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In Riverside, California, evaluators identified newly employed welfare recipients who had been referred to or participated in Job Opportunities and Basic Skills Training (JOBS). The research team randomly assigned people to either the Post-Employment Services Demonstration (PESD) group or to a comparison group. Among the 1,506 newly employed welfare recipients identified, 500 (33.2 percent) were randomly assigned to the intervention group. Researchers attempted to collect administrative records for every person in the study; about one year after random assignment, researchers selected a random subsample of 428 newly employed welfare recipients (who enrolled in the demonstration between July 1994 and August 1995) for a follow-up survey .
Individuals were randomly assigned from March 1994 to December 1995 and were followed for two years thereafter.
The Office of Planning, Research, and Evaluation in ACF at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services funded the study.
On average, sample members were 32 years old. Most sample members were female (92 percent) and, on average, their households included two children, the youngest of whom was 6 years old. About one-third of sample members had not, at the time of random assignment, completed high school or a received a GED. All people in the study were required to participate in the JOBS program. About 97 percent received Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) all of the year before random assignment. Nearly 10 percent reported receiving welfare most of the time while growing up.
Riverside County AFDC/Temporary Assistance for Needy Families
The program was a demonstration program implemented for the first time during the evaluation.
Between spring 1994 and fall 1996, California received waivers for its AFDC program and JOBS rules to provide additional case management services and financial support to newly employed welfare recipients in Riverside. PESD case managers provided people enrolled in PESD with counseling and support, job search assistance, help with benefits, and service referrals tailored to the needs of individual recipients. The program also increased the amount of financial support available to newly employed welfare recipients for initial employment expenses and expanded the range of eligible expenses.
Sample members assigned to the comparison group received the regular services available to employed welfare recipients in California. In Riverside, most AFDC recipients who found jobs remained eligible for AFDC and had access to job search and other assistance available to AFDC recipients if they lost their job.
All participants were required to participate in JOBS to receive benefits.
The program expected to maintain contact with all clients during the first few months after they became employed, then expected the need for contact to decline. Case managers still had contact with about half of treatment group members one year after they became employed.
ACF, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services
Riverside, CA
The study reports employment, earnings, and public benefit receipt outcomes for other months and quarters that are not the focus of this review.