The Families Forward Demonstration (FFD) examined new strategies to increase the earnings of parents who owe child support but are unable to fully meet their obligations due to low earnings. It also focused on "responsive" child support services that helped parents understand their support obligations, and even suspended certain…

As the first major effort to use a behavioral economics lens to examine human services programs that serve poor and vulnerable families in the United States, the Behavioral Interventions to Advance Self-Sufficiency (BIAS) project demonstrated the value of applying behavioral insights to improve the efficacy of human services programs. The BIAS…

The Accelerated Study in Associate Programs (ASAP), developed by the City University of New York (CUNY), is an uncommonly comprehensive and long-term program designed to address low graduation rates among community college students. MDRC has been studying the effects of ASAP on low-income students with developmental (remedial) education needs at…

This brief is the third in a series documenting the implementation of an economic mobility initiative supported by New York City's Change Capital Fund (CCF). CCF is a consortium of New York City donors formed to invest in local nonprofits that undertake data-driven antipoverty strategies integrating housing, education, and employment services. CCF…

Low-income neighborhoods no longer experience the levels of community wide disinvestment that they did through the 1990s, but their residents still face significant poverty, risk of displacement, and limited economic mobility. For this reason, Change Capital Fund (CCF), a New York City donor collaborative, formed to invest in sophisticated…

The budget for the U.S. Department of Labor for Fiscal Year 2010 includes a total of $45 million to support and study transitional jobs. This paper describes the origins of the transitional jobs models that are operating today, reviews the evidence on the effectiveness of this approach and other subsidized employment models, and offers some…

Children living in poverty face considerable developmental risks. This report presents interim results from an evaluation of parental employment and educational services delivered within a two-generational, early childhood program targeting low-income families who are expecting a child or who have a child under age 3. This study is part of the…

Children living in poverty face considerable developmental risks. This report presents interim results from an evaluation of parental employment and educational services delivered within a two-generational, early childhood program targeting low-income families who are expecting a child or who have a child under age 3. This study is part of the…

Time limits on benefit receipt became a central feature of federal welfare policy in the 1996 Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA). Proponents of welfare reform argued that the time limits in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, would send a firm message to recipients that welfare is…

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) originated as a new vision of a welfare system that would encourage work, reduce reliance on public assistance, and reduce poverty. The program began in April 1994 in seven Minnesota counties and differed from the existing Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) system in two key ways: It…

Since 1998, federally funded One-Stop Service Centers around the country have focused primarily on assisting the unemployed into work. WASC tests a strategy that expands that mission by targeting people who are already working, but at low wages. Through career coaching, skills training, and better connections with employers - and led by a newly…

Despite the growing interest in using financial incentives in public housing to promote work among residents, little systematic information is available on how these innovations operate in practice. By examining the experiences of the Jobs-Plus demonstration sites, this report intends to help answer such basic questions as: What are practical and…

Although much is known about how to help welfare recipients find jobs, little is known about how to help them and other low-wage workers keep jobs or advance in the labor market. This report presents information on the effectiveness of a program in South Carolina that aimed to help former welfare recipients obtain jobs, work more steadily, and…