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Project Description

Designed as a response to welfare reform, CASAWORKS for Families specifically endeavors to help substance-abusing women receiving cash assistance decrease substance use, secure employment, and increase their parenting capacity and assure family safety. The program is a multi-site "treatment/training" program to help drug or alcohol-dependent mothers on welfare to reduce or end their substance use, improve their parenting capacity, and assure family safety.

Project duration: Jul 1998 - Jul 2001

Sites studied include North County Interfaith Council, Escondido, CA
PROTOTYPES, Pomona, CA
SHIELDS for Families Project, Inc., Los Angeles, CA
Johns Hopkins Hospital Comprehensive Women's Center, Baltimore, MD
Lakes Country Rehabilitation Center, Springfield, MO
Horizons Program, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC
Women's Housing and Economic Development Corporation (WHEDCO), The Bronx, NY
Clermont Recovery Center, Cincinnati, OH
Norman Alcohol Information Center (NAIC), Norman, OK
Congreso de Latinos Unidos, Inc., Philadelphia, PA
Renewal House, Nashville, TN

Sample Characteristics and Sites Studied

Across the 11 sites, 1100 women and their children will be served under the CASWORKS model in Phase 1.

Recent Findings in Brief

05/01/01: CASAWORKS for Families: A Promising Approach to Welfare Reform and Substance-Abusing Women

Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings

• After 12 months, participants showed statistically significant increases in past month abstinence from marijuana, alcohol, and cocaine. For all sites, the proportion of women abstinent from alcohol, as measured by no use in the past month, increased by 60%; the proportion abstinent from marijuana increased by 20%; and the proportion abstinent from cocaine increased by 34%.
• In addition to reductions in alcohol and other drug use, those still struggling to recover used substances on fewer days.
• Nationally, after 12 months in the program, participants spent significantly less money on illegal drugs and alcohol in the past month.
• Longer stays in treatment have been correlated with better recovery times.
• For participants who have been followed for 12 months, employment during this time frame more than doubled.
• Among those employed, the average number of days worked in the past 30 days increased from 3 to 13 days.
• Employed participants' average income from the past 30 days increased from $105.00 to $546.65.

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