Practice and Policy Focus Newsletter
With a new look, the current journal supplement focuses on the working poor as a special companion piece to the special issue, Working But Poor: Next Steps for Social Work. 

Past editions of this newsletter highlighted articles related to a particular topic of interest for social workers and other social service practitioners and clinicians:

• Working Poor Families*
  (2007, Issue 3) [PDF /800KB]
• Fathering and Fatherhood*
  (2007, Issue 2) [PDF /135KB]
• Social Work with At-Risk Youth
  (2007, Issue 1) [PDF /200KB]
• Best Practices in Foster Care and Adoption
  (2006, Issue 2) [PDF /240KB]
• Ethics and Risk Management in Social Work
  (2006, Issue 1) [PDF /155KB]

*Click on the article hyperlinks in the newsletter PDF to open any of the article abstracts. Subscribers can open the full-text articles from those abstract windows.

Online Continuing Education
CE4Alliance, the online continuing education program provided by Families in Society and its publisher, the Alliance for Children and Families, features over 100 courses arranged in 20 topic categories. Visit the site, or download the course catalog.

Four new courses, developed from articles in the current issue, are now available.

• The Collaboration Between Welfare and Advocacy Organizations:
  Learning From the Experiences of Domestic Violence Survivors
  by Judy L. Postmus & Sur Ah Hahn
  Course #101212 (2-article course)│Abstract
  The intertwined relationship between poverty and violence, especially in the lives of women on welfare, has been receiving critical attention since the passage of PRWORA. The Family Violence Option (FVO), an amendment to PRWORA, gives states the flexibility to offer more time for battered women to receive welfare benefits while seeking safety. This study explores the personal experiences of clients who participated in one state’s Orientation, Assessment, Referral, and Safety (OARS) program, characterized by the contracting of services by the state welfare system with advocacy organizations to provide on-site services for those women who qualify under the FVO. The results challenge practitioners to think differently about collaboration to meet the needs of domestic violence survivors on welfare.
   
• Protecting Vulnerable Workers: A Framework for Understanding How Public Policy and Private Employers Shape the Contemporary Low-Wage Work Experience
  by Anna Haley-Lock & Melissa Ford Shah
  Course #101212 (2-article course) │Abstract
  Social, economic, and labor market trends in particular have transformed the conditions of low-wage, lower skilled jobs. Reducing mismatches between public policies and the evolving characteristics of the low-wage workforce would help ameliorate the vulnerabilities that poor working families face. Though market motivators may encourage companies to enhance their employment practices, widespread inequalities suggest a role for government. Public policy might equalize the rewards of lower-wage jobs by encouraging better benefits, adequate care for children and other dependents, and access to family health insurance. For frontline practitioners, the lenses of policy and organizational stratification shed light on the personal impacts that these structures have on individuals and families as clients.
   
• Barriers to Employment Among TANF Applicants and
  Their Consequences for Self-Sufficiency
  by Amy Dworsky & Mark E. Courtney
  Course #101210 │Abstract
  While reducing dollars spent on public assistance, PRWORA was also intended to increase self-sufficiency, helping parents become and remain employed. Certainly employment among former assistance recipients has increased dramatically. However, the transition from welfare to work has often not been successful, resulting in unstable employment. This study found that among a sample of TANF applicants experiencing employment barriers, there was both a reduction in their likelihood of being employed and lower earnings when they worked. In fact, the vast majority of parents in the study were still not economically self-sufficient after four years. The implications of these findings for welfare policy and practice are discussed.
   
• The Difficulty of Obtaining a Child Care Subsidy: Implications for Policy and Practice
  by Mona Basta
  Course #101209 │Abstract
  Obtaining safe and reliable child care is essential to the employment retention of single mothers leaving welfare. By creating a model to explain how single mothers choose child care providers and how they decide whether to use a child care subsidy, this article seeks to understand the reasons for the low utilization of subsidies. Findings suggest that the level of trust between parents and child care providers, as well as the availability of information about facilities, are important decision-making criteria. Additionally, single mothers often consider subsidies inaccessible. The author recommends combining ongoing case management with education about child care alternatives and subsidies.
   
• Improving the Retirement Prospects of Lower-Wage Workers in a
  Defined-Contribution World
  by Judith G. Gonyea
  Course #101211 │Abstract
  Lower-wage workers, who have always faced challenges in saving for retirement, will face additional difficulties as U.S. businesses increasingly adopt defined-contribution pension plans that shift the burden of financial expertise and investment options to individual workers. This study surveyed more than 300 lower-wage workers, revealing that predictors of positive retirement savings behavior included increased financial literacy, job stability, workforce attachment, and income level. It suggests our nation’s adoption of a voluntary saving system as a second tier of security places lower-wage earners at greater risk. In response, social work professionals can promote the expansion of pension coverage and help evaluate how proposed reforms impact low and moderate-income households.
   

Hot Topic Webinars
Families in Society and its publisher, the Alliance for Children and Families, present the Hot Topic Webinar and teleconference series. Interactive presentations with nationally recognized experts focus on topics relating to practice, education, and policy within social services.
 

A Webinar in early 2008 will feature a presentation by special issue guest editor, Sondra Fogel, on issues surrounding the working poor and community development. Check the FIS Web site for announcements on upcoming Webinars, sign-up and registration forms, and links to archived presentations.

Preview the Next Issue (October–December 2007; Vol. 88, No. 4)
The last issue of 2007 (October-December 2007, Vol. 88, No. 4) will highlight articles related to the topics of the art of social work practice, grand parenting and kinship care, treating sexual victimization, examining practice approaches, social work with mothers, and writers at work. The 2007 annual index will be available online, in addition to a special recognition of the journal's contributing editors in 2007. More information.

The Impact of Welfare Reform
Revisit the first wave of reports on the impact of welfare reform and the transition for low-income families from AFDC to TANF. This special section from the Alliance for Children and Families Magazine includes reports on those affected by welfare reform, innovative programs helping families with their transition to work, and policy recommendations for future directions. Click here to read the article.

Research Reports
Faces of Change
In the wake PRWORA, the Alliance for Children and Families launched a new project, Faces of Change: Welfare Reform in America, in collaboration with the Community Service Society of New York. An initial study collected 218 first-hand accounts of current and former welfare recipients affected by welfare reform. With support from the W.K. Kellogg Foundation, a subsequent report provides policy analysis based on the study of those stories, and includes chapters on employment, job training, child care, health care, public benefits and transportation.

Innovative Programs
Ways to Work
A new national evaluation of Ways to Work (WtW), a sister company of the Alliance for Children and Families, documents that its low-cost loan program is translating into remarkable income gains for borrowers. The evaluation found that low-income working families who have taken out loans to purchase used cars achieved a 41% average increase in take-home pay and a majority of those WtW borrowers went on to access mainstream financial markets. WtW is a unique Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that oversees a network of loan offices across the country that provide small, short-term, low-interest loans to working poor families with challenging credit histories.

National Family Week
Learn more about family advocacy networking through National Family Week (NFW). For more than 30 years, the Alliance for Children and Families has coordinated and promoted this initiative and in recent years has partnered with The Annie E. Casey Foundation. “Connections Count” drives the efforts directed towards supporting and strengthening families. These "connections" include economic self-sufficiency, family sustaining jobs, dependable transportation, reliable child care, accessible health care, applicable education and training, and affordable housing. Partners in this effort include nonprofit organizations, businesses, governmental entities, education groups, and families.

Conferences
Alliance for Children and Families National Conference
The 2007 national conference will take place October 17–19 in Anaheim, CA. “Creating, Inspiring, Leading Together” is the theme and will allow participants the opportunity to experience the best in networking, professional development and learning, and intellectual stimulation.
For more information, click here.

UNCA Family Strengthening Mini-Conference
United Neighborhood Centers of America (UNCA) is partnering with the Alliance for a special conference track on October 19 created and designed to promote the message of family strengthening in both the UNCA and Alliance networks. Highlights include “Success Stories in Family Strengthening Initiatives”, an annual awards series honoring innovative and creative programs that connect families and children with the community resources they need to attain economic success. The awards program is sponsored by The Annie E. Casey Foundation. For more information, click here.

Current Issue  │ Table of Contents  │  Article Summaries  │ Editorial by Guest Editor

Online subscribers and registered users can access the full-text article links below. Sign in now, subscribe, or register for a free account.

To view all articles, visit the current issue page. Online subscribers can view the complete issue and non-subscribers can view all abstracts and summaries.

Highlighted Articles:

Social Empathy: A Tool to Address the Contradiction of Working But Still Poor
by Elizabeth A. Segal
Social empathy builds upon the classic examination of human behavior in the social environment, systems theory, and person-in-environment. It requires us to visualize ourselves in someone else’s position, remain nonjudgmental, and consider what public efforts can be made to improve the situation. The struggle for working poor persons is often beyond the individual realm, with factors such as globalization, minimum wage policies, growing income disparity, and education inequality. Social empathy therefore requires us to simultaneously consider the personal characteristics as well as the structural conditions that impact the working poor. In this commentary, a model is provided for applying social empathy that incorporates the three approaches of exposure, explanation, and experience.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

The Work Lives of the Low-Income Welfare Poor
by David I. Siegel & Ann Abbott
In administering the welfare program, states have emphasized work as a primary force for self-sufficiency. However, work is a process, and people who leave welfare—particularly those who leave and then return— may have difficulty at each stage of the process of securing gainful employment. This study substantiates barriers to success for welfare poor, who typically obtain jobs in the secondary labor market, and details how their work lives vary greatly from higher-income and higher-skilled workers. The authors suggest that those in the secondary job market could benefit from support, training, and service programs oriented to the particular barriers or conditions of the client.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

When Working Harder Does Not Pay: Low-Income Working Families, Tax Liabilities, and Benefit Reductions
by Jennifer L. Romich, Jennifer Simmelink, & Stephen D. Holt
The promise to make work pay is only half delivered. Work now pays more than welfare, but many families face significant financial barriers along the traditional path of getting ahead by working harder and earning more creating a new “poverty trap”. Although current welfare policies hypothetically increase the income and well-being of working families, their means-tested design results in benefits that go down as earnings rise. Those who serve the working poor should understand and appreciate the financial impact of the complexities of clients’ earnings and benefits, and organizations can create resources for low-wage workers that help them develop a hands-on understanding of these elements.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

The Living Wage Movement: Potential Implications for the Working Poor
by Fred Brooks
The living wage movement, composed of various iterations of coalitions operating primarily at the state and municipal level, is directed toward winning wage rates for low-income workers between the local minimum wage and a true self-sufficiency wage. Issues like the local economy, prevailing wages, cost of living, politics, and perception of coalitions’ strength are all considered in determining the wage amount to fight for. In this commentary, the author argues that the living wage movement may be the most potent current effort of grassroots organizations and the working poor to challenge the economic trends of stagnant wages and the increasing gap between rich and poor.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)

Improving the Knowledge and Attitudes of Low-Income Families About Banking and Predatory Financial Practices
by Steven G. Anderson, Min Zhan, & Jeff Scott
Inadequate financial knowledge among low-income families often results in reliance on predatory financial services. This article examines a financial management training program, one strategy to assist working families in utilizing the best available financial institutions and to follow sound financial practices. After the training, participants expressed significant knowledge improvements, particularly regarding the use of mainstream institutions over high cost and poorly regulated financial sectors. Social work can play a key role in developing such programs, as the profession offers expertise that often is lacking among consumer economists and other financial educators. The profession’s strong emphasis on empowerment can further inform the framing of these programs.
Abstract │  Article PDF (free to registered users)
 

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