The core of the U.S. social welfare system provides old-age pensions, unemployment insurance, and aid to dependent children. In recent years, as social and economic developments have created new vulnerabilities for the American family, observers are asking whether the system needs refinement and rethinking. The Project on Social Welfare and the American Future was established by the Ford Foundation to address the issue of making the welfare system more responsive to the present needs of children and families. The project consisted of research, policy analysis, and deliberations by an 11-member panel of citizens representing the business, academic, labor, civic, and civil rights communities. This final report of the project includes the following sections: (1) Reexamining Our Social Welfare System; (2) Infancy and Childhood: A Time to Sow; (3) Young Adulthood: Preparing for a World of Work; (4) The Working Years: Increasing Economic Opportunity and Social Protection; (5) Old Age: A Time to Reap and Sow Again; and (6) How to Pay the Bill. Three appendices list related resources and other projects funded by the Project on Social Welfare and the American Future. (VM)