Content by Keyword: Welfare Reform/Welfare-to-Work

1   Throughout this document, ranges are often presented because specific findings differed from site to site.

Employment-focused programs generally produce large increases in job search participation, while education-focused programs usually lead to large increases in adult education participation.

Since the early 1980s, welfare policymakers and program operators have debated what role adult education -- basic education, GED preparation, and ESL classes -- should play in welfare-to-work programs. Even under TANF, discussion about the potential of education to help welfare recipients make the transition from welfare to work continues. Increas

The experiences of the control group members in the NEWWS sites set the standard against which the program groups' experiences were measured (for the programs' impacts, see the next sections). Through examination of control group outcomes, the following portrait of the characteristics, attitudes, and behavior of welfare recipients who are not subj

As has been documented in many studies, most welfare recipients eventually find jobs, and most do not stay on welfare for long. The challenge for welfare-to-work programs is to improve on these rates of job finding and welfare exit by enabling people to find jobs and leave welfare more quickly, to keep jobs longer and avoid returning to the welfar

The 1996 welfare reform law spawned many new welfare policies and encouraged states to experiment with new approaches. Almost all the new policies and innovations, however, take for granted the existence of and build on the quid pro quo established by FSA, namely, that welfare recipients must work or participate in some type of welfare-to-work pro

NEWWS used a random assignment research design to estimate the effects of the studied programs. Welfare recipients were randomly assigned to one of two or three research groups, depending on the site. One of the groups was always a control group. In all the sites, control group members were eligible for welfare as usual. In addition, they were e

The 11 programs in NEWWS were operated in seven sites across the country: Atlanta, Georgia; Grand Rapids, Michigan; Riverside, California; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit, Michigan; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; and Portland, Oregon (for a list of the programs categorized by type, see Table 2 ).

The programs studied in NEWWS were initially run under the federal Family Support Act (FSA). Enacted in 1988, FSA required the government to provide education, employment, and support services to adults receiving cash welfare assistance, known at the time as Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC). Recipients of AFDC, in turn, were required

Over the past three decades, federal and state policymakers have created a variety of programs with the common goal of moving people from welfare to work.  How to go about increasing employment among welfare recipients, however, has long been debated.  By laying out the lessons learned from the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (

Contents Methodology Pass-through and Disregard Results Distributing All FTRO Child Support Collections to Former Welfare Families Effects on Administrative Costs Conclusion

Contents Methodology and Research questions Key Findings Recommendations for Further Research

Contents Designing Employment-Focused Programs for NCPs Getting NCPs to Participate Full Range of Services in Comprehensive Programs Conclusion

Prepared for: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Administration for Children and Families Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation U.S. Department of Education Office of the Under Secretary Office of Vocational and Adult Education

By: Fredrik Andersson, Julia Lane, Erika McEntarfer   This study examines the effect of employer characteristics, types of coworkers, and residential location in promoting the advancement of Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients in the labor market. It is the first to use new, large integrated employer-employee data 

TEENAGE PARENT DEMONSTRATION Report on Results of Long-Term Follow-up, Executive Summary Moving into Adulthood: Were the Impacts of Mandatory Programs for Welfare-Dependent Teenaged Parents Sustained After the Programs Ended? by Ellen Eliason Kisker, Anu Rangarajan, and Kimberly Boller  

Policy changes may have both positive and negative effects on programs that are not the primary target of the policy. Policymakers hope that the potential negative effects are minimized and do not outweigh the positive effects on the target program as well as on other programs. Analyzing the patterns of program utilization by children before and a

Out of necessity or choice, mothers are working outside the home in greater numbers than ever before. In 1996, three out of four mothers with children between 6 and 17 were in the labor force, compared to one in four in 1965. Two-thirds of mothers with children under six now work. Reliable, high-quality child care is critical to these mothers' pro

Contents Policy Context Rationale for Providing Mental Health Services to Welfare Recipients Methodology Overview of the Study Sites Key Choices in Designing and Providing Mental Health Services Key Implementation Issues General Conclusions