Family-Focused Services for TANF Participants Facing Acute Barriers to Work: Pathways to Implementation

Abstract

In 2014, California implemented the Family Stabilization (FS) program within its Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, California Work Opportunity and Responsibility to Kids (CalWORKs). FS fills two key service gaps in TANF that have been identified in the literature—namely, addressing participant barriers to work and supporting child well-being. Research on programs addressing these gaps in TANF remains limited. This qualitative policy implementation study describes FS program design and implementation in 11 California county human service agencies and explores links to agency and community context. We find that state-encouraged flexibility resulted in three distinct approaches to FS services, staffing, and structure. Alignment between agency context and program design emerged as central to implementation decisions. These findings yield implications for research, policy, and management practice among welfare-to-work administrators.

Equity versus equality: Discourses and practices within decentralized welfare‐to‐work programs in California

“…Second, California is the most racially diverse state: 38.8% Hispanic, 37.9% White, 13.9% Asian, 5.5% Black and 3.9% others (CDSS, 2019b). Third, CalWORKs has higher client benefits than other states and, since recovering from the Great Recession (2007)(2008)(2009), has introduced innovative, client-focused reforms (Chang, Lanfranconi, & Clark, 2020;Stanczyk, Carnochan, Hengeveld-Bidmon, & Austin, 2018). Three such examples are the introduction of the Family Stabilization (FS) program, CalWORKs 2.0, which facilitates greater flexibility to frontline-workers to serve families with diverse needs, and the introduction of CalWORKs Outcome and Accountability Review (CalOAR), which helps counties self-assess their WTW programs through performance metrics.…”

The Melbourne Statement on Practice Research in Social Work: Practice Meets Research

“…The consortium was founded in 1987 and the practice research program is 25 years old. Some examples of its work include the use of qualitative data mining to identify good practice in child welfare (Carnochan et al, 2019); a survey of human service organizations to test a conceptual framework of relational contracting (Chuang et al, 2019), and an evaluation of the implementation of family stabilization programs (Stanczyk et al, 2018).…”

Becoming Job-Ready? Narratives of Local Welfare-to-Work Programs and Client Experiences Across Differing Economic Contexts in California

“…For instance, unemployment rates in inland and far Northern California are higher compared with the urban, coastal areas (Bohn et al, 2019). California’s TANF Program, titled California Work Opportunity and Responsibility for Kids (CalWORKs), assists some of the state’s low-income families and is one of the most inclusive, client-centered TANF programs across the nation (Stanczyk et al, 2018). CalWORKs requires adults to participate in a minimum number of hours per week between 20 and 35 depending on the family composition and age of children (California Department of Social Services [CDSS], 2019).…”