1998: Community Action

“The Precarious Balance of ‘Success’: The Barriers that Middlesex County’s JOBS Program Clients Face in their Move Towards Self-Sufficiency”

for Middlesex County Community Action Group

by Liz Botein, Beth Fine, Emily Lieberman, and Ginna Smith

 

Our research was designed to study welfare recipients who are working or who have obtained work at some point, and explore what factors help or hinder their transition from public assistance to self-sufficiency. Many barriers affect individuals’ attempts to move toward self-sufficiency. These factors can be structural (quality of and access to affordable childcare, transportation, and education and training) or individual (young motherhood, depression, spousal abuse, etc.) and often are a combination of both…. This report illustrates some of the areas that need to be addressed in order to better help those who are working to move off welfare.

 

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