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Head-of-household applicants for Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) who were required to participate in GAIN were randomly assigned to the intervention or comparison group at program orientation. The period over which random assignment occurred varied across sites and ended in each site when evaluators reached target sample sizes. Random assignment was complete in all sites by June 1990. On average, about 69 percent of household heads were assigned to the intervention group across sites.
Random assignment took place in January 1987 through June 1990. Data were collected up to five years after random assignment.
California State Department of Social Services
The sample of heads of households in two-parent families included in this analysis lived in San Diego (33 percent), Riverside (24 percent), Tulare (19 percent), Los Angeles (14 percent), and Butte (10 percent). The sample was predominantly White (38 percent), with 28 percent of the sample being Hispanic, 24 percent Asian, and 6 percent Black. Sample members were, on average, 34 years old at the time of random assignment.
California State Department of Social Services and county staff
The California legislature passed GAIN in 1985 as a replacement for the state's earlier Work Incentive Program.
Applicants for AFDC deemed eligible for GAIN and assigned to the intervention group received various services based on their educational attainment and assessed skills as of the time the program began. Supportive services, including assistance with child care and transportation, were immediately available to ensure that participants could take part in program activities. Participants first took a basic skills test and were assigned to a case manager. Individuals who lacked basic education (such as a high school diploma or general education diploma), who received low scores on the math or reading sections of the basic skills test, or who were not proficient in English entered basic education courses for three weeks before receiving job search assistance. GAIN clients who had initiated education or training (of a type deemed by the client’s case manager to be aligned with the client’s employment goals) before entering the program could pursue that activity if their case manager deemed it beneficial; those clients remained eligible for GAIN services for up to two years. All other participants first received job search assistance. Job search assistance included job clubs, supervised job searches, and connections to local employers with the assistance of a job developer. If, after completing the first series of activities, a GAIN program member did not find employment, program staff helped those clients assess career goals and develop an employment plan. GAIN clients would then undergo formal assessments and undertake further activities, including vocational or on-the-job training, unpaid work experience, supported work (paid work experience in a group), additional training, or additional education, in keeping with the employment plan.
Participants in the comparison condition were AFDC applicants who were not eligible for GAIN services, including child care reimbursement. They could seek out comparable services elsewhere in the community.
Those assigned to GAIN were required to participate in it or face sanctions.
Clients continued in GAIN until they found employment, left GAIN, or were exempted from the program for other reasons.
California State Department of Social Services
This report focuses on six California counties that implemented GAIN: Alameda, Butte, Los Angeles, Riverside, San Diego, and Tulare. The program took place through each county's welfare income maintenance office.
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