Reviews policy development and research trends relating to work, welfare, and AFDC. Examines the persistence over time of the values of capitalism, liberalism, and positivism, which have resulted in the work ethic and influenced the AFDC. Outlines a research agenda to counter these influences. (Author/JAC)

The centerpiece of the 1988 Family Support Act (FSA) is the Job Opportunities and Basic Skills (JOBS) Act, which directs states to provide a broad range of educational, training, and employment services. FSA offers states an opportunity to design humane and effective programs to assist welfare recipients to move out of poverty. FSA also has…

This paper--the outcome of a conference and subsequent consultations involving a majority of the nation's former Secretaries of Health, Education, and Welfare--recommends the revision of the present program of Aid to Families with Dependent Children. A brief overview of the United States welfare system and a detailed list of eight charges made…

Compares the percent of population participating in three welfare programs in metropolitan and nonmetropolitan areas throughout the United States in 1980. Examines nonmetro data by county; investigates socioeconomic variables distinguishing high recipiency counties. (LFL)

Implementation is the challenge facing any attempts to reform the U.S. welfare service system. Without consideration of an implementation strategy, a reform plan will be destined to fail. Because many planners of welfare reform may be unfamiliar with program initiation, planners need a guide to assist implementation. This report provides planners…

A study examined the effectiveness of five mandatory welfare employment programs in working with different segments of the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) caseload. The study considered programs in San Diego, California; Baltimore, Maryland; several counties in Virginia; Little Rock and another county in Arkansas; and Cook County…

This study was requested (by Representatives Charles B. Rangel and Harold Ford) in August 1984, to explore the factors which influence the poverty rate among children. Researchers were asked to examine demographic trends, economic factors, government policies, and other phenomena which could help explain why, despite increased government…

The Massachusetts "Day Care Consumer Profile" describes the consumers of publicly subsidized day care in the Department of Social Services' Day Care Program. The Department of Social Services which is the Title XX Agency in Massachusetts, serves over 13,000 children across the state in contracted day care programs. The…

Two studies comprise this report. The first paper, "Child Care Arrangements of Mothers in the Work Incentive Program," places particular emphasis on the mothers' patterns of utilization of various types of child care arrangements, the apparent adequacy of these arrangements, the degree of the mothers' satisfaction with them, and the…

This annotated bibliography describes 78 resources on improving access to higher education for low income women. It covers the literature for the period 1950 to 1990 and reflects the emergence of a new hybrid policy area that combines higher education and public welfare. Entries either directly address the issue of access to higher education for…

Proposes a policy where money currently being spent on subsidies for poor families and on the effects of illnesses resulting from poverty and crime would be spent instead on preventive health care, day care, education, and job training programs. Advocates helping people become self-sufficient as society's most cost-effective option. (CJS)

Children are among the poorest of Maine's residents. Nearly 1 in 5 children under the age of 18, 19.3%, lived in families below the federal poverty line in the early 1990s. Most of these poor children lived in working families. The working poor are often missing from policy debates, but their numbers are likely to increase with welfare reform…

Concern for performance management has increased sharply in recent decades in both the public and private sectors. This has been particularly true in the management of state and federally funded human resource development programs. Legislative purpose, level of use, the role of performance standards, appropriate measures of performance, target…

Twenty years after the War on Poverty was launched, dependency on public support remains widespread. Part 1 of this report summarizes current research concerning the following issues affecting welfare programs: (1) evaluating the economic effects of welfare; (2) dynamics of dependency; (3) welfare and work; (4) welfare and family structure; (5)…

The 1996 welfare reform legislation replaced the Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program with a new Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grant. This new program has a fixed funding level that is not altered by inflation or economic cycles or caseload size. Individual states' shares are based on the amount they…