For many single mothers and displaced homemakers (homemakers who must suddenly enter the workforce), jobs often do not signify escape from poverty. 1990 U.S. Census data indicate that the number of single mothers and displaced homemakers rose dramatically during the 1980s. Workforce participation for this group also rose during that decade, but…

In recent years, demand has increased for the development and implementation of a better overall human service delivery system for the United State's at-risk children and their families. Critics condemn the current system as being fragmented, too narrowly focused, beset with bureaucratic red tape and harmful restrictive regulations, difficult to…

This report, along with its supplemental volumes, assesses the welfare system and its successes and failures, describes the frustrations felt by the poor in the United States, and proposes a basic change in public assistance policy. America's state and federal governments spend more than $150 billion a year on programs to alleviate poverty, yet…

This report provides an overview of the current welfare system. The number and size of federal public assistance programs have increased during the past 25 years, with particular growth in noncash benefit programs, which now constitute about three-quarters of all means-tested assistance. From mid-1983 to mid-1984, more than 52.5 million Americans…

Between the summers of 1986 and 1987, the Coalition on Human Needs interviewed 202 low income people to learn about their experiences with employment, education, their families, and various government programs. The interviewees showed a higher level of participation in the paid labor force than was predicted. According to those interviewed, the…

This report presents the testimony of numerous expert witnesses who appeared at three hearings on the following topics: (1) Hunger and Related Nutritional Issues; (2) U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Food Assistance Programs; and (3) Domestic Hunger and Related Nutritional Issues. The following major issues were discussed: (1) the number of…

All of the very poor have a certain potential for homelessness due to traditional economic reasons. This report on the homeless in Chicago (Illinois) presents an overview of a two-part project whose goals are to determine the following: (1) how to prevent homelessness; (2) how to relieve homelessness; and (3) how to reverse homelessness. The…

An analysis of data from the National Longitudinal Study (NLS) was conducted to determine whether marital disruption (by death, divorce, or separation) caused poverty in the early years after a marriage ends and whether the poverty was long-term or short-term. The study examined data on women who had experienced a disruption before 1967 and were…

The predicted incidence of poverty before and after government income transfers, the effectiveness of such transfers, and the distribution of children in one and two parent families are examined in this report on the trends in poverty since 1965. Included are a review of how the Reagan budget cuts will affect households with children and a…

Evaluation of the Expanded Food and Nutrition Education Program as an antipoverty strategy was undertaken in 1977 by examining activities of paraprofessional Nutrition Education Assistants (NEA's) in the Ozark Foothills area of Missouri to determine how they helped their clientele families become self-sufficient and integrated into the mainstream…

A pluralistic framework for the analysis of the American culture is presented. The published results of the Coleman report are used as an example of how the conceptual framework can be operationalized. The dependent variable of the analysis is one measuring social performance. The independent variables measure some aspect of themes, behavior…

Manpower resources, poverty, and unemployment in the Mississippi Delta region are the main features of the report. Data used were collected by 22 enumerators working in 16 counties scattered throughout Missouri, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Louisiana. The survey was conducted in the summer of 1966. Aspects surveyed and reported on are household…

The Family Assistance Plan and the President's Commission on Income Maintenance Programs are both proposals which incorporate a negative income tax provision and which are aimed at reforming the present welfare system. This study is concerned with the effect these proposed income supplements will have on work decisions of male heads of families in…

Data from a stratified random sample of full-year 1967-1968 and summer 1968 Head Start programs were re-analyzed to compare centers operated by local educational agencies (LEA) and community action agencies (CAA). The analyses indicated that CAA-operated programs were more likely to report parent participation in decision making and as paid staff,…

This document continues a series of statistical reports from the National Center for Children in Poverty about young child poverty in the United States. The highlights of this update include the current profile of extremely poor, poor, and near poor population of young children; an examination of the changing association between higher education…