"A large minority of those who found jobs had trouble maintaining stable employment" (p.1).

"Many clients found jobs with low pay, poor benefits, and little room for growth" (p.1).

"Most jobs required only modest skills, leading to poor job attachment. Consequently, it was easy for employees to be fired or quit" (p.1).

"Several factors made the welfare-to-work transition difficult… including child care, transportation, new pressures to budget money and understand workplace requirements, limited personal resources and meager support from family and friends" (p.2).

"Six key findings have emerged from the implementation experience of the four PESD sites:
1.) In order to detect and address employment- related problems, case managers need to establish rapid contact with clients and maintain ongoing communication;
2.)The most valued intervention is the personal attention of case managers;
3.) Case managers must be creative and flexible to gain clients’ trust;
4.) Child care funding and availability must be accessible to clients;
5.) Effective communication within the bureaucracy is important; and
6.) Promoting reemployment requires balancing persuasion and pressure" (pp. 10-11).

"Establishing contact with [newly employed AFDC recipients] was especially important because the concept of post-employment services was new in all four sites, and case managers were the only source of information about what PESD had to offer.

"Four factors affected the continuity of clients’ employment:
1.) The financial and non-financial costs associated with the transition from welfare to work;
2.) The performance, cultural, and emotional demands of the workplace;
3.) The challenge of dealing with negative reactions from family and friends; and
4.) The difficulties of finding another job" (p.xiv).

"Methods for dealing with clients’ employment-related problems can be grouped into four broad activities:
1.) Counseling, advice, and moral support;
2.) Help paying expenses;
3.) Help accessing benefits; and
4.) Reemployment services, including job search and development" (p.xv).

Extensive outreach and rapid follow up enabled program case managers to reach most clients and establish prompt communication.

Service needs of clients vary, but PESD programs did not effectively target clients with different needs for different types or levels of services.

Overall levels of employment among sample members (in both the program and control groups) were fairly high in all four sites. Welfare receipt among sample members varied across the sites and reflected the high level of generosity of the welfare programs in each site.

Overall, the programs had little effect on increasing earnings, reducing welfare, or promoting the move toward self-sufficiency. Many control group members were able to maintain high levels of employment, partly due to strong economic conditions and partly because programs enrolled less disadvantaged individuals into the demonstration. Obtaining program impacts under such conditions can be difficult.

The program context and services available to control group members influenced the magnitude of estimated program impacts.