Marcia Bok

Post-Welfare Reform, Low-Income Families and the Dissolution of the Safety Net

There has been a great deal of discussion around the fact that lifting individuals and families out of poverty was not a goal of the 1996 welfare reform legislation. The implementation of welfare reform since 1996 has demonstrated the consequences of caseload reduction as a primary goal. This paper addresses the hardships that can result when lifting people out of poverty is not addressed.

Education and Training for Low-Income Women: An Elusive Goal

Welfare reform has generally denied poor women access to effective education and training that could lead to economic independence. Instead, a work-first approach prevails. As the public safety net is removed and education and training are not provided, welfare reform reinforces the economic and social status quo. This article addresses barriers to education and training along a continuum of possible educational opportunities and argues that education and skills training for low-income women, especially poor women of color, are moral and economic imperatives. Current affirmative action successes can provide guidance for increasing access to education and training for poor women.

Urban economic development : What's welfare-to-work got to do with it?

Abstract Connecticuts welfare system under TANF is among the nations harshest with 21 month lifetime limits for cash assistance, a strict work-first policy, and few training options. Various ideological perspectives suggest different policies to address poverty: orthodox economic theory emphasizes human capital enhancement such as training and education; an institutionalist approach emphasizes reducing labor market barriers to equality and provision of decent, stable public service employment; the radical or Marxist lens posits that labor, including those transitioning from welfare, needs to organize for economic and political power. Recent welfare reform embodies a fourth, neoliberal perspective that stresses ‘labor force attachment’ strategies. Regardless of ideology, Connecticuts welfare policy fails both the imperatives of the state economy for better trained workers, and also the needs of those transitioning from welfare. The authors argue for more training and education options, supportive services, economic development policy that incorporates former welfare recipients, union-Louise Simmons is affiliated with University of Connecticut School of Socialization of low wage workers, and strong welfare rights organizations.

Pathways Out of Poverty

Abstract With the enactment of welfare reform in 1996, welfare policy has changed significantly. Welfare rolls have been reduced, yet poverty has not been overcome for many clients in the welfare system. This paper analyzes potential pathways out of poverty within the context of devolution. The need for a redefinition of poverty is reviewed and several dimensions of policy are discussed: the notion of work as an antipoverty strategy, potential methods to support work, the notion of payment for care-givers functions, the controversy surrounding the promotion of marriage, education and employment options, and the need for a permanent safety net to assist individuals and families. Changes in the welfare system are suggested that could assist individuals and families to overcome poverty conditions.

Book Review: The Job Training Charade

For more than 20 years, the U.S. labor market has been changing drastically as good jobs in manufacturing, mostly unionized, have disappeared and a bifurcation of jobs has occurred. There are now two major employment sectors—low-end, unskilled service jobs and higher-end, skilled technology jobs. Many workers who lost their manufacturing jobs have become downwardly mobile and have taken cuts in pay when they have been reemployed. It may thus make sense to help these workers move upward into higher-paying technology jobs. To do so would require training, and this seems like a good idea. It is this idea that Lafer finds so misguided. Lafer’s major arguments are that job training does not work; it does not create jobs or reduce inequality, and people do not make more money as a result of training. Furthermore, he considers training a political diversion to distract attention from real employment problems, such as low wages, the lack of jobs, the lack of unionization, and the movement of jobs overseas. Lafer is persistent in his criticism of the labor-demand thesis, which states that jobs exist, but there is a mismatch between employers’ needs and workers’ skills that can be solved by training workers to fulfill these alleged jobs. Lafer argues that these jobs really do not exist and that it is an unkind hoax and, worse, politically disingenuous, to perpetuate such ideas. Lafer is particularly critical of the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA), which was enacted in l982. He is somewhat less critical of the Comprehensive Employment and Training Act, which was popular during the 1960s and 1970s and created public-sector employment. And he acknowledges that since the passage of welfare reform in 1996, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which replaced the JTPA, really provides only job-readiness and soft-skill (i.e., work ethic and “attitude”) training, consistent with the workfirst philosophy, rather than skill training. He admits that “whatever the reason for the insistence on work-first, education and training have effectively disappeared from welfare policy” (p. 205). It is not clear whether Lafer believes that this is a step in the right direction. But he paints job training with such a broad brush that he indicts all governmental efforts in this area. An unintended consequence of welfare reform is the volumes of research and writings that try to make sense of the process and outcomes of this farreaching legislation. Although conservative policy analysts give welfare

AIDS at 20: A Global Human Rights Concern

Abstract Beyond being a medical and public health problem, AIDS has political, human rights and economic implications. Considering AIDS a human rights issue and a moral imperative is inclusive because so many other factors related to AIDS have human rights implications. AIDS has reduced the life expectancy and has wiped out economic progress in many developing countries. Women and children are particularly exploited groups, and discrimination against lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgendered people also plays a major role in the spread of the disease. Like sexual orientation, adolescent sexuality receives almost no attention at all. Nations are implored to put cultural mores aside in order to save lifes. Unfortunately, at the UN meeting in June 2001 under pressure from Islamic nations, Western nations were forced to back away from specifically naming the most vulnerable populations, including homosexuals and prostitutes (Linzer, 2001). Governments must take leadership to recognize and protect the human rig...

The African-American Community and HIV/AIDS

African-Americans have the highest AIDS case rate per 100000 populations of all ethnic/racial groups with 66.4/100000 compared with 8.2 for Whites. It is noted that African-American males have an AIDS rate of 125.2 over 7 times the rate for White males; and African-American women have an AIDS case rate of 49.8 over 20 times the rate for White females. Such data on the incidence of HIV among gay Black men has introduced a whole new dimension and concern into the prevention picture. Speculations remain about the reasons for this situation including the influence of the Black church in the Black community and the powerful message that is sent by how AIDS is or is not addressed by Black clergy. Overall it is noted that while some schools are becoming more open in their acceptance of curriculum around HIV prevention that deals honestly with sexuality and drugs and are more willing to consider providing condoms to students this acceptance is not universal. The message from Black churches also needs to become more accepting of sexuality and homosexuality specifically. Moreover it is important to understand the effects on youth and young adult sexual attitudes and behaviors of music from the hip-hop culture.

Book Review: Community Social Work Practice in an Urban Context. By Melvin Delgado. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000

Students of macro social work practice are probably familiar with the work of Melvin Delgado because his contributions to community organizing in an urban environment and his attention to issues of cultural sensitivity in social work practice have been substantial. His latest book, Community Social Work Practice in an Urban Context , builds on his earlier work and expands his thinking about a community-assets perspective with specific examples of how this perspective can be actualized in urban practice. “The model of urban community practice espoused in this book uses assets as a central focus with an emphasis on oppressed groups of color” (p. 28). Community capacity enhancement is conceptualized as a collaborative partnership between the practitioner and the community, where the strengths of the indigenous resources are the assets and community participation are the building blocks of effective interventions. Delgado reminds the reader that external forces often yield more power and influence than indigenous communities so that the primary purpose of community capacity-enhancement intervention is to bring about positive change in the physical and social environment of the community by changing the balance of power and enhancing residents’ skills in the process. The strategy of community capacity enhancement includes five important assumptions about communities: 1) the community has the will and the resources to help itself; 2) it knows what is best for itself; 3) ownership of the strategy rests within, rather than outside, the community; 4) partnerships involving organizations and communities are the preferred route for initiatives; and 5) the use of strengths in one area will translate into strengths in other areas. The particularly unique aspect of this book is the translation of this framework into principles of community social work practice and then into actual community projects, which themselves are often under appreciated as expressions of community strength. This includes the role of murals, gardens, playgrounds, and sculptures in the lives of often undervalued communities. The principles of community practice articulated by Delgado are: 1) to create community participation that brings residents of diverse ethnic and racial