Citation URL: http://www.urban.org/PamelaAHolcomb

The Partnership for Fragile Families Demonstration projects, operating in 13 sites across the country, provided a range of services aimed at increasing the capacity of young, economically disadvantaged fathers in becoming financial and emotional resources to their children and sought to reduce poverty and welfare dependence. As part of a multi-component evaluation, this report examines how participants fared in two key areas: (1) employment rates and earnings levels and (2) the establishment of child support orders and the payment of child support.

The President's High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGTJI) is a major national effort to encourage the development of market-driven strategies to address critical workforce challenges as defined by business and industry. As part of the Urban Institute's evaluation of this program, this first report documents the lessons, experiences and sustainability of 20 of the earliest HGJTI grantees as told by the project administrators. The purpose of the report is to summarize the major implementation lessons emerging from the early grantees and document the extent to which projects continue after the end of the grant.

This report presents ethnographic case studies of eight young, unmarried, low-income fathers who participated in the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration projects. PFF provided a range of services aimed at increasing the capacity of young, economically disadvantaged fathers to become financial and emotional supports to their children and sought to reduce poverty and welfare dependence. The study examines the nature of the fathers relationship with their children and the mother of their children, the fathers experiences with the PFF program and with matters related to child support, their views on employment prospects and experiences, and their hopes and aspirations for the future.

This report describes the design and implementation of the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration projects. Operating in 13 sites across the country, PFF provided a range of services aimed at increasing the capacity of young, economically disadvantaged fathers in becoming financial and emotional resources to their children and sought to reduce poverty and welfare dependence. The report examines the programs structure and institutional partnerships; participant characteristics; recruitment and enrollment efforts; the nature of employment, peer support, parenting, and child support-related services provided through the initiatives; and implementation challenges and lessons.

Many low-income parents with personal challenges that make work difficult (sometimes called the "hard to employ") seek help from the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, but many do not. The most effective TANF programs offer cash assistance along with services that alleviate barriers and help clients find jobs. Other federal-state programs offer help by providing either generic employment services or specialized services that address particular challenges. Hard-to-employ parents probably fare best when they enroll in TANF and receive a holistic set of supports. A redesigned system should marshal all program resources to provide an integrated system that addresses barriers and supports work simultaneously.

This study examines states approaches to serving TANF recipients facing multiple barriers to work in fall 2006. It also describes changes states anticipate (partly in response to TANF reauthorization) in the near future to help these recipients move into work and off the caseload. Study results are based primarily on structured interviews with state TANF program officials in 17 states including the states with the largest TANF caseloads. The findings highlight the different approaches taken by state TANF programs on how to best help recipients with serious barriers and provide early information on states’ thinking on how their approach may change for this group in the future.

This paper is designed to assist states and localities in identifying innovative strategies to promote stable employment and wage growth among low-income populations. It distills key lessons from the body of research undertaken to date and identifies innovative approaches and programs for improving the employment prospects of low-income families. The paper presents a typology of four relatively broad employment strategies, and within each, a number of “innovative” approaches and several programs that exemplify each approach. Overall, the paper identifies and profiles 12 innovative approaches and 51 programs for improving the economic success of low-income parents. The paper discusses why the approach is innovative and provides a description of the key components of each.

This report examines the intersection of the welfare-to-work and child care systems in 11 local sites/11 states in 2001. It documents how these systems were set up and connected, the factors that aided or impeded coordination between the systems, and the process TANF clients needed to complete as they moved through the welfare-to-work and child care subsidy systems while on welfare. It highlights the range of approaches taken by states, and discusses the implications for parents as well as for both child care and welfare-to-work agencies.

This report provides a synthesis of three reports from a multi-phased examination of the connections between the child care and welfare systems for TANF families. It contains 12 overarching findings that emerged from the overall study about the complex interaction between the two systems and discusses the implications of these findings for agencies, TANF clients, and policymakers. It highlights different cross-system approaches, identifies strategies that can minimize administrative duplication and client burden, and sets a framework to help policymakers, administrators, and others interested in designing more effective service delivery systems to help families with child care needs move from welfare to work.

The 2002 Farm Bill's legal immigrant eligibility restorations took place against a backdrop of high, steady levels of immigration. By the end of 2003, short-term targets for increased non-citizen participation in the Food Stamp Program had been met -- over 150,000 legal immigrants were added to the rolls across eight study states (well on schedule to meet the goal of enrolling 400,000 legal immigrants nationally by 2006). While the Farm Bill represents a significant policy success in terms of supplanting the legal immigrant restrictions of PRWORA, substantial barriers to immigrant food stamp participation remain.

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