Youth who receive Supplemental Security Income (SSI) benefits experience disparate educational, employment, and economic outcomes when compared to youth with disabilities who do not receive these entitlements. Promoting the Readiness of Minors in Supplemental Security Income (PROMISE) was a 6-year national research demonstration project that…

The California Budget Act of 2012, through a trailer bill known as Senate Bill (SB) 1041, contained significant reforms to the California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program. CalWORKs is California's Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, a central component of the safety net that provides cash aid for…

Given the size of the adult student population and the student affairs focus on career development in traditional age students, the purpose of this qualitative study was to explore career development and the vocational self-concept (VSC) in 48 California community college welfare-to-work students. Findings suggest the importance of congruence…

This practice brief profiles three programs, two statewide and one local, that provide work opportunities to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) recipients who are participating in vocational education programs. The authors selected programs that combine vocational education and paid work because this strategy reinforces the emphasis of…

President Clinton has repeatedly called for a bipartisan welfare reform bill that is tough on work and responsibility, but not tough on children. This means providing adequate child care to enable recipients to leave welfare for work; rewarding states for placing people in jobs; guaranteeing health coverage for families leaving welfare for…

About 1.5 million uninsured children in California are eligible for Medi-Cal or Healthy Families, the state's primary public health insurance programs for children. The Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC) provides a natural entry point for reaching these eligible families. This briefing report was written for WIC…

As part of a review of California's strategy for helping recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) find jobs through the Work Incentive Program (WIN), eight demonstration programs were analyzed. There were four major findings. First, the Department of Social Services (DSS), which targets AFDC recipients with recent job…

California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program requires that large numbers of welfare recipients receive job training and preparation for employment. A survey of the program analyzed early operations in 8 of the first 10 counties to implement it; data were gathered from program staff, case records, and field research of the first…

A large-scale evaluation was conducted of Jobs-First GAIN, a strongly employment-focused mandatory welfare-to-work program. Its main features were an unusually intensive program orientation; high quality job clubs; job development activities; strong encouragement to take entry-level jobs and combine work and welfare in the short-term; and…

This report defines policy and practices for child care assistance for welfare recipients in New York, and explores ways in which the state could use the newly enacted federal welfare reform legislation to create opportunities for children of welfare recipients. The six sections of the report are based on a survey of child care policies and…

This longitudinal study examined the California Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program, which mandated that recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) work, prepare for work, or attend school after their youngest child reached 6 years of age. Interviews with 255 single AFDC mothers with one or more children under the age…

An evaluation was conducted of the effectiveness of California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program, a statewide initiative aimed at increasing the employment and self-sufficiency of recipients of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. Based on 2 years of follow-up data for 33,000 people who entered GAIN between early 1988 and…

California's Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) program requires that large numbers of welfare recipients receive job training and preparation for employment. Another component of the program addresses the child care needs of program participants. A survey of 626 single-parent program registrants in the first eight counties in which the…

Asset development is an emerging approach to promoting self-sufficiency for low-income workers. By promoting and rewarding savings, asset development strategies encourage individuals to set long-term economic goals. Asset development strategies can accomplish the following objectives: (1) give low-income workers the knowledge required to navigate…

A study aimed to provide education and welfare officials with information on the experiences of welfare/education programs as they had been implemented in five states. The states (California, Florida, Ohio, Oklahoma, and Wisconsin) represented a range of noteworthy approaches to providing education to welfare recipients, including some dramatic…