Welfare reform policy, practice, information

LR/RI's links and women and literacy pages contain links to resources and statistics related to welfare, welfare reform, legislation and related information; this page reflects concerns around federal and state policy, legislation and practice, and their effects on adult learning in RI and across other states.

This page also contains links to information about developments in welfare policy and implementation nationally and internationally, and to related issues, such as childcare, domestic violence and employment.  The page is divided into 5 sections:

education, implementation/implications, families, Rhode Island, kids and disabilities, learning disabilities and welfare rights.


Learners, practitioners and others with experience of, opinions about and recommendations pertinent to welfare legislation and its impact on adult learning and community are invited to contribute to this page. Please send comments, reflections and suggestions to LR/RI by email, phone, fax or post. Contact information can be found at LR/RI's home page.

Every attempt has been made to choose HTML over PDF documents; however, if you require access to an alternate format, please contact LR/RI.


newly added/recent resources

Down for the Count Facts and figures on poverty in the United States By Sarah Kraybill 13 Feb 2006, from Grist Magazine

Six Strategies for Family Economic Self-Sufficiency - from Wider Opportunities for Women

Welfare Policy publications from the Center for Law and Social Policy.

WISE - Wellbeing through Inclusion, Socially and Economically - British Columbia-based organization exploring the links between policy, poverty and health.

Moving Ideas Electronic Policy Network's weekly review/email updates provide current articles, often related to welfare and economic justice, as well as a searchable set of articles by topic.  Check it frequently; subscribe to their weekly update.

Also, see updates to information about the Workforce Inverstment Act on this site - reauthorization of WIA at http://www.brown.edu/lrri/1385.html

Built to Last: Why Skills Matter for Long-Run Success in Welfare Reform - By Karin Martinson and Julie Strawn, Center for Law and Social Policy
This report argues that basic skills and educational credentials are critical  for labor market success.

Poverty USA - Catholic Campaign for Human Development site designed to raise awareness of the causes and impact of poverty in America- and to help America's poor find a way to rise above the poverty line not just for a day, but a lifetime.

Domestic Violence and Welfare Policy -   [December 18, 2002] report examining research on: 1) prevalence and correlates of domestic violence among women on welfare; 2) effects of domestic violence on child well-being; and 3) marriage and domestic violence. By The Research Forum

Safety Net Sinking by Gordon Hurd, ColorLines Senior Writer   Welfare reform during recession: Discrimination and poor access to education and job training make the hard times harder. From Colorlines magazine

Keeping Battered Women Safe During Welfare Reform: New Challenges - by Jody Raphael. "This paper reviews the growing body of research literature on the relation-ship of domestic violence to welfare. Not only do women on welfare suffer from domestic violence in far greater numbers than women in the general population, but their abusers, threatened by the women's efforts at education, training, or work, also use violence and threats of violence to sabotage these efforts at economic  self-sufficiency. For this reason, welfare reform exacerbates domestic violence in the lives of many low-income women."

How Welfare and Work Policies Affect Employment and Income: A Synthesis of Research - Dan Bloom and Charles Michalopoulos, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, May 2001.

Cruel and Usual: How welfare reform punishes poor people -  survey from Applied Research Center uncovering disturbing trends: Welfare programs are less consistent than they used to be, and more likely to operate in a discriminatory way, creating "a crazy quilt of arbitrary rules." The survey reveals that welfare reforms enacted under the 1996 PRWORA  have led to discrimination in four areas: race, gender, language and national origin.  Survey released January 30, 2001.

also from ARC: WARP: Welfare Advocacy Research Project - briefs and related information indicating ways in which welfare reform research distorts the reality of actual lives impacted by reform.

Reforming Welfare and Rewarding Work - A Summary of the Final Report on the Minnesota Family Investment Program,  produced by The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC), a "nonprofit,  nonpartisan social policy research organization. MDRC found that Minnesota's reform program brought substantial,  far-ranging improvements to the lives of single parents who were long-term welfare recipients, including increases in employment, reduction in poverty, decreased levels of domestic abuse, and improvements in children's behavior and school performance. Unlike many welfare reform programs, Minnesota's is premised upon a commitment to support people while they work. This welfare-plus-work dimension was emphasized by the MDRC as crucial to the reform's successes. [DC]"

Links that may prove helpful in the war against informational poverty, from Abe Kreworuka and the Electronic Grange Network.


Welfare: Indicators of Dependency [A Policy Information Report]- "Twelve key indicators of family, economic, and social conditions are reviewed in this new report. While the state of research in tracking the sources of dependency is primitive, the report finds disturbing trends among children, their parents, and society."

education 

Building the Bridge from Client to Citizen: A Community Toolbox for Welfare Reform - ©1998 by John P. Kretzmann and Michael B. Green - A new paper from the Asset-Based Community Development Institute demonstrates how five "tools" successfully used for community-building activities may be adapted to help former welfare recipients move toward economic independence and more fulfilling lives.

Built to Last: Why Skills Matter for Long-Run Success in Welfare Reform by Karin Martinson and Julie Strawn.  This review of recent research on welfare-to-work strategies shows that the most successful programs have focused on employment but made substantial use of education and training. In particular, the postsecondary education and training appear to be key to obtaining higher-paying jobs.  This report has important implications for the current debate over reauthorization of the federal welfare program, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families. Findings suggest that Congress should encourage states to include quality education and training services in welfare-to-work programs and allow sufficient time for recipients to complete both basic education and skill training. http://www.clasp.org/ [PDF file, earlier version of this report: http://www.clasp.org/publications/Built_to_Last_final_051302.pdf]


A Chance to Earn, A Chance to Learn: Linking Employment and English Training for Immigrants and Refugees New to English - Heide Spruck Wrigley and Julie Strawn  (view here as html file)
The Changes Project - a participatory action research project focused on the impact of welfare reform, immigration reform and the changing nature of work; including recommendations adaptable for / applicable to advocacy with adult learners everywhere.  Under this project, a team of immigrant learners and their instructor are conducting research with their classmates. They are investigating the impact of Welfare Reform, Immigration Reform and the changing workplace on Adult Basic Education (ABE) adult learners' learning and achievement. Funded by the Office of Educational Research and Improvement of the U.S. Department of Education, the project is a collaboration between six Western Massachusetts educational agencies.

Education and Training Adult Education/Literacy/GED - Economic Success Clearinghouse (formerly The Welfare Information Network) page devoted to issues concerning adult learning. The page includes issue pages, funding announcements and access to a range of resources.

Exploring every day spaces: women's transitions from welfare to paid work and education Cynthia Lee Andruske. Paper presented at the SCUTREA 29th Annual Conference, 5-7 July 1999. Abstract: This paper highlights women's transitions from welfare to paid work and education as they navigate social, institutional and organisational structures in their everyday lives. I also wonder what role educators' play in assisting or preventing women to contest learning spaces.


Family Literacy as a Welfare Reform Strategy - The National Center for Family Literacy explains welfare reform.

For Welfare Reform to Work, Jobs Must Be Available - By Heather Boushey and David Rosnick, Center for Economic and Policy Research, April 1, 2004.
Is Welfare Reform Helping or Hurting Children? - analysis from the Joint Center for Poverty Research. March 2002

Learn to Earn - Issues Raised by Welfare Reform for Adult Education, Training and Work, By Suzanne Knell 1996-97 NIFL Literacy Leader Fellow and Executive Director, Illinois Literacy Resource Development Center. From the introduction: "Dramatic changes in welfare reform have occurred throughout the nation since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) was passed in 1996. Since passage of the Act, each state has developed its own specific plan for implementing new welfare legislation. The Act provides general guidelines for state welfare plans resulting in some common threads across the state plans, but also allows great flexibility for states to develop their own specific rules and regulations to implement welfare reform."
Politics, Policy, Practice and Personal Responsibility: Adult Education in an Era of Welfare Reform, by Deborah D'Aimco, PhD, NCSALL Reports, #10A.

Electronic discussions:

From Mev Miller Welfare Reform: Five Years Later - [August/2001]post to the National Women and Literacy list with links to articles reflecting on Welfare Reform since 1996.

HandsNet resources - [August 2001] posted to the National Family Literacy list by Barb van Horn; more on welfare reform and its impacts.

To scan archives of these or other lists hosted by the National Institute for Literacy, (including poverty, race and listeracy, go to http://www.nifl.gov/lincs/discussions/discussions.html and click on the list you wish to review.  You can also subscribe and/or unsubscribe to lists from the NIFL website as well.


Welfare Reform and Education Research

from the Ohio LIteracy Resource Center's OLRC News, Winter 1998, Volume 3, No. 1. available in PDF at http://literacy.kent.edu/Oasis/Pubs/olrcnews.htm

Julie Strawn from the Center for Law and Social Policy, speaking at the Common Good Institute, shared some of the research on benefits of welfare-to-work programs, including job search programs and academic programs such as GED. Skill development approaches such as GED preparation have often increased employment, earnings, or literacy levels, but not necessarily all three. However, adult education is more expensive and takes longer to get results than job search programs. Research also has shown that the GED shows sustaining benefits in employment and earnings only if participants go on to other training or education.

Programs that have been successful and show higher hourly income for students over a period of five years have some of the following common elements.

Increased earnings is a goal.

Ms. Strawn challenged Common Good participants to rethink adult education and provide basic skills as a part of a larger program that provides job search classes and work experience. 

The Institute on Education and the Economy (IEE) - an interdisciplinary policy research center focusing attention on the interaction between education and the economy.

Literacy, Welfare and Work: A Preliminary Report (PDF format) by Janet Smith, Brandon, Manitoba - Report on Welfare and literacy in Canada, reflecting issues and problematic concerns similar to those confronted by education workers in the US. To view the report in HTML, click here

Literacy, Welfare and Work: Year II Report: A Case Study of the lives of seven adult learners - (PDF Format) - written and researched by Janet Smith, Common Ground Consulting, Brandon, Manitoba.  View HTML format here.

The free Adobe(R) Acrobat(R) Reader allows you to view, navigate, and print PDF files across all major computing platforms. To download Acrobat(R) Reader clickhere

Welfare Recipients Who Find Jobs: What Do We Know About Their Employment and Earnings? by Sharon Parrott - November 16, 1998. "[F]indings suggest that recipients who find jobs are likely to have incomes that are inadequate to meet their families' basic needs. Earnings alone are likely to be particularly inadequate for families in which the parent has very low skills. For many families, a combination of earnings, cash and in-kind government income support, and -in the case of single-parents -child support from the non-custodial parent will be necessary to make ends meet. Many states have freed-up resources due to declining welfare caseloads. The findings described in this report highlight the importance of states using these and other resources to provide supports to working families whose income from their earnings alone leave them unable to meet their basic needs."

Welfare Reform: What's at Stake for Adult and Vocational Education - Susan Imel 1998, ERIC Trends and Issues Alert

Welfare to Work: The Role of Adult Basic and Literacy Education - Susan Imel 1995, ERIC Practice Application Brief

When Work Just Isn't Enough: Measuring Hardships Faced by Families After Moving  from welfare to work - Many families that have left welfare rolls to join the workforce experience hardships even when they are successful in finding work. This means thatmillions  of working families that once relied on welfare still often find themselves without enough food, sufficient access to health or child care, or affordable, decent housing. [21 June/01] from the Economic Policy Institute Library/Information Center

Work Force Education or Literacy Development: Which Road Should Adult Education Take? - Susan Imel 1998, ERIC Digest #193

Excellent analysis of the conflicting tensions between meeting learners' needs and satisfying funders demands.

(See also the full list of ERIC digests  for related information - vocational education, implications of training vs. education, etc.)


"Working First But Working Poor, the Need for Education and Training Following Welare Reform" [scroll down]8-29-01   From: Institute for Women's Policy Research - Non-traditional training is an effective way out of poverty for women and could increase hourly wages by as much as a third; Such training, for women, is greatly underutilized; Present system perpetuates   gender segregation; and "Work First" is NOT a solution. Women in non-trad work in the 7 states we surveyed are sourced on the press release at EPN New releases/


August 28th/98 - From Alice Johnson, at NIFL: "The Center for Law and Social Policy's summary of a welfare amendment (sponsored by Sen. Paul Wellstone) being considered by Congress, which, if enacted, would allow welfare recipients to participate in education and training activities for two years, instead of the one year permitted by current law. The amendment also removes the "teen parent cap" provisions that take effect in 1999 (fiscal year 2000). If this provision takes effect, substantially fewer of the adults with the greatest literacy needs will be able to participate in education activities before they reach their welfare assistance runs out permanently. 

Motivations for Learning: Voices of Women Welfare ReformParticipants

Karen Reed Wikelund (October 1993) documents the experiences of a group of female welfare recipients (who have been required to "go back to school" as part of the national welfare reform movement) and identifies self-esteem and perceived opportunity structure as motivational keys for participation in adult literacy education and training. (Technical Report: TR93-10, 42 pages) $8.00 To View Document, follow this link, scroll down the page (which is a list of publications from the National Center on Adult Literacy), download the document as a PDF file, using Adobe Acrobat reader .

implications, implementation

National LINCS Policy and Legislation Special Collection: Welfare Reform/Welfare-to-Work - links to primary source legislative information and analysis. 

The Annie E. Casey Foundation's new ADVOCASEY online magazine examines welfare reform policy and experience in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Canada. Articles describe the process to improve outcomes for welfare families entering the low-income workforce.


As Welfare Comes to an End, So Do the Jobs - New York Times, December 17, 2001

Beyond Work First: How to Help Hard-to-Employ Individuals Get Jobs and Succeed in the Workforce (A How-to Guide)," Amy Brown, Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation, April 2001.

The Center for Law and Social Policy- CLASP is a national non-profit organization with expertise in both law and policy affecting the poor, which, through education, policy research and advocacy, seeks to improve the economic conditions of low-income families with children and secure access for the poor to our civil justice system.
Ending Welfare as we Know It: A Reform still in Progress - By Demetrios James Caraley, from Political Science Quarterly
This report summarizes the political and social dynamics that brought about the repeal of AFDC and analyzes the effects of the new TANF program.

Faces of Change: Personal Experiences of Welfare Reform in America - Alliance for Children and Families, 2001.  Stories by state, searchable story archive, issue briefs, and ordering information

FALLING THROUGH THE CRACKS: Health Insurance Coverage of Low-Income Women - The Center for Health Policy Research at UCLA assesses the  impact health coverage has on policy changes associated with the 1996  federal welfare reform law. The authors found that  35% of low-income
(under 200% of the federal poverty level) women in the US are  uninsured, and over one-third of low-income working women are uninsured.

Horizon Magazine poverty series -  people, places and solutions: Asians Ascending - article by Lydia Strohl about economic impacts upon the Hmong in Minnesota; particularly focusing on working women and children.
Institute for Women's Policy Research - Resources, listserv, related to women and welfare reform.
Workforce Development and Transitional Jobs - documents compiled by the Center for Law and Social Policy  on "rethinking the role of skills in
welfare reform".  They show once again that the most effective welare-to-work programs offer an integrated approach (one that balances job
search, education, job training and work).  Effective programs also tend to provide personalized client services. [thanks to Heide Wrigley for this citation].
JOIN --Jobs and Opportunity to Improve Neighborhoods -- a coalition of community organizations, vocational training and adult literacy programs, child care agencies, and advocacy groups fighting for jobs, quality education, and day care in the City of Philadelphia. The site includes the JOIN Agenda, links to sites related to welfare reform, and an advocacy page. JOIN provides an example of the kind of civic and political response to welfare downsizing that needs to take place around the country. Note especially the articles and links under the web page devoted to what we're calling the "Literacy Gap." JOIN is part of Philadelphia's Liberty Net, a site devoted to linking people to information in the Philadelphia region, containing information of interest to both Philadelphians and others beyond the area.

Joint Center for Poverty Research - national and interdisciplinary academic research center seeking to advance understandings of what it means to be poor in America.  Includes newsletter, working papers, links to resources related to poverty.

Nutrition Information- Oregon State University Extension. A potentially useful if not entirely unproblematic look at developing materials for diverse audiences addressing nutrition information and education.

The Project for Research on Welfare, Work and Domestic Violence - University of Michigan School of Social Work, a collaborative project of: Taylor Institute University of Michigan Research Center on Poverty, Risk, and Mental Health, including critical examination of who conducts research upon whom, in whose interests and towards what end.

Making Wages Work - discussion list of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, devoted to encouraging a discussion of policies and programs that supplement income and wages in order to help families escape poverty, as well as avoid welfare dependency. It is intended to serve a variety of audiences -- including researchers, academics, policy-makers at the state and federal levels, advocates, grantmakers, and analysts -- who share an interest in exploring ways in which income supplements can "make wages work and work pay."

NGA Online - National Governors' Association online. Links to information about various aspects of welfare reform.
The State Policy Documentation Project - TANF work requirements and activities; stats across states relevant to welfare, work, education allowances, and more
TANF Reauthorization: Opportunities to Reduce Poverty by Improving Employment Outcomes by Steve Savner, Julie Strawn, and Mark Greenberg Center for Law and Social Policy,  January 2002 - review, analysis and recommendations: what's working and what isn't with TANF and the need to reduce poverty.
The Welfare Information Network - A Clearinghouse for Information, Policy Analysis and Technical Assistance on Welfare Reform. "The Welfare Information Network (WIN) is a foundation funded project to help states and communities obtain the information, policy analysis, and technical assistance they need to develop and implement welfare reforms that will reduce dependency and promote the well-being of children and families."
The Welfare Law Center - "The Welfare Law Center works with and on the behalf of poor people to ensure that adequate income support -- public funding provided on the basis of need -- is available whenever and to the extent necessary to meet basic needs and foster healthy human and family development."
(This link is also found at the National Health Law Program site) 
Welfare Mom Homepage - assembled by women on welfare. For some, the term welfare mom is problematic. Visit the site and see what its creators have to say.
Welfare Policy Center - The Welfare Policy Center (WPC) conducts research and provides technical assistance on welfare reform and related issues. It is a resource for policymakers, program administrators, the press, and many others seeking to learn about cutting-edge welfare reforms and what it takes to make reforms effective.
Welfare reform links - from Anson Green's Adult Education and Literacy Web Page.

from the Institute for Public Accuracy 915 National Press Building, Washington, D.C. 20045 (202) 347-0020 *  * ipa@accuracy.org
___________________________________________________

Thursday, September 14, 2000   Welfare: Bipartisan Success?

LIZ ACCLES is national coordinator for the Welfare Made A Difference National  Campaign, which today launched a public education drive. Accles can arrange interviews with current and former welfare recipients; some of their stories  are available on the web page.

FRANCES FOX PIVEN is Distinguished Professor of Political Science and Sociology at the Graduate School and University Center of the City University of New York. Her books include "The Breaking of the American Social Compact." Piven said today: "The welfare rolls are down and politicians, the media, everyone touts the success of welfare reform. But it is really no feat, and no accomplishment, to cut the welfare rolls unless poverty among single mothers and their children is also reduced.... The Congress regularly voted down proposals to systematically monitor the impact of welfare reform on the well-being of families. Wisconsin, the welfare reform pioneer that has slashed its rolls by 68 percent, won't release employers' quarterly reports that tell not only whether recipients got jobs, but how long they kept them. New York City won't open its records to outside researchers. When the Massachusetts welfare department was told that one in three of the people leaving welfare was unemployed, their response was to stop collecting information on why people were leaving the rolls."

GWENDOLYN MINK,  Professor of politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz and author of "Welfare's End," Mink said today: "In this campaign year, both Republicans and Democrats are taking credit for reducing the welfare rolls by 46%, and both sides are touting the 'brilliant success' of punitive innovations such as time limits and coerced work outside the home. But between 30 and 50% of families leaving welfare do not have earnings: that's a 30-50 percent unemployment rate among former recipient families. Three years after leaving welfare, the median income even among employed former recipients was only $10,924 -- well below the poverty line* By any measure, these data show that welfare reform has been a disaster for families who need welfare. The hardest hit are women of color and their children: welfare reform has had an unmistakable disparate racial impact. If Al Gore truly means to redistribute the joys and opportunities of prosperity to folks who have been left out, he needs to spearhead a campaign to reform welfare reform. And if he's truly committed to women's rights and racial equality, he must fight to repeal welfare provisions that make poor single  mothers a separate and unequal caste."

LINDA BURNHAM,  http://www.coloredgirls.org Director of the Women of Color Resource Center and co-author of the report  "Working Hard, Staying Poor: Women and Children in the Wake of Welfare 'Reform,'" Burnham said: „Undoing the damage of welfare 'reform' requires  the restoration and strengthening of the social safety net for women, while funding programs that support women all along the path to economic self-sufficiency.... Welfare 'reform' compromises the human rights of poor women in the United States. United Nations human rights instruments attest
to the strong link between economic stability and all other human rights."

For more information, contact at the Institute for Public Accuracy: Sam Husseini, (202) 347-0020


What has Welfare Reform Accomplished? Impacts on Welfare Participation, Employment, Income, Poverty, and Family Structure - by Robert F. Schoeni, Rebecca M. Blank,  NBER Working Paper No. W7627 Issued in March 2000

Working Mother magazine has issued its 15th annual list of top employers, honoring the 100 companies deemed best at helping working moms
balance their careers with the rest of their lives. http://www.workingmother.com.  Interesting material for critical analysis of web based materials -- notice the advertisers.

From David Rosen, the National Literacy Advocacy Listserv
Monday, 20 Apr 1998 08:50:42 -0500

[The] April 20th Boston Globe front page article, Welfare-to-work: The challenge grows harder should get the attention of welfare reform policy makers (but will it?). The Marriott hotel chain's highly touted corporate welfare-to-work program, in the high employment economy of Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, has an 18% graduation/job placement rate and a 0% job retention rate. Nationally, the job retention rate of such Mariott programs -- until now, as these programs begin to face the harder-to-serve majority of welfare clients -- has been 90% after 3 months, 65% after one year. According to Durham County Welfare Director, Dan Hudgins, every Mariottt Research Triangle Park program applicant was selected by Marriott as the "best of the best of the folks still on welfare."

Perhaps as more information like this is brought to legislators' attention we can begin to reform Welfare Reform, to introduce actual help into the equation: education, childcare, healthcare, domestic abuse and substance abuse counseling, transportation, and other kinds.


Rhode Island

The Poverty Institute - an independent voice working to promote economic security for low-income Rhode Islanders.
Welfare Reform - links to welfare reform resources from the Alfred Taubman Center for Public Policy at Brown University, including Rhode Island welfare data.

From the Providence Journal Welfare reform working in Rhode Island, report shows - article from the Providence Jounral, March 1, 2002.  If this link expires, the report featured in the article remains online at http://www.dhs.state.ri.us/dhs/reports/FIPrsch.pdf.  Other DHS reports are found at  http://www.dhs.state.ri.us/dhs/dreports.htm

From the Providence Journal, Reducing welfare: 'Steady' but slow, progress With the total number of welfare cases dropping just 2 percent since May 1997, the state could soon be penalized for not meeting federal requiements. By CHRISTOPHER ROWLAND Journal State House Bureau, Providence Journal March 5, 1999 

From the Providence Journal, Hunger grows despite strong economy: A statewide hunger survey shows that even as unemployment decreases, more people need assistance. Providence Journal Bulletin, 11 March, 1998. A Rhode Island focus on HUNGER 1997.


From the Providence Journal, coverage of the annual action conference of the Rhode Island Campaign to Eliminate Childhood Poverty, where Peter Edelman, a high-ranking official who resigned from the Clinton administration in protest over the 1996 welfare law, praises Rhode Island for its humane policies.Providence Journal Bulletin, 16 January, 1998

families

A Hand Up for the Bottom Third: Toward a New Agenda for Low-Income Working Families - Isabel Sawhill and Adam Thomas, Brookings Institution, May 2001.

Basic family budget calculator: [http://www.epinet.org/datazone/fambud/budget.html ] - "The Family Budget Calculator lets you determine the income needed for particular types of families to make ends meet. Because costs of goods and services vary across the U.S., the calculator customizes the budgets for every U.S. community-400 in all. Simply select from one of six family types, pick a state, and then select a community to see how much that family is likely to need for housing, food, child care, etc. The calculator also shows the percent and number of families in that state living below the family budget level.

Bush Tells Welfare Moms to Work More--How Pro-family Is That? David Corn, The Nation, 02/27/2002

Disabilities Among Children and Mothers in Low-Income Families" 06.26.02 - Research-in-Brief presents selected findings from an IWPR analysis of disabilities among children and mothers in low-income families.

Domestic Violence/Welfare Research: Resources for Researchers - Collaboration in Domestic Violence/Welfare Research , from the University of Michigan School of Social Work  Project for Research on Welfare, Work, and Domestic Violence

FAMILY INVOLVEMENT AMONG WORKING FAMILIES - As more parents join the workforce, family involvement in education, including taking civic action to improve public schools, is often constrained by time.  A selected bibliography from the FINE Initiative at Harvard Family Research Project examines the relationship between work and the opportunities for family involvement.

Families on the Edge - Bob Reeg, Christine Grisham, and Annie Shepard : Despite being almost universally eligible for welfare, many homeless young
parents are not receiving needed services, and many aren't even aware that the  welfare program exists; from the Center for Law and Social Policy and the National Network for Youth

Families Who Left Welfare: Who Are They and What Are They Doing? - An Urban Institute discussion paper finds that the work lives of former welfare recipients are very similar to those of workers at the low end of the pay scale. Because of the similarities among low-income parents who have not received welfare and those who have, the author, Pamela Loprest of The Urban Institute, recommends that programs and policies address the needs of both groups. (fall, 1999).

Geography of low-income families and children (2003) - report from the National Center for Children in Poverty

THE INITIAL IMPACTS OF WELFARE REFORM on the Economic Well-Being of Single Mother Families by Wendell Primus, Lynette Rawlings, Kathy Larin, Kathryn Porter, 8/22/99 -- Average Incomes of Very Poor Families Fell During Early Years of Welfare Reform. "A new study finds that the income of some of the nation's poorest children and families declined in recent years despite strong growth in the economy, raising questions about the effects of welfare reform." From the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities


Jobs May Not Be Enough for Families' Basic Needs Run Date: 07/30/01   By Sarah Stewart Taylor  WEnews correspondent

Policy Action Network - updated postings related to welfare and families from The Electronic Policy Network (EPN). Idea Central is a version EPN's virtual magazine, updated daily with summaries of, and links to, new EPN releases and columns from featured columnists, as well as a broad view of current issues via their NewsFix column. Previous welfare-related postings are described below:

(From EPN News April 1, 1998 - Time Limits and Welfare Reform: How Many Families Will Be Affected?," - estimates of the number and characteristics of welfare recipient families likely to be affected by the 1996 welfare reform legislation's 60-month time limit, and find that around 40% of the current caseload -- some two million families and 3.8 million children -- will hit the 60-month limit on total benefit receipt .


Low-Income Working Mothers and their Children   From the Joint Center for Poverty Research; April/02.  The effects on children of a working mother have assumed greater significance as welfare reform and other demographic changes find more mothers in the labor force.

Feminist  Perspectives on TANF Reauthorization: An Introduction to Key Issues  for the Future of Welfare Reform by  Janice Peterson, Ph. - February, 2002.

National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies  How Effective Are Different Welfare-to-Work Approaches?  Five-Year Adult and Child Impacts for Eleven Programs - "For the past 30 years, policymakers have legislated various programs aimed at increasing employment among welfare recipients. But how best to help people move from welfare to work -- particularly whether an employment-focused approach or an education-focused approach is more effective -- has been a subject of long-standing debate. This report summary, which describes the long-term effects of 11 different mandatory welfare-to-work programs for single parents and their  children, takes a major step toward resolving this debate. The findings are the final ones from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS), a multiyear random assignment study focused on the question "What works best, and for whom?"


Poverty among America's poor worsens - Millions of American families that have left welfare are worse off economically today because many state governments are not spending the federal funds intended to help them transition into work or take care of their children, according to a new report by National Campaign for Jobs and Income Support. The states have failed to use more than $8 billion authorized by Congress for child care, transportation, education, job training and other efforts to help support low-wage workers and struggling families.

Women Struggle to Make It on Housemaid's Wages - from a talk given by Barbara Ehrenreich, 05/18/01,  author of Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting by in America.


Welfare Reform - page of the Department of Health and Human Services/Adminstration for Children and Families

Rhode Island Department of Human Services - basic contact information for the state's DHS.
"The Department of Human Services' primary mission is to provide financial and medical assistance to needy individuals and families in Rhode Island. In the provision of these services, the Department's objective is to assist individuals and families to the maximum extent possible to achieve self-sufficiency, self-care and a strengthening of family life."

kids

Child Weflare resources from the Center for Law and Social Policy

The Children's Defense Fund - compendium of resources related to children, poverty and possiblities.

Rhode Island Kids Count - census data, poverty stats and issues briefs related to child welfare in the state, through 1997.
Annual KIDS COUNT data updated  factbook

RI stats around health, safety, mortality, education and well being; part of the larger RI Kids Count site.

KIDS COUNT data-on-line - KIDS COUNT, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, is a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States.  KIDS COUNT data is  available from an easy to use, powerful online database that allows you to generate custom graphs, maps, ranked lists, and state by state profiles.

Kids Count, a national and state-by-state effort to track the status of children in the United States. The annual Kids Count Data Book uses the best available data to measure the educational, social, economic, and physical well-being of children using ten benchmarks: Percent Low Birth-Weight Babies; Infant Mortality Rate; Child Death Rate; Rate of Teen Deaths by Accident, Homicide, and Suicide; Teen Birth Rate; Juvenile Violent Crime Arrest Rate; Percent of Teens Who Are High School Dropouts; Percent of Teens Not Attending School and Not Working; Percent of Children in Poverty; and Percent of Families With Children Headed by a Single Parent. The Foundation also funds a nationwide network of state-level Kids Count projects that provide a more detailed, community-by-community picture of the condition of children.


from Connect for Kids Weekly--September 18, 2000 [find these articles, and far more current ones archived/posted on the Connect for Kids site, http://www.connectforkids.org.]

When Welfare Works Women from around the country came together to share their experiences with our nation's public welfare system, as part of the Welfare Made a Difference national campaign; they came to speak about what really helps families move out of poverty. Caitlin Johnson reports.

The Welfare Made a Difference Campaign shares personal stories of past and present welfare recipients from all regions of the country and all walks
of life. The campaign's goal is to show the virtues of a supportive and adequate welfare system and the consequences of punitive welfare policies.

How Welfare Makes a Difference  - This public education campaign challenges misconceptions about welfare in preparation for the upcoming elections -- and reauthorization of the federal welfare reform act. Do you have any stories about how welfare has helped -- or could help -- families move out of poverty?

Welfare reform and children - the home page of a four-year study of families and children in Boston, Chicago, and San Antonio; the study is based at Johns Hopkins University. The interdisciplinary study, beginning in January, 1999, combines a household survey of 2,800 parents and children, half of them recipients of TANF welfare benefits, an embedded developmental study of 800 of these families, and an ethnography of a separate but similar group of 170 families.

disabilities, learning disabilities and welfare rights

Welfare to work listserv: from Glenn Young - For those interested in the subject of welfare reform and learning disabilities, there has been a listserv created through NIFL. To sign up, please send a message to: listproc@literacy.nifl.gov write in the body of the message subscribe nifl-wtwld and your name. Do not write anything in the subject line and do not use any dots or dashes other than between nifl and wtwld. (Click here for more information on listservs). 


TANF Recipients with Impairments Toward Employment. GAO-02-37.  - with thanks to Glenn Young, who notes that the GAO is reporting that 44% of the population on TANF have work-related disabilities almost 3 times higher than the general population.  This report should be an important document in issues of re-authorization and in working with states to develop new approaches ...especially in light of ... the OCR guideance on TANF and disability.

Serving Welfare Recipients with Disabilities - by Fredrica D. Kramer, The Finance Project.
 

last updated  August 18, 2006

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