Changing Welfare Services: Case Studies of Local Welfare Reform Programs

by Michael J Austin, Marvin D Feit

Overview

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 changes—such 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 programs—that were successful strategies used to implement welfare reform.

In Changing Welfare Services, you will learn about:

• the Connections Shuttle and the Guaranteed Ride Home Program—transportation 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 services—situating 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 Program—helps low-income families deal with large or unexpected one-time expenses
• the JobKeeper Hotline—provides 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.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780789023148
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/29/2004
Series:	Health and Social Policy Series
Pages:	450
Product dimensions:	5.81(w) x 8.25(h) x (d)

About the Author

Michael J Austin, Marvin D Feit

Table of Contents

• Foreword (Maureen Borland)
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction (Michael J. Austin)
• Section I: An Overview of Welfare Reform Implementation and Practice
• Chapter 1. Implementing Welfare Reform and Guiding Organizational Change (Sarah Carnochan and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 2. Overview of Innovative Programs and Practices (Jonathan Prince and Michael J. Austin)
• Section II: Redefining Service Delivery
• REMOVING BARRIERS TO WORKFORCE PARTICIPATION
• Chapter 3. Connections Shuttle: Transportation for CalWORKs Participants (Debbie Downes and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 4. The Guaranteed Ride Home Program: Transportation Services for
  Welfare-to-Work Participants (Christine M. Schmidt and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 5. Training Exempt Providers to Deliver High-Quality Child Care
  Programs (Jonathan Prince and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 6. Integrating Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services into a County
  Welfare-to-Work Program (Christine M. Schmidt and Michael J. Austin)
• SELF-SUFFICIENCY SUPPORT SERVICES
• Chapter 7. Combining Business with Rehabilitation in a Public Work Center for
  Disabled and Low-Income Participants (Jonathan Prince and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 8. The Family Loan Program As a Public-Private Partnership (Susan E. Doyle and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 9. The Adopt-A-Family Program: Building Networks of Support (Susan E. Doyle and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 10. Utilizing Hotline Services to Sustain Employment (Christine M. Schmidt and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 11. Hiring TANF Participants to Work in a County Human Services
  Agency (Kirsten A. Deichert and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 12. Promoting Self-Sufficiency Through Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) (Judie Svihula and Michael J. Austin)
• Section III: Enhancing Community Partnerships
• NEIGHBORHOOD PARTNERSHIPS
• Chapter 13. Fostering Neighborhood Involvement in Workforce Development: The
  Alameda County Neighborhood Jobs Pilot Initiative (Judie Svihula and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 14. Neighborhood Self-Sufficiency Centers (Christine M. Schmidt and Michael J. Austin)
• COMMUNITY-WIDE PARTNERSHIPS
• Chapter 15. A Community Partnership Approach to Serving the Homeless (Margaret K. Libby and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 16. Wraparound Services for Homeless TANF Families Recovering from
  Substance Abuse (Debbie Downes and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 17. Building a Coalition of Nonprofit Agencies to Collaborate with a
  County Health and Human Services Agency (Margaret K. Libby and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 18. Collaborative Partnerships Between a Human Services Agency and
  Local Community Colleges (Kirsten A. Deichert and Michael J. Austin)
• Section IV: Promoting Agency Restructuring
• Chapter 19. Introducing Organizational Development (OD) Practices into a County
  Human Service Agency (Andrea DuBrow, Donna Wocher, and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 20. Preparing Human Service Workers to Implement Welfare Reform:
  Establishing the Family Development Credential in a Human Services
  Agency (Judie Svihula and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 21. Merging a Workforce Investment Board and a Department of Social
  Services into a County Department of Employment and Human Services (Jonathan Prince and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 22. Blending Multiple Funding Streams into County Welfare-to-Work
  Programs (Christine M. Schmidt and Michael J. Austin)
• Chapter 23. Crossover Services Between Child Welfare and Welfare-to-Work
  Programs (Jonathan Prince and Michael J. Austin)
• Section V: Conclusion and Future Considerations
• Chapter 24. Managing Out