Family Rewards was an innovative approach to poverty reduction in the United States that was modeled on the conditional cash transfer (CCT) programs common in lower- and middle-income countries. The program offered cash assistance to low-income families, provided that they met certain conditions related to family health care, children's education,…

Experimental approaches can help disentangle the impacts of policies from the effects of individual characteristics, but the heterogeneity of implementation inherent in studies with complex program designs may mask average treatment impacts (Morris & Hendra, 2009). In the case of the Opportunity NYC-Family Rewards (ONYC-Family Rewards),…

This study builds on and informs ecological theory (Bronfenbrenner & Morris, 2006) by focusing on the contextual processes by which individual developmental trajectories can be altered. Ecological theory posits that children are embedded in a nested and interactive set of interrelated contexts beginning with the micro-system (the most…

The "KIDS COUNT Data Book" is an annual publication that assesses child well-being nationally and across the 50 states, as well as in the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Using an index of 16 indicators, the report ranks states on overall child well-being and in economic well-being, education, health and family and community. The…

Aimed at low-income families in six of New York City's highest-poverty communities, Family Rewards ties cash rewards to a pre-specified set of activities and outcomes thought to be critical to families' short- and long-term success in the areas of children's education, family preventive health care, and parents' employment. The purpose of this…