September 2004
By:
Jacqueline Kauff, Michelle K. Derr, and LaDonna Pavetti
Submitted to:
U.S. Department of Health and Human
Services
Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning
and Evaluation
Project Officer:
Elizabeth Lower-Basch
Alana Landey
Submitted by:
Mathematica Policy Research, Inc.
Project Director:
LaDonna Pavetti
Contract No.: 100-98-0009
MPR Reference No.: 8550-416
This report is available on the Internet at:
http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/full-engagement04/
I.1 Types of Programs Included in Study
I.2 Number And Location of Local Offices Visited in
Each Site
Iii.1 Defining Participation Hours and Activities
Iii.2 Going Beyond Federally Defined Activities
Iii.3 Case Management Structure and Frequency of Client
Contact
Iii.4 Strategies for Improving the Accessibility of
Services
V.1 TANF Program Status Among Recipients with No
Activities
V.2 Most Common Assigned Activities Among All Recipients
in a Typical Month
V.3 Most Common Nonfederal Activities in a Typical
Month in Utah
V.4 Number Of Activities in a Typical Month
V.5 Average Assigned Weekly Hours In a Typical Month
V.6 Average Assigned Weekly Hours in Activities in
a Typical Month in Utah
V.7 Participation in Federally Counactivities in El
Paso County
V.8 Length of Time Recipients Remained in Activities
V.9 Comparisons between Hard-To-Employ and Job-Ready
Recipients in El Paso County
V.10 Comparisons between Long-Term and Shorter-Term
Recipients in Utah
V.1 Assigned Activities in a Typical Month (El Paso
County)
V.2 Assigned Activities in a Typical Month (Utah)
V.3 Assigned Activities Over Time Among August 2003
Cases in El Paso County
V.4 Assigned Activities Over Time Among May 2003 Cases
in Utah
V.5 Progress from Nonfederal Only to Countable Activities
and from Other Countable to Core Countable Activities
V.6 Federal Participant Rate Status among All TANF
Recipients in El Paso County and Utah
V.7 Types of Recipients Excluded from Numerator in El
Paso County and Utah
The Study of Work Participation and Full Engagement Strategies was conducted by Mathematica Policy Research, Inc. (MPR) under contract to the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). Many individuals within these organizations assisted in conducting the study and producing this report.
At DHHS, Elizabeth Lower-Basch monitored each project task and provided useful suggestions for improving the study and final report. Alana Landey was responsible for all business aspects of the study, which primarily included monitoring the budget. Don Winstead and Peter Germanis also reviewed the final report and provided useful comments.
At MPR, LaDonna Pavetti led all aspects of the study from beginning to end. Michelle Derr, Jacqueline Kauff, Gretchen Kirby, Heather Hesketh, and Michelle Van Noy conducted site visits and wrote the site visit summaries. Ama Takyi and Regina Gramss conducted the programming needed to prepare and analyze the administrative data, and Jacqueline Kauff conducted the data analysis. Alan Hershey provided quality assurance reviews of all study products, and Daryl Hall edited this report. Alfreda Holmes provided ongoing and consistent administrative support.
In addition, a broad range of researchers, policymakers, and staff at community-based and nongovernment organizations helped us to identify sites to include in the study. They include: Andy Bush and Grant Collins at the Administration for Children and Families at DHHS; David Fein and Alan Werner at Abt Associates; Thomas Gais and Richard Nathan at the Rockefeller Institute; Kristin Seefeldt at the University of Michigan; Allison Logie at American Management Systems; Jacob Klerman at Rand; Larry Mead at New York University; Barry Van Lare and Nanette Relave at the Welfare Information Network; Mark Greenberg at the Center for Law and Social Policy; and independent consultants Mark Hoover, Jason Turner, and Liz Schott.
This report would not have been possible without the cooperation and support we received from staff at all levels in each of the study sites. State and local TANF administrators, case managers and supervisors, eligibility workers and other TANF program line staff, administrators and staff at contracted service providers, and staff who handle data collection and reporting as well as management information systems spoke with us openly about the strategies they use to engage TANF recipients in work and work-related activities. In each site, one individual was responsible for arranging MPR's in-person visit. These individuals include Marie Parker in El Paso County, Colorado; Georgianna Hayes in Franklin County, Ohio; Linda Shepard in Montgomery County, Ohio; Chris Weaver in Oswego County, New York; Jeremy Samsky in Riverside County, California; Chris Gordon in Utah; and Liz Green in Wisconsin. In addition, Mary Kay Cook, Mary Riotte, and Joan Bancroft in El Paso County, Colorado, and Ann Kump in Utah provided us with administrative data for analysis and were very responsive to our questions about the data.
We would like to thank all of these organizations and individuals for their important contributions to this study. The opinions and conclusions expressed herein are solely those of the authors and should not be construed as representing the opinions or policy of any agency of the federal government.
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Human Services Policy, Room 404EFax: (202) 690-6562
Home Pages:
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(ASPE)
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
(HHS)
Last updated: 09/02/05