This report is through the Rural Families Speak project at the University of Minnesota. Funded through the USDA National Research Initiative Cooperative Grant Program (NRICGP), this project tracked 524 rural low-income families in 17 states post-welfare reform. Data was collected on labor force participation, health, food security, and social support. It was found that low-income families face multiple challenges in rural areas including fewer employment opportunities, and also less access to support services such as childcare, transportation, and mental health services.

This report is from the Brookings Institution and reviews income inequality and new housing construction in 215 metropolitan areas. Findings show that between 1970 and 2000, distressed and non-distressed metropolitan areas with rapidly growing income inequality also had rapidly growing segregation by income. Researchers suggest that policies to reduce income inequality can help reduce overbuilding and income segregation in distressed areas.

The National Governors Association sponsored a meeting in November 2007 on promising practices and evidence-based approaches to help families attain employment, advance to better jobs, and sustain self-sufficiency. This webpage provides an overview of presentations and event sessions from this meeting.

Individual Development Accounts (IDAs) have been a proven mechanism for supporting low-income families on a path to self-sufficiency by promoting asset-building. Asset-building programs can use a variety of strategies and tools to help create asset wealth for low-income people. This research brief, from the National Human Services Assembly, provides the latest research on IDAs and how effective these programs are for serving families and strengthening communities.

The RAND Corporation authored this report on the effects of work-conditioned welfare programs on marriage or child well-being. By using a theoretical framework and past research in this area, authors find that welfare programs can increase family income, which will affect child outcomes.

Through the Office of Child Support Enforcement (OCSE) at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Partners for Fragile Families (PFF) demonstration program intended to affect systems change to ultimately improve outcomes for both parents and children in low-income families. Specifically, this report provides data on economic and child support outcomes for the project’s participants.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this fact sheet shows the latest data on low-income parents and their employment status. Despite declining average household income, 56 percent of low-income children had at least one parent working full-time and year-round. The data show that this population is more likely to be employed in the service industry and is less likely to receive benefits such as health insurance or paid vacation.

The Brookings Institution authored this report on the economic mobility of families based on Census Bureau data. Authors matched family income from the 1960s to the income of their children in the late 1990s to early 2000s. While median family incomes have grown for black and white families, the income gap between black and white families still exists.

This research brief is from the Institute for Research on Poverty and provides information on how the needs of children can be met while parents are working. Over the past forty years, there has been a dramatic increase in the number of mothers employed, which has changed expectations for all mothers. While expectations for low-income families have changed as well, the need for work supports has increased. In particular, the funding for the Earned Income Tax Credit and child care subsidies has increased to support workers in the workplace and their families.

The Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation authored the Annual Report to Congress for 2007 on Indicators of Welfare Dependence. Welfare dependence is defined as the proportion of individuals that receive more than half of their total income in one year from TANF, food stamps and/or SSI. This report provides welfare dependence indicators through 2004 and offers information on the changes in dependence since the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act of 1996. In 2004, 3.7 percent of the total population was dependent on assistance from these programs, which is significantly lower than the 5.2 percent rate measured in 1996.