Recently in Human Services Category

Source: Cindy Redcross, Victoria Deitch, and Mary Farrell, MDRC, May 2010

From the summary:
This report presents an analysis of the financial benefits and costs of three diverse programs designed to increase employment stability and career advancement among current and former welfare recipients. The programs are part of the national Employment Retention and Advancement (ERA) project, which tested 16 models in eight states. Each program was evaluated using a random assignment research design, whereby individuals were assigned, at random, to the ERA program group or to a control group that received services generally available in the sites' communities. MDRC is conducting the ERA project under contract to the Administration for Children and Families (ACF) in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

The analysis focuses on three programs that operated in four sites:

- Corpus Christi and Fort Worth, Texas. This ERA program targeted welfare applicants and recipients who were seeking work; it used financial incentives and other services to help participants find jobs, stay employed, and increase their earnings.
- Chicago, Illinois. This ERA program targeted welfare recipients who were working steadily but earning too little to leave the welfare rolls; partly by helping individuals to change jobs, it aimed to increase participants' earnings.
- Riverside County, California. The Riverside Post-Assistance Self-Sufficiency (PASS) ERA program targeted individuals who had left welfare and were working; services were delivered primarily by community-based organizations to promote retention and advancement and, if needed, reemployment.

Source: Government Accountability Office, GAO-10-164, February 23, 2010

From the summary:
Following sweeping changes made to federal welfare policy in 1996 with the creation of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, the number of needy families who received cash assistance fell by more than half to 1.7 million in 2008. Poverty among children also fell from about 21 percent in 1995 to about 16 percent in 2000, rising again to 19 percent in 2008. The current recession deepened in 2008, raising questions about state TANF programs' response to increased needs. GAO was asked to provide Congress with information on the (1) factors contributing to the decline in the number of families receiving assistance; (2) characteristics of participating and nonparticipating eligible families; (3) impact of higher participation in TANF cash assistance on child poverty; and (4) changes states are experiencing in caseloads and spending in the current recession. GAO's methodologies included using microsimulation analyses; reviewing relevant research and federal laws; interviewing TANF officials in 21 selected states; analyzing state cash assistance data; and interviewing researchers, federal officials, and other experts.
See also:
Highlights

Source: Nancy Folbre, New York Times Economix Blog, July 26, 2010

Most Americans, even if they have jobs themselves, care about those who can't find jobs. Recent polls report that a strong majority consider it a higher priority to help the unemployed than to reduce the federal deficit.

Most Americans also care about the well-being of the most vulnerable members of our community - individuals with disabilities, the frail elderly and children growing up in poverty. That's why we have programs like Medicaid, Medicare and Head Start. Unfortunately, many states, unable to raise the revenue they need, are cutting spending on such programs.

Maybe we could improve home-care services by providing more federal support for jobs in this sector of the economy.

At least two specific proposals along these lines, based on very different designs, have been put forward.

Source: Joel F. Handler, Annual Review of Law and Social Science, Vol. 5, 2009
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
This review discusses the changes in welfare policies and the role of law in those changes in the United States and the developed world. In 1996, the U.S. Congress and President Clinton committed to ending welfare as we know it and changed welfare to workfare. Under the work first strategy, recipients are pressured to take the first entry-level job they are offered. Caseworkers, overworked and undertrained, are under pressure to produce favorable statistical results. They concentrate on those who are the most employable or take the least amount of time to become employable. Left out are those who have significant barriers to employment. There has been a rapid decline in welfare caseloads. Most who left the rolls have been sanctioned, have been denied entry to welfare, have taken low-paid work, and remain in poverty. This welfare-to-work strategy has spread to other parts of the developed world. Faced with sluggish economies and growing unemployment, welfare states have been changed from passive to active. Welfare has become targeted and conditional, in what is now termed active labor market policy. Management of welfare programs has devolved to local governments and private organizations, termed marketization.

Source: Zach Patton, Governing, May 2010

Poverty is encroaching on suburban enclaves -- even the most affluent of them. Many are ill-equipped to meet the new social-service needs.
See also:
The Suburbanization of Poverty: Trends in Metropolitan America, 2000 to 2008
Source: Elizabeth Kneebone, Emily Garr, Senior Research Assistant, Brookings Institution, January 2010

Source: Rachel Tolbert Kimbro, and Elizabeth Rigby, Health Affairs, Vol. 29 no. 3, 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Amid growing concern about childhood obesity, the United States spends billions of dollars on food assistance: providing meals and subsidizing food purchases. We examine the relationship between food assistance and body mass index (BMI) for young, low-income children, who are a primary target population for federal food programs and for efforts to prevent childhood obesity. Our findings indicate that food assistance may unintentionally contribute to the childhood obesity problem in cities with high food prices. We also find that subsidized meals at school or day care are beneficial for children's weight status, and we argue that expanding access to subsidized meals may be the most effective tool to use in combating obesity in poor children.

Source: Child Trends, February 24, 2010

From the press release:
Child Trends, with support from Casey Family Programs, launches the State Child Welfare Policy Database to provide information on child welfare laws, procedures, and agency guidance for all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The Database can help elected officials, administrators, advocates, practitioners, researchers, and other stakeholders keep up to date with the policies that protect our nation's most vulnerable children.

The site can be navigated by state or by topic. You can learn about your state's expenditures on child welfare services, policies for relatives and "kin" caring for children involved in the child welfare system, benefits and services provided to foster youth after age 18, and much more. In addition to the traditional web version, the site is designed to be compatible with your mobile device, allowing for easily accessible information on the go.

Source: Zoë Neuberger and Tina Fritz Namian, Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, January 29, 2010

From the summary:
In anticipation of Congressional reauthorization of the federal child nutrition programs, some have called for increased federal reimbursement rates for school meals to improve their nutritional quality. Under current rules, however, federal payments for free and reduced price meals are not used solely to underwrite the cost of producing those meals.

Source: Center for Law and Social Policy, January 21, 2010

Below are links to fact sheets for each of the 50 states on child welfare financing. In addition to data on child welfare expenditures and the sources of this funding, the fact sheets include contextual data such as the number (and percent) of children living in poverty, the number and types of substantiated cases of child abuse and neglect, and the number of children in foster care.

Each fact sheet contains sections that:

1. Describe the context for child welfare spending by providing data on abused and neglected children, children in foster care, children who have left foster care, and children living with kin;

2. Identify how much child welfare funding comes from federal, state, and local sources;

3. Identify the major federal funding streams that are used to support child welfare and the amount of child welfare funding that comes from each; and

4. Highlight expenditures and trends within the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance Programs, including expenditures for foster care maintenance and adoption assistance payments, administrative and child placement costs, and training.

Source: Family Caregiver Alliance, National Center on Caregiving, December 2009

From the summary:
States are currently struggling with one of the deepest recessions on record. As a result, funding for essential services, including family caregiver support programs, has been reduced or, in the worst cases, eliminated.

This paper is intended to help advocates, program administrators, service providers and caregivers fight for their state and local caregiver support programs. It includes background information, statistics, talking points and a list of additional resources to help make the case for maintaining public funding for crucial caregiver support services.