Exceptional for its large scale, long follow-up period, and rigorous research design, the National Evaluation of Welfare-to-Work Strategies (NEWWS) has yielded a trove of hard evidence about how best to help people get off welfare and into jobs. Concise and accessible, "Moving People from Welfare to Work: Lessons from NEWWS" distills the evaluation's key findings and explores their implications for policy as Congressional debate about reauthorizing the 1996 federal welfare reform law moves into high gear. This final product from NEWWS helps shed light on what level of work participation can be realistically required of welfare recipients, whether assigning people to education and training is effective, and how various program approaches affect outcomes ranging from employment and welfare receipt to family circumstances and children's well-being.

On July 16, 2002, the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life hosted a panel discussion entitled, “The Compassion Component: Welfare Reform and The Tradition of Social Justice.” During the panel religious leaders and experts on welfare policy discussed how our values should shape social legislation. This report provides a summary of the panel discussion.

This report discusses demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of census tracts using data from the 2000 Census. Based on the data, the poverty rate for all people in 1999 was 12.4%, varying by region.

As place is an important factor for positive family outcomes, this Urban Institute article reviews types of neighborhoods and how surroundings can play a role in the well-being of families and children. By research a variety of indicators, it concludes that families residing in urban and rural areas face increased hardship than families residing in suburban areas.

From the National Center for Children in Poverty, this article explores trends in child poverty rates since 2000. Overall, the national child poverty rate has increased, and this report identifies the regions across the country in which families have been the most affected. Specifically, the Midwest experienced the most significant growth in child poverty rates, accounting for 43% of the national increase over the last five years.

Authored by Nancy Wemmerus, Carole Kuhns, and Renee Loeffler. This report describes the status of over 1,000 Virginia families 18 months after their TANF cases closed because of a time limit. It finds that nearly all parents worked after leaving TANF, with average hours, hourly wages, and total earnings increasing over time. Families also decreased their use of non-cash assistance--such as Food Stamps, Medicaid, and child care subsidies. As of November 2002, 15 percent of the families had returned to TANF.

Authored by Deborah A. Orth and Malcolm L. Goggin. This research was conducted by the Nelson A. Rockefeller Institute of Government and is supported by a grant from the Administration for Children and Families.

The Welfare Indicators Act of 1994 requires the Department of Health and Human Services to prepare annual reports to Congress on indicators and predictors of welfare dependence. The 2003 Indicators of Welfare Dependence, the sixth annual report, provides welfare dependence indicators through 2000, reflecting changes that have taken place since enactment of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) in August 1996.

Authored by Pietro S. Nivola, Jennifer L. Noyes, and Isabell V. Sawhill. This Policy Brief is part of a Brookings Institution series entitled Welfare Reform and Beyond. This is issue #29 of this series.

Authored by Robert G. Wood, Anu Rangarajan, and John Deke. This Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. report compares the characteristics and experiences of two groups of Work First New Jersey clients: 1) an early group that participated in the first year of program operations from July 1997 to June 1998; and 2) a later group participating from July 2000 to June 2001. The report finds that the caseload characteristics changed substantially during the recent period of rapid caseload decline, with a growing proportion of clients facing employment challenges.