The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) serves as the foundation of America's national nutrition safety net. It is the nation's first line of defense against food insecurity and offers a powerful tool to improve nutrition among low-income individuals. SNAP is the largest of the 15 domestic food and nutrition assistance programs…

Conditional cash transfer programs (CCTs) have two main objectives: reducing poverty and increasing the human capital of children. To reach these objectives, transfers are given to poor households conditioned on investments in their children's education, health, and nutrition. Targeting mechanisms used by CCTs have been generally successful in…

Costs and the likely effects of assured child-support benefits on poverty and welfare participation are estimated under two scenarios: with and without incorporating the labor supply changes of custodial parents. Results indicate reductions in poverty rates, poverty gap, welfare caseloads, and expenditures. Changeable hours will increase costs.…

The National Center for Children in Poverty is developing a series of issue briefs on children and welfare reform to help policymakers, community leaders, and advocates use the opportunities afforded by welfare changes in ways that are most likely to benefit both children and adults. This second issue brief focuses on the impact of federal and…

As a result of federal legislation aimed at welfare reform, states have been transforming welfare in new ways. Critical questions remain, however, and policymakers must continue to develop new ideas and implement programs from other states. This book contributes to the learning process among states by sharing program innovations and analyses to…

This paper reviews the key issues and methodologies involved in the replication of social programs, as they pertain to non-profit sector development in the United States and in international development. The related process of knowledge transfer and dissemination, as well as the more specific strategies involved in replication and going-to-scale…

This publication is the text of the House of Representatives bill, H.R. 5600 introduced to the U.S. Congress and titled "Children's Initiative." This legislation is designed to promote family preservation and the prevention of foster care with emphasis on families where abuse of alcohol or drugs is present, to improve the quality and…

This brief is one in a series on children and welfare reform that explores how states and communities can achieve the adult-focused goals of welfare reform and enhance the well-being of young children. Arguing that deliberate policy, program, fiscal, and collaborative strategies are needed to strengthen basic supports, promote young children's…

Between 1979 and 1983 the noninstitutionalized Medicaid population grew by 210,000 people, or one percent. In comparison, because of a severe economic recession, there was a 37 percent increase in the number of people in poverty during the same period. The Medicaid population growth rate is relatively small for the following reasons: (1) Congress…

Studies listed in this 550 item annotated bibliography on the Community Action Program are classified by 16 population groups (including unemployed, professional and paraprofessional, rural and urban, out of school youth, aged, minority groups, migrants, preschool and school children, welfare recipients, and staff members of the Office of Economic…

The bad economy, the eligibility controls of the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and state controlled Aid to Families with Dependent Children payment standards had different aggregate effects for different Medicaid eligibility groups between 1979 and 1983. Increases in the number of children and young women covered by Medicaid did not keep pace…

Notes that many from across the ideological spectrum suggest that welfare reform address policies that promote marriage and two-parent families. Discusses marriage, family structure and economic well-being, the benefits of marriage for adults and children, and low-income unwed mothers and marriage. Suggests that marriage and two-parent families…

Noting that the mid-1990s are an era of experimentation in welfare initiatives, this publication summarizes 34 research studies on children and welfare reform. Articles include studies of children and parents in poverty, studies of program models likely to have direct implications for children, and outcome evaluations of welfare-to-work programs…

This report examines data from a study of the relationship among work status, wage levels, marital status, education, age of youngest child and use of child care in allowing low income households to remain off welfare. The study described looking separately at public assistance status (whether a household received welfare) and recidivism (how long…

This book analyzes how welfare reform can improve the lives of children, based on a study of successful programs that provide services to needy children and their families. The study looked at programs that operated in conjunction with the welfare department before the enactment of the Family Support Act and that operated successfully. Chapter 1…