Era Of Welfare Reform Research Articles

Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients

List of IllustrationsPrefacePart 1. A Foundation for Work with Involuntary Clients 1. Introduction to Involuntary Practice2. Legal and Ethical Foundations for Work with Involuntary Clients3. Effectiveness with Involuntary Clients4. Influencing Behaviors and Attitudes5. Assessing Initial Contacts in Involuntary TransactionsPart 2. Practice Strategies for Work with Involuntary Clients 6. Initial Phase Work with Individual Involuntary Clients7. Task-Centered Intervention with Involuntary Clients8. Work with Involuntary Families9. Work with Involuntary GroupsPart 3. Practice Applications with Involuntary Problems and Settings Section A10. Work with Substance Abusers, by James Barber11. Bringing Up What They Don't Want to Talk About: Use of Brief Motivational Interviewing with Adolescents Regarding Health-Related Behaviors in Opportunistic and Other Settings, by Malinda Hohmann and Chris Kleinpeter12. Work with Men in Domestic Abuse Treatment, by Mike ChovanecSection B13. Involuntary Clients in Public Schools: Solution-focused Interventions, by Cynthia Franklin and Laura Hopson14. Work with Involuntary Clients in Child Welfare Settings, by Julie Altman and Debra GohaganSection C15. Oppression and Involuntary Status, by Glenda Dewberry Rooney16. Work with Involuntary Clients in Corrections, by Chris Trotter17. Involuntary Clients and Work in the Era of Welfare Reform, by Tony BibusSection D18. Applying the Involuntary Perspective to Supervision, by Carol Jud and Tony Bibus19. The Nonvoluntary Practitioner and the SystemAppendixReferencesContributorsIndex

The Consequences of Decentralization: Inequality in Safety Net Provision in the Post–Welfare Reform Era

AbstractDecentralized safety net programs provide much of the social provision in the US, yet the consequences for social provision have received remarkably limited attention. In this article, we e...

Out of many, one? U.S. sub-national political-economies in the post-welfare reform era

AbstractDespite increased research on social policy variation among U.S. states, few have examined U.S. state-level political-economies in the wake of welfare reform. This is problematic given the ability of state-level political-economies to solidify patterns of stratification. I address this by analyzing four dimensions of U.S. state-level political-economies in the welfare reform era: labor policy, family/social policy, tax policy, and state imposed fiscal constraint. From this analysis I delineate five state-level political-economic types: (1) progressive; (2) contested progressive; (3) boilerplate; (4) frontier conservative; and (5) Southern conservative. Four determinants of type membership are also evaluated: Democratic Party control, unionization, racial fractionalization and income per capita. While my results demonstrate these as meaningful determinants, patterns of association vary by type, thus suggesting a revision to the assumed progressive/conservative continuum of U.S. social policy and political-economies. I conclude by elaborating how my analysis expands our understanding of U.S., and cross-national, political-economies.

Dual-System Families: Cash Assistance Sequences of Households Involved With Child Welfare

Dual-system families, those involved with the child welfare system and receiving public cash assistance, may be more vulnerable than families connected to only one of the two systems. This study advances our understanding of the heterogeneous and dynamic cash-assistance histories of dual-system families in the post–welfare reform era. With merged administrative data from Washington over the period 1998–2009, we use cluster analysis to group month-to-month sequences of cash-assistance use among households over the 37-month period surrounding child removal. Close to two thirds of families who received any assistance either had a short spell with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) or lost TANF. Smaller percentages had steady support. Families who lose assistance are less likely than average to reunify while those who connect to benefits are more likely, suggesting that coordination between systems may serve dual-system families well.

The Relationship Between Philanthropic Foundation Funding and State-Level Policy in the Era of Welfare Reform

Philanthropic foundations play important symbolic and leadership roles in public policy debates by conferring legitimacy upon specific social problems and policy solutions, but little is known about how they respond to policy change and the roles they adopt in relationship to government. We investigate the degree to which foundations are responsive to the policy environment and ask whether they adopt roles consistent with meeting social needs, promoting social innovation, or both. We also investigate how these roles vary by foundation type (independent, community, corporate) and size. Longitudinal data on grants made by more than 1,000 U.S. foundations during the welfare reform era of 1993-2001 show that during this time foundation grants were not responsive to population need; grants to safety net and social service programs did not increase. Large foundations and independent foundations focused on social innovation by funding research and workforce development and giving more in states pursuing policy innovation.

Shrinking the Public Safety Net or Helping the Poor Play by the Rules? The Changes in the State-Level Policies That Affected Low-Income Families With Children in the Welfare Reform Era

Despite the claimed success of the 1996 Welfare Reform, little research using multivariate regression has examined changes in multiple public safety-net programs. Thus, we still do not know whether public safety-net programs for the poor have shrunk or increased nationwide, along with the sharp declines in cash assistance. Using state-level data between 1994 and 2002 and state fixed-effects model, this study examines changes in nine safety-net programs designed for low-income families with children along with decreases in support from Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), and the results indicate that the decline in AFDC/TANF support was not associated with increases in support for the economic self-sufficiency of low-income families; safety-net programs for the poor shrunk during the 1996 reform. As there is an increasing need for an effective use of public dollars to assist the poor in the present recession, future researchers should turn their attention to the study of multiple safety-net policies.

Off to Market: Neighborhood and Individual Employment Barriers for Women in 21St Century American Cities

ABSTRACT:This paper endeavors to create a better understanding of the barriers to employment faced by disadvantaged urban women in the post–welfare reform era. Using data from the Project on Devolution and Urban Change, a unique geographically linked, longitudinal, multicity set of survey data, logistic regression models weighs the relative importance of individual barriers to employment (e.g., poor health, childcare, family responsibilities) and contextual or neighborhood barriers to employment (e.g., poverty rate, joblessness rate) on labor market outcomes. Results reveal that several neighborhood characteristics are predictive of employment outcomes, including automobile access, female-headedness, vacancy, and disorder. Results suggest a more complex, nuanced interplay between neighborhood-level variables and individually measured variables in preventing some women from obtaining both modestly paying employment with few allocated hours of work per week, and also better-paying jobs with more hours of work per week.

Plural Sovereignty for the Common Good: Faith-Based Initiatives and the Social Question Today

In the era of welfare reform since the mid-1990s, social policy has become increasingly intertwined with developments in church-state law that seem to encourage more cooperation between government programs and faith-based organizations. George W. Bush’s faith-based initiative—his signature domestic policy initiative—was an important effort to advance this trend in a structural way, but the Obama administration, despite initial signals of support, has reverted to a liberal-secularist approach that is not only constitutionally obsolete, but politically damaging for the future of the social safety net.

Revisiting the Promise of Kelly v. Goldberg in the Era of Welfare Reform. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy.

Revisiting the Promise of Kelly v. Goldberg in the Era of Welfare Reform. Georgetown Journal on Poverty Law and Policy.

Dropped From the Rolls: Mexican Immigrants, Race, and Rights in the Era of Welfare Reform

Dropped From the Rolls: Mexican Immigrants, Race, and Rights in the Era of Welfare Reform

State Abortion and Nonmarital Birthrates in the Post—Welfare Reform Era

The impact of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA , or welfare reform) on the economic circumstances of women and children has received substantial research attention, but provisions of the act that attempt to influence women's reproductive behaviors have been much less studied. Provisions of PRWORA encouraged states to intensify efforts to restrict access to abortion and to decrease rates of nonmarital births, particularly among teenagers. Using state-level data, this study analyzes the effects of state policies enacted in the wake of welfare reform, controlling for prior rates of abortion and unwed births. The authors find that economic-based incentives have only minor, and inconsistent, influence on statewide rates of abortion and nonmarital births in 2000. Results are consistent with feminist scholarship proposing that noneconomic considerations are more central in women's decision making about reproduction than economic factors.

Empirical Evidence on Faith‐Based Organizations in an Era of Welfare Reform

Several recent policies encourage the involvement of faith‐based organizations (FBOs) in the delivery of social services to the poor. Relying on data from Indiana’s randomized welfare reform experiment, this article analyzes the characteristics of clients who seek and receive help from FBOs, particularly focusing on how exposure to the effects of welfare reform affects help seeking and the receipt of help. A separate analysis examines cross‐sectional data from social service agencies to compare matched FBOs with nonreligious organizations (NROs). In general, results suggest that the most disadvantaged welfare recipients are more likely to receive assistance from FBOs than from NROs; however, welfare reform has inconsistent effects on the receipt of social services from these organizations. Results also suggest that FBOs are significantly more likely than NROs to have tightened service eligibility criteria.

Normative Versus Felt Needs of Women in the Era of Welfare Reform

There has long existed a conflict over the role and needs of poor women and children in the field of social welfare. The balance between what clients want and think they need and what policy makers think they need or ought to want is precarious. This article presents a study that gave voice to welfare recipients’ perceptions of their needs and wants as they faced the uncertainties of life during welfare reform. Five focus groups were used to collect qualitative data from 33 women. Seven themes related to women’s roles and desires in this era of welfare reform were generated.

Book Review: Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Development in an Era of Welfare Reform

Book Review: Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Development in an Era of Welfare Reform

A Study of Health Care Coverage Among Children in Immigrant Families in the Post Welfare-Reform Era

ABSTRACT The Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) has targeted lawful immigrants by imposing a broad range of restrictions on access to federally funded benefit programs. Within the federal restrictions, however, states have been granted considerable latitude concerning immigrants. In Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and Medicaid, the major benefit programs for low-income children, states are authorized to determine whether these programs are to be provided to immigrant families. First, this study examines variations in immigrant provisions across states in Medicaid, TANF, and state health care programs. Second, the study estimates the impact of state immigrant provisions in those programs on the uninsured among children of immigrants. Using the 1999 Current Population Survey (CPS), the study finds that state-funded Medicaid and state health care programs made available to ineligible immigrants (under PRWORA) significantly decrease the risk of being uninsured for children of immigrants, while controlling all other socio-economic-geographical variables. A child's citizenship is also found to be a significant and strong predictor for being uninsured among children of immigrants.

Community Nutrition Programs in the Era of Welfare Reform: Adaptation, Collaboration, and Innovation

Community nutrition programs such as the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program (EFNEP) have been compelled to find ways to stay accessible and relevant to low-income populations whose lives have been affected by welfare reform. To assess EFNEP adaptation strategies in 3 states, we conducted in-depth interviews with 17 EFNEP managers and focus group discussions with 22 Community Educators (CEs). There was consensus among EFNEP staff that welfare reform has reduced the time available to low-income adults to attend nutrition education programs, despite equal or increased need. EFNEP has adapted primarily through collaboration with agencies serving similar populations and interested in providing nutrition education to groups of their clients. Some sites used innovative marketing strategies and tailored program offerings to attract new audiences and collaborators. Where inter-agency networks functioned well, EFNEP was able to reach participants efficiently and maintain graduation rates. But inter-agency collaboration reduced EFNEP control over program content, duration, and graduation criteria, leading to concerns about reduced effectiveness. Managers varied along a continuum from “compromisers”, mainly concerned with recruitment of participants and program survival, to “negotiators-innovators”, employing strategies aimed at preserving both high participation rates and program quality. To balance adaptation to the expectations of collaborators with fidelity to EFNEP goals, the latter group negotiated for adequate lesson time, provided extra individual or home-study lessons, re-trained CEs and revised curricula. Supported by USDA/ERS.

Bootstrap dreams: U.S. microenterprise development in an era of welfare reform

Declines in real wages, increases in the number of poor families, and cutbacks to welfare and other safety-net programs have stimulated the popularity of microenterprise development programs (MDPs). These programs typically offer training and loans to individuals seeking to operate very small businesses. MDPs are often presented as a path to the self-sufficiency that comes with entrepreneurship and as an example of the success of market-based alternatives to government programs. In Bootstrap Dreams, Nancy C. Jurik analyzes the origins and maturation of these programs in the United States. Based on a national sample of fifty programs and an eight-year case study of one in particular, this is a rare book about microenterprise development. Jurik understands the positive social mission of MDPs, but she is not blind to the problems that they encounter. Jurik's clear perception of potential difficulties and her keen ability to place the microenterprise movement in the larger context of welfare reform and globalization make Bootstrap Dreams a valuable book.

Are certain preschoolers at risk in the era of welfare reform? The moderating role of children's temperament

The current investigation examined whether two dimensions of children's temperament—effortful control and negative emotionality—moderated links between mothers' welfare and work transitions and preschoolers' developmental trajectories ( N = 445). Data were drawn from a sample of low-income, predominantly ethnic minority children and their mothers, when children were ages 2–4, and again 16 months later. Among children whose mothers' left welfare or entered work, high effortful control and low negative emotionality were not protective factors in children's socioemotional or cognitive functioning. However, when mothers experienced job loss or entered the welfare system, preschoolers with high effortful control displayed better developmental outcomes over time than children with low effortful control.

Book Review: Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Development in an Era of Welfare Reform

Book Review: Bootstrap Dreams: U.S. Microenterprise Development in an Era of Welfare Reform

Impacts of After‐School Programs on Student Outcomes

This Campbell systematic review sought to answer the following questions with the available high quality experimental studies of programs that combined academic programming with other activities such as youth development or recreation: To what extent and in what ways does access to after‐school programs impact student context (i.e., student location, supervision, and safety), participation in enriching activities, behaviors, social and emotional development, and academic outcomes for youth? Do the effects of after‐school programs vary among subgroups of youth defined by their baseline characteristics? Among the program models and settings evaluated, do some seem more beneficial to youth than others? What are the distinguishing characteristics of those more and less successful programs? This review only included well‐implemented experimental design studies. An extensive search of the literature uncovered only five studies that met the inclusion criteria for this review. The five evaluated programs were fairly homogenous along many dimensions, including their target populations and settings–primarily elementary youth living in lower‐ income, urban settings. Notably, looking across the 97 impacts measured by the five studies included in this review reveals primarily null findings–84 percent showed no significant differences between the program and control youth. Also, not one of these studies reported impacts for parents. In this era of welfare reform, it might be important to understand how this type of intervention targeting low‐income youth may impact parents' job attendance and retention or parental levels of stress while balancing the demands of work and child care. Such parental outcomes could arguably mediate student social and emotional, behavioral, and academic outcomes.