Document Information
Welfare Reform in California
State and County Implementation of CalWORKs in the Second Year: Executive Summary
Summarizes a larger report that describes the implementation of California’s Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs) program in its first two years. According to the CalWORKs welfare-to-work model, immediately following the approval of the aid application, nearly all recipients search for jobs in the context of Job Clubs. For those who do not find employment through job search, an intensive assessment and a sequence of activities follow, to identify and overcome barriers to employment. Implementation in most counties is proceeding more slowly than some observers had hoped, but about as fast as could realistically be expected. County welfare districts (CWDs) face the dual challenge of expanding their capacity to deal with the new, higher, steady-state workload that CalWORKs entails and handling the much larger one-time surge of old cases as they move through the system. Providing mandated support services — child care and transportation; education and training; and treatment for alcohol and substance abuse, mental health, and domestic abuse — has been a challenge for most CWDs. To cope with this expanded workload, they have made different capacity-building decisions. The slow pace of movement through the system is worrisome, however, given the five-year lifetime limit that aid recipients face. Finally, those who have found jobs often do not earn enough to move them completely off aid and toward self-sufficiency. Additional post-employment services appear to be needed.
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Pages: 42
ISBN/EAN: 0-8330-2881-2
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Contents
Preface PDF
Figures PDF
Acronyms PDF
Chapter 1:
Introduction PDF
Chapter 2:
Despite a Declining Caseload, the CWD Workload Has Increased PDF
Chapter 3:
CWDs Made Different Capacity-Building Decisions to Deal with the Expanded Workload PDF
Chapter 4:
The Flow of Cases Has Been Slow PDF
Chapter 5:
Few Participants Are Moving into Post-Assessment Steps PDF
Chapter 6:
The Number of Referrals to CalWORKs Services Has Been Low PDF
Chapter 7:
Issues for Further Consideration PDF
The research described in this report was performed by the RAND Statewide CalWORKs Evaluation within RAND's Labor and Population Program.
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