Rural Welfare-to-Work Strategies: Helping to Shape Rural Policy

Finding successful approaches to addressing rural residents' employment concerns is a critical step in welfare reform. Rural communities do not have the same needs as their urban counterparts in the area of welfare-to-work (WtW). Despite overall national reduction in welfare caseloads, implementing WtW programs in rural areas can present challenges. Many rural areas have higher poverty rates than urban areas, often affecting generations of families. Reliable transportation may be especially important, since jobs are further away, and crucial social and educational services may not be nearby. Child care options may be limited and hard to arrange. Furthermore, many rural residents are employed in low-skill, low-wage jobs.

We are evaluating two programs offering innovative services to promote employment and economic independence for the rural poor: 

• Illinois Future Steps, an employment-focused case management program to prepare TANF and food stamp recipients and other low-income people for work and help them find and keep good jobs
• Building Nebraska Families, a home visitation and life skills education program to improve the basic life skills and job readiness of hard-to-employ TANF recipients

Our study, conducted for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, will offer findings and lessons to help shape future policy and program development in other states and localities. 

The Evaluation

The evaluation consists of four interconnected studies, conducted separately for each of the two Rural WtW programs: (1) an in-depth process study to identify implementation issues and challenges and provide details on how programs operate and achieve observed results; (2) an impact study to rigorously assess the effects of the program on participants' employment and other outcomes by drawing on data from WtW program sponsors, administrative records data from human services programs, and baseline data and survey data collected in follow-up interviews; (3) a program cost study; and (4) a cost-benefit study.

Click here for the summary report on evaluation design and descriptions of demonstration sites. Click here for a report on experiences implementing the demonstration programs. Click here for an interim report on the implementation experiences, costs, and 18-month impacts of the Illinois Future Steps program. A similar interim report on the Building Nebraska Families program will be available in spring 2007; final reports on the programs' 30-month impacts and costs-benefits are expected in summer 2007.

Back to Top