Changing Welfare Services

Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs

Michael J Austin, Marvin D Feit

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• eBook ISBN: 9781135426378
• Topic: Medicine
• Subtopic: Health Care Delivery

Contains field-tested techniques to enhance the effectiveness of your local social services!

Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs describes promising programs and practices that have emerged in the United States since the enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996. Using case studies, this reference provides important lessons that will help social service directors and staff to develop strategies that will improve local welfare-to-work services. This casebook focuses on the agencies rather than the welfare population, emphasizing the guiding values of these agencies and the lessons they learned.

Changing Welfare Services explores new approaches to service delivery, with emphasis on removing barriers to work force participation and promoting self-sufficiency through support services. The case studies involve programs focused on working with the community by developing partnerships with local organizations to provide better services. This text emphasizes the organizational changessuch as the development of new training programs, merging employment and social service agencies, and restructuring agency programs to foster collaboration between child welfare services and welfare-to-work programsthat were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform.

In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about:

• the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Programtransportation services for welfare-to-work participants
• the Exempt Provider Training Program trains Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants and others to launch and improve their own high-quality child care businesses
• co-location of support servicessituating mental health and substance abuse services near the social services agency so TANF participants can make a single visit for all necessary services
• the Family Loan Programhelps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses
• the JobKeeper Hotlineprovides round-the-clock counseling, crisis intervention, and referral services to help participants stay employed
• and much more!

Changing Welfare Services shows how these agencies discovered new ways to serve the needs of low-income residents and offers you a variety of inventive techniques for improving your own agency's support for welfare recipients. Enhanced with tables, figures, and appendixes, this practitioner-oriented casebook is a much-needed complement to the many quantitative studies of the welfare population. This book is a valuable resource for state and local human service administrators and staff, policymakers, and university faculty and students of public policy.

Index

AAA (American Automobile Association), 72

Accountability of social service agencies, 43

Ad hoc culture, 28

ADD (American Dream Demonstration), 166–167

Adelante Familia NSSC, 225–226

Administrative craftsmanship, 385

Adopt-A-Family program

adopted family experiences, 139

challenges, 140–141

community partnership, 42

description of program, 134–136

development, 132–134

godparent experience, 137–139

lessons learned, 139–140

overview, 131, 141

purpose, 32

referring agencies, 136–137

similar programs, 131–132

AFDC. See Aid to Families with Dependent Children

AFIA (Assets for Independence Act of 1998), 167–168

Agency restructuring

organizational changes, xx–xxii, 38–40

overview, xxviii, 17–24

vision statement, xxix

Agnew, Robert, 252

Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)

impact of PRWORA, xvii, 217, 353

transportation to work obstacle, 54

WorkCenter employment, 104, 108

Aid to the Disabled (ATD), WorkCenter employment, 108

Alameda County Neighborhood Jobs Pilot Initiative

history, 189–191

literature review, 191–193

Lower San Antonio/Fruitvale, 190–191, 204–211

overview, 189

Prescott, 190–191, 199–204

South Hayward, 190–191, 194–199

Aligning, defined, 383

Alliance (Assets for All Alliance), 169–172, 173

Alliance for Children and Families, 119

Alter, C., 385, 387, 388

American Automobile Association (AAA) car seat donation, 72

American Dream Demonstration (ADD), 166–167

Aroner, Dion, 169

Assembly Bill 1542, 55, 91

Assembly Bill 2454, 55

Asset building. See Individual Development Account

Asset-poor Americans, 165

Assets and the Poor, 166

Assets for All Alliance, 169–172, 173

Assets for Independence Act of 1998 (AFIA), 167–168

ATD (Aid to the ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• CONTENTS
• ABOUT THE EDITOR
• Foreword
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• SECTION I: AN OVERVIEW OF WELFARE REFORM IMPLEMENTATION AND PRACTICE
• SECTION II: REDEFINING SERVICE DELIVERY
• SECTION III: ENHANCING COMMUNITY PARTNERSHIPS
• SECTION IV: PROMOTING AGENCY RESTRUCTURING
• SECTION V: CONCLUSION AND FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS
• Index