Links and Resources

Links and Resources

    Government Links
         Department of Housing and Urban Development
          Department of Labor
          Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare

    Policy, Research and Background Links
         American Public Human Services
           Center for Budget and Policy Priorities
           Center for Law and Social Policy
           Department of Health and Human Services - Welfare Reform
           Department of Labor
           Enterprise Foundation
           Family Preservation and Child Welfare Network
           Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation
           Mathematica, Inc.
           Milwaukee Workers
           National Association of Counties
           National League of Cities
           Pennsylvania Career Link (www.pacareerlink.state.pa.us)
           Public/Private Ventures
           Transitional Jobs Network
           The Urban Institute
           U.S. Department of Labor - ETA Welfare to Work
           Welfare Information Network
           Welfare Reform Resources

    Funding Links
           The Annie E. Casey Foundation
           Department of Labor
           The Joyce Foundation
           Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare
           The Pew Charitable Trusts
           Philadelphia Workforce Development Corporation

Resources

    Other Transitional Work Programs
           Goodwill Industries in San Francisco, CA
           National Association of Service and Conservation Corps in Washington, D.C.
           Transitional Jobs Network
           The New Hope Project

Articles, Research, Case Study

Swimming Lessons     .pdf
By Tom Waldron
AdvoCasey
Summer 2002, Volume 4, Number 2
...But thanks to the five-year lifetime limit imposed on welfare recipients by the 1996 welfare reform law, O’Neal knows that her days on public assistance are numbered. In January, unsure about heading back into a workforce she had visited only sporadically and unsuccessfully over the years, O’Neal signed up with the Transition Work Corporation (TWC). Unlike most welfare-to-work programs, TWC is designed specifically for women like O’Neal—long-term welfare recipients who face serious barriers to success in the workplace. For O’Neal and thousands like her, TWC is providing a foothold in the world of work—a ladder to the future...
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The Implementation of the Welfare-to-Work Grants Program     .pdf    .txt
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc/Urban Institute (subcontractor)
August 2002
...Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) block grants to states, which were authorized under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996. WtW funds were intended to support programs, especially in high-poverty communities, to assist the least employable, most disadvantaged welfare recipients and noncustodial parents (NCPs) make the transition from welfare to work...
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MarketPlace    .pdf     .txt
Transitioning from welfare to work in a down economy
September 2002
...Since the welfare reform movement of the 1990s, an array of jobs programs have been set up to help the so-called 'hard to employ.' From Chicago, Jay Field has the story of one woman's journey to move off the welfare rolls and into the workplace...
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The Transitional Work Corporation: Managing For Better Outcomes     .pdf     .txt
Part 1: Reorganization as a Strategy for Performance Improvement
By William Eimicke and Steven Cohen
May 2002
...The Transitional Work Corporation is a nonprofit corporation created to help welfare recipients comply with the time limits incorporated into the federal welfare reform legislation of the mid-1990s. The nature of TWC and the challenges it faced in June 2001were shaped by the evolution of the welfare to work philosophy, legislation and policy in Pennsylvania. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania enacted enabling legislation that reinforced the philosophy of work-first for welfare recipients. In practical terms, this meant that current welfare recipients had two years to find an average of 20 hours a week of work or lose their welfare benefits. The clock would run out for many current recipients on March 3, 1999...
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The Transitional Work Corporation-Managing For Better Outcomes    .pdf     .txt
Part 2: Implementation Issues
By William Eimicke and Steven Cohen
May 2002
...the team-based reorganization of TWC had been operational for three months. All the key performance indicators had improved...
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A Phila.welfare-to-work program is setting a standard    .pdf
By David Boldt
The Philadelphia Inquirer (Commentary)
Tuesday, June 29, 1999
...Philadelphia is fortunate to have this resource now, and chould make full use of it.
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Transitional Jobs: The Philadelphia Story     .pdf     .txt
An Essay Prepared for the Local Innovations in Welfare and Work Series
By Richard C. Greenwald
for The Brookings Institution, Center on Urban and Metropolitan Policy
July 2002
...Transitional jobs are community service jobs that pay wages for welfare recipients who have not been able to find employment in the regular labor market. Research shows that flexible program models like Philadelphia@Work providing a combination of temporary paid work, training, and supportive services can help many welfare recipients overcome the many barriers they face in their transition to work...
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Managing For Better Outcomes        .pdf     .txt
From: Fatham.com
By William Eimicke
...Managers must maintain leadership and balance structure, predictability, and change in order to be competitive and innovative in today's global marketplace. These fundamental tools of management are as applicable today as they were 20 years ago, but the pace of change and innovation has radically altered the need for constant creative management...
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Employing the "Unempoyable"   .pdf
A Philadephia Program Takes on Welfare Reform's Hardest Cases
By David Boldt
The New Democrat, volume eleven, number 4
July/August 1999
...the "work first" philosphy with the recognition that many welfare recipients need training and other support to make the transition to employment...
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Earned Income Tax Credit: How do we get the word out?     .pdf     .txt
By Jane Eisner
The Philadelphia Inquirer
Thursday, May 16, 2002
...Now she's moving herself from poverty to financial stability, thanks to the largest federal aid program for working families in America - which, despite its size, is woefully underused in Philadelphia. The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) directs $30 billion a year to people like Nicole Speakes, who have come to embrace the ideals of middle-class life but have none of its assets...
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The Last Welfare Program    .pdf
By David Boldt
Trust - The Pew Charitable Trusts, Volume 3/Number 2
Spring 2000
..."You really learn how to work by working,"...
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Transitional Jobs                .pdf     .txt
A Bridge Into the Workforce for Hard-to-Employ Welfare Recipients
By Anne Kim
Progressive Policy Institute - Policy Brief
March 2001
...Transitional Work Corporation (Philadelphia). Transitional Work Corporation (TWC) operates what is probably the largest and best-known transitional jobs program in the country. Since beginning operation in late 1998, TWC has enrolled more than 2,600 participants and placed more than 900 graduates of the program in permanent, unsubsidized jobs. Four out of five of these placements are in the private sector, with average wages around $7 per hour. Participants who enter the program receive initial placements in short-term jobs at nonprofit organizations or government agencies. During the term of the job, participants receive an hourly wage, along with a full range of work supports, including food stamps, transportation, and child care assistance. Each participant is also partnered with both a "career adviser," ...
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Welfare Overhaul's Next Wave       .pdf
By David Nather
Congressional Quarterly Weekly
March 17, 2001
...A block form city hall, the Transitional Work Corporation helps "hard-to-serve" welfare recipients, those who are having the toughest time finding work...
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Welfare Reform: A Progress Report      .pdf     .txt
By Will Marshall
...Most analysts agree that the main factors behind the caseload decline are a strong economy, which has drawn millions of low-skill workers into low-wage jobs; welfare reform itself, which has sent a powerful signal to poor Americans that public assistance is temporary and conditional; and increased support for the working poor, which has made work in entry-level jobs more attractive...
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Why welfare reform is working here        .pdf
By Mark Alan Hughes
Philadelphia Daily News
Tuesday, August 22, 2000
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Making Work Pay      .pdf     .txt
By Will Marshall
DLC/Blueprint Magazine/February 7, 2002
Of all the New Democrat reforms launched during the last decade, none was bolder or more far-reaching than replacing welfare with work. To complete this unfinished revolution in social policy, the new administration must intensify efforts to help people move off the welfare rolls and out of poverty. The president should challenge Congress to make a simple but powerful proposition the touchstone of our 21st century social policy: No American family with a full-time worker will live in poverty...
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Transitional Jobs Programs Work      .pdf     .txt
CLASP
http://www.clasp.org/Pubs/DMS/Documents/1048791758.43/TJ_Outcomes.pdf
TWC is the largest urban transitional jobs program in the nation, serving approximately 2,200 people annually. It has served 7,200 people since it began in 1997. 49 percent of those who enroll in the program and 92 percent of participants who complete the program find unsubsidized employment.
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All resources and articles are available in PDF and Text format for ease of download.