In 2010, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awarded the first round of five-year Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG 1.0) to 32 organizations in 23 states; five were tribal organizations. The purpose of the HPOG Program is to provide education and training to Temporary…

Workforce development programs provide training and education to welfare recipients to prepare them to obtain and retain employment in their communities. Federal, state, and local investments are made to develop and implement programs. But, do these programs have relationships with local employers to obtain their input to provide the education and…

In 1996, the US Congress passed the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act, changing the culture of welfare from a system of dependency to one of personal responsibility and economic self-sufficiency through workplace participation. Through the expert views of case managers and area employers of Wisconsin, this research…

Rebecca Blank explores a weakness of the welfare reforms of the mid-1990s--the failure of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families program to address the plight of so-called "hard to employ" single mothers and their children. TANF has moved many women on the welfare caseload into work, but the services it provides are not intensive or flexible…

After reviewing the strengths and shortcomings of current programs, the authors conclude that the key to a humane and reasonable system lies in the recognition and exploitation of the interdependence of work and welfare. (Editor)

This country has long debated the question of how to design the welfare system, particularly the federally supported Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program which provides cash assistance to families headed primarily by female single parents. A pressing issue is whether welfare programs should continue to be broad entitlements or…

Using data from a longitudinal sample of former and current welfare recipients in Michigan spanning 1997 through 1999, the Womens Employment Study, this analysis examined how transitions from welfare to work affect parenting behavior and child behavior problems. Researchers used a fixed-effects regression design to control for all time-invariant…

Noting the while there may be much support for the principle that families on welfare should have access to 2 years of education and training and then be expected to work, this paper contends that it will be extremely difficult, perhaps impossible, to design a coherent and constructive program within the probable federal budget constraints. In…

This monograph synthesizes findings from five large-scale studies investigating welfare and employment programs in order to examine the effects on children of key policies: providing financial support for working families, requiring single parents to work, and limiting time on welfare. It identifies program features associated with effects on…

This report profiles three workforce organizations across the country--in Colorado, Georgia and New York--and explores the strategies they used to grow their programs locally. The report examines the dilemmas workforce organizations frequently face in meeting not only the needs of their dual customers--job seekers and employers--but also the needs…

This report synthesizes first-phase evaluation results of the Teenage Parent Demonstration program. This program, whose cornerstone is case management, responded to three concerns: (1) rising welfare caseloads; (2) persistently high rates of teenage pregnancies and births; and (3) the high probability that teenage parents will go onto welfare and…

An evaluation was conducted of Vermont's Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP), one of the earliest statewide welfare reform programs designed to increase work and reduce reliance on welfare. To assess the difference WRP made, parents applying for or receiving cash assistance in Vermont from July 1994 to December 1996 were assigned randomly to one…

Work requirements in welfare reform proposed by the George W. Bush administration would impose much tougher work requirements on welfare recipients. Seventy percent of all adults would be required to work 40 hours per week, versus the 50 percent who are required to work 30 hours per week currently. In addition, states would be given little leeway…