Research by Author & Topic

Publications by Robin Koralek on Poverty and Safety Net

The U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration (ETA) provided a three-year demonstration grant to Arkansas and Iowa to develop New Americans Centers (NACs) in high immigrant population areas. The purposes of the grant are to promote stability and rapid employment with living wages, speed the transition of new immigrants into communities, assist employers, and enhance local economic development opportunities. This paper is the first report in an ongoing Urban Institute evaluation of the NACs. It focuses on the initial implementation phase of the NACs, highlighting start-up and early operation as well as the types of services participants receive.

This report examines the early implementation of the Minnesota Integrated Services Project (ISP), initiated by the Minnesota Department of Human Services and operating in eight sites across the state. Minnesota ISP focuses on improving economic and family-related outcomes for long-term welfare recipients by increasing access to comprehensive services that address multiple needs and coordinating services provided by multiple service systems. This report discusses the progress made and challenges faced in developing coordinated services provided by multiple systems during the early stages of implementation and provides recommendations for improving these service integration efforts.

This report examines policy issues around subsidy use among parents who leave TANF. It includes data on what parents have to do to keep subsidies as they leave TANF in 11 sites/11 states in 2001, examines existing research on welfare leavers and subsidy patterns, and reviews state policies regarding child care subsidies for welfare leavers for a range of states. It provides an overview of key policy issues and discusses the implications of these findings for efforts to help families move towards self-sufficiency.

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.

This reports highlights parents' experiences with accessing and retaining subsidies as they move through and off the welfare system. It is based on focus groups that were conducted in 4 sites with parents receiving TANF and child care subsidies, as well as parents who had recently left TANF and were still receiving child care subsidies. It provides information on parents' experiences with key aspects of the TANF/child care subsidy process -- including applying for subsidies, finding a provider, ongoing subsidy requirements, and the transition off welfare -- and discusses the implications for policy and practice.

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.

Executive Report:Food stamps are a significant source of food assistance for families with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level. The average participating household received roughly $200 a month in benefits during fiscal year 2004. Despite the value of the benefit, many eligible persons do not enroll in the Food Stamp Program (FSP). This report summarizes the findings from 18 local outreach projects the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded in 2002 to test outreach strategies. The projects, which were implemented at different locations across 15 states, included a technological component and/or partnerships with other organizations to expand the scope of outreach. All projects aimed to increase awareness of the FSP and increase the number of food stamp participants.

Food stamps are a significant source of food assistance for families with incomes below 130 percent of the poverty level. The average participating household received roughly $200 a month in benefits during fiscal year 2004. Despite the value of the benefit, many eligible persons do not enroll in the Food Stamp Program (FSP). This report summarizes the findings from 18 local outreach projects the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) funded in 2002 to test outreach strategies. The projects, which were implemented at different locations across 15 states, included a technological component and/or partnerships with other organizations to expand the scope of outreach. All projects aimed to increase awareness of the FSP and increase the number of food stamp participants.

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.

This report explores the application and eligibility determination process for immigrants and limited-English speakers for Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), food stamps, Medicaid, and the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) in six localities across the country. In general, the application process is easiest for Medicaid and SCHIP. There are more points of access for these programs, and outreach for them is more widespread and effective. The complexity of the application process, however, varies greatly across states and within states by locality. Social service agencies use a combination of strategies to provide interpretation for limited English speakers, including: bilingual staff, contracted interpreters, telephone language lines, and reliance on applicants' friends and family members.