Designing Welfare-to-Work Programs for Families Facing Personal or Family
Challenges: Lessons from the Field
by LaDonna Pavetti, Krista Olson, Nancy Pindus, and Marta Pernas of The
Urban Institute and Julie Isaacs of the American Institutes for Research for the
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation and the
Administration for Children and Families. December, 1996
Executive Summary
States are currently shifting the emphasis of the Aid to Families with
Dependent Children (AFDC) system away from providing ongoing cash assistance to
families to providing assistance to help recipients enter the labor market. As
states attempt to increase the percentage of AFDC recipients who leave welfare
for work or are actively engaged in work-related activities, they are likely to
encounter more and more families who face a number of personal and family
challenges that make it difficult for them to seek employment or to sustain
employment over the long-term. For these families, their ability to succeed may
depend on obtaining assistance to overcome or cope with learning disabilities,
substance abuse, depression and physical or mental disabilities, family
responsibilities, including the responsibility to care for other family members
with disabilities, histories of physical or sexual abuse and domestic violence,
social isolation, absent and/or non-supportive mates or significant others,
inadequate parenting and discipline skills, and proximity to criminal activity.
Currently, most families who experience many of these personal or family
challenges are exempted or deferred from participation in employment or
employment-related activities. However, there are a small number of states and
some local programs that have expanded the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills
(JOBS) program or have developed programs outside of the welfare system to
address the needs of these families. This report summarizes information from
case studies of eight of these programs, examining the issues that are important
to consider when designing such programs. Several broad lessons can be learned
from their experiences.
- Program flexibility is critical. A diverse array of personal and family
challenges contribute to families' inabilities to find or keep employment.
These families also have very different strengths on which they can draw to
become self-sufficient. Consequently, while some families may need limited
assistance for only a short period of time, others may need intensive assistance
for far longer. Because these families' circumstances are so diverse, a broad
range of services and approaches to strengthening families are needed to help
them achieve self-sufficiency.
- A critical component of programs designed to address the needs of families
who are experiencing personal or family challenges that make the transition from
welfare to work difficult is the development of a trusting relationship.
Program administrators repeatedly stressed the importance of hiring staff who
were genuinely committed to helping families bring about change in their lives.
One of the main roles staff provide is to celebrate small steps toward
self-sufficiency and to push families to progress further.
- Forging partnerships with community agencies that provide substance abuse
treatment, mental health counseling or specialized services for women in abusive
situations is critical to help some of these families achieve self-sufficiency.
Most JOBS case managers or eligibility workers do not have the specialized
skills that are needed to address these issues. Even programs that have hired
more highly skilled JOBS staff rely on these outside resources, both because
staff are not necessarily skilled in these particular areas and because they do
not have sufficient time to provide the intensive counseling and support needed
to address these issues.
- Clear expectations reinforced with financial penalties are important.
Financial sanctions are viewed as a mechanism to encourage families to
participate in program activities. Staff repeatedly report that sanctions serve
an especially important function in getting families who are fearful of change
to begin to take the initial steps to become self-sufficient.
- The provision of supportive services to families who experience various
personal and family challenges that make it difficult for them to find or
sustain employment is not incompatible with a program model that emphasizes
rapid entry into the labor market. For many families, assistance designed to
help them overcome particular barriers to employment can be provided within a
relatively short period of time. In some cases, employment itself or
participation in community activities designed to increase a recipient's
work-related skills or self-esteem may help recipients to take the steps they
need to overcome their personal or family challenges.
This report is the second of a series of reports on AFDC families who face
personal or family challenges that are likely to make the transition from
welfare to work difficult. The first report, Personal and Family Challenges
to the Successful Transition from Welfare to Work by Krista Olson and
LaDonna Pavetti is also available from The Urban Institute. This report
examines the prevalence of specific types of personal and family challenges AFDC
families encounter as they attempt to make the transition from welfare to work
and provides estimates of the portion of the AFDC caseload that is likely to
need more assistance than traditional welfare-to-work programs generally provide
to succeed in the paid labor market.
Download a copy of the full report (lessons.zip 92 Kb) in a compressed format.
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