This guide, which is intended for planners, administrators, and staff involved in state and local welfare reform efforts, summarizes information about the "work first" approach to welfare reform that was gained from comprehensive evaluations of work first programs and discussions with program managers, practitioners, and participants.…

Noting that the mid-1990s are an era of experimentation in welfare initiatives, this publication summarizes 34 research studies on children and welfare reform. Articles include studies of children and parents in poverty, studies of program models likely to have direct implications for children, and outcome evaluations of welfare-to-work programs…

This 60-minute videotape presents a panel discussion involving four individuals: executive director of a state literacy resource development center; district manager of a major corporation; policy analyst for the National Adult Education Professional Development Consortium; and executive director an office of De Pauw University's Division of…

A participatory research model collected stories of the experiences and most pressing problems of mothers on welfare. Over 35 African American, biracial, and Anglo women from an urban community who received cash assistance in a midwestern, largely rural state participated in small group discussions at a job readiness program. An interactive…

Four African-American women, participants in PROBE (Potential Reentry Opportunities in Business and Education), a program to prepare low-income women in Pennsylvania for jobs through computer and communications skills training, were interviewed about their attitudes toward learning. The four were single-parent welfare recipients in their late 20s…

This paper on assessment in the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Program for welfare recipients is intended to help administrators of JOBS programs weigh the possible benefits and drawbacks of the assessment choices they must make. Chapter 1 explains why assessment matters to JOBS administrators. Chapter 2 suggests a conceptual framework…

Working diligently, living frugally, and restraining one's lusts and appetites within defensible boundaries have often been classified as middle class values. A growing concern of the U.S. public is the dysfunctional conduct of many of those dependent upon its support. However, society must demonstrate persuasively that rectitude pays. Society…

An evaluation of California's statewide Greater Avenues for Independence (GAIN) Program was based mainly on a sample of more than 2,500 welfare recipients in five of the six counties included in the ongoing evaluation. The evaluation drew on previously completed analyses and new data based on a survey of these recipients and the results of a…

This monograph examines adult education issues in Minnesota, such as the proper role of the Federal Government, institutions of higher education, the business sector, the non-profit sector, labor unions, the public schools and community education, teachers, public school administrators, and learners in the fight against adult illiteracy in the…

Concerned with the increasing feminization of poverty, the Rockefeller Foundation launched in 1982 a $12 million welfare-to-work research and demonstration project, presently midway into a 5-year evaluation. The Minority Female Single Parent Demonstration project involved four community-based organizations: Atlanta Urban League (Georgia);…

Testimony from a congressional hearing on the dual role women play as wage earners and as mothers is presented. Other focuses of the hearing include what is being done and what needs to be done by the public and private sectors to facilitate the entry of women into a broad range of occupations, including higher paid nontraditional areas.…

The Confidence Clinic at Clackamas Community College was designed to help women on welfare to achieve and maintain self-sufficiency. The need for such a program was evidenced by the fact that 11% of the county's population were women heads of households who had below median family incomes, and by the apparent increase of such situations. The…

THE AIDES FOR ADULT EDUCATION WORKSHOP (FEBRUARY 10-MAY 20, 1967) WAS HELD IN CLEVELAND, OHIO BY CLEVELAND COLLEGE AND THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM TO DEVELOP BETTER CLASSROOM COMMUNICATION AND A MORE INTENSIVE LEARNING SITUATION FOR DISADVANTAGED ADULT STUDENTS. TWENTY WELFARE RECIPIENTS, ALMOST ALL NEGRO WOMEN, WERE SELECTED FOR AIDE TRAINING ON THE…

The study determined the relation between specific social factors and situational conditions of poverty and non-poverty heads of households and their orientation toward work. The major hypotheses tested was that respondents affected more by adverse social factors and situational conditions will develop less positive work orientations. Data were…

A project (MAPAR), designed specifically to explore and develop an educational program which will demonstrate effective methods for teaching the educationally disadvantaged adult, is discussed. The approach utilized by this project is that of an individualized learning center which incorporates paraprofessional teacher, self-instructional learning…