When Welfare Worked: A Community Approach to Welfare Reform

Abstract

This article examines the implementation of welfare reform in Oregon from 1995–2001 and argues that the state of Oregon provided a model for comprehensive reform with a community approach to welfare provision. Utilizing the flexibility and resources made available under the Personal Responsibility Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996, Oregon launched an aggressive campaign to enlist community partners in moving welfare recipients into employment. The results were collaborative partnerships that achieved real resource sharing and staff integration through a commitment to consensus building among multiple stakeholders that gave meaning to the ideal of democratic policymaking. The benefits of such an approach to welfare recipients were evident in the range of services provided as well as reduced caseloads and high employment levels without the punitive threat of time limits. After 2001, however, the state fiscal crisis coupled with federal reauthorization proposals designed to restrict state flexibility threatened gains in community building.