms of family support and parent education. In child care, the Foundation's objective is to increase the supply of both center-based and family child care in low-income urban neighborhoods, and to build leadership, management capacity, and policy expertise in the early childhood field. Finally, the Foundation is exploring the effects of such neighborhood influences as safety and violence on children's development.