Michigan Assemblies Project

General Information

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Evaluator(s) Groundwork for a Just World
Investigator(s) Davida McDonald (Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study)
 
Domain Income Security/TANF
Status Completed (final report released)
Duration Nov 1997 - Dec 1998
Type Research and/or Program Evaluation
Program/Policy Description Goal: The development of a citizen-based process to assist local areas to assess the status of the community's low income families, examine the barriers they face in their efforts to become self sufficient, and develop recommendations to improve welfare reform initiatives. Broad involvement of directly affected families was an integral part of the project design.
Focus areas and scope of the inquiry: Transportation, child care, health care, work opportunities and skills, federal lifetime limits and family protections in state law; eleven local assemblies gathered information through an invitational hearing and a survey of families and community-based institutions; other geographic areas also participated in the surveys.
Guiding principle: Promotion of family stability, child safety and movement of the family out of poverty guided assembly activities.
Notes The project design gave significant voice to the perspectives of low-income families and community-based institutions on employment supports, and produced community-generated recommendations to support transitioning families helpful to policymakers and related institutions. The project could easily be replicated in other states.
 
Last Updated 12/17/98
Type of Summary Unreviewed
Contact(s) Barbara Beesley
Groundwork for a Just World
11224 Kercheval
(T) (313) 822-2055
(F) (313) 822-5197
Submitter(s) Davida McDonald (mcdonald@radcliffe.edu)
Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study
69 Brattle Street
(T) (617) 496-3478
(F) (617) 496-2982

Populations Studied

Target Population Recipients/participants/clients
Former recipients ("leavers")
Subgroups Analyzed Children 1-6
Sample Size and Unit 1) 11 local assemblies generated information through invitational hearings involving families, resource persons in focus areas (sites selected by project advisory committee to represent urban, suburban, and rural areas); 2) 1,700 (self-selected) low-income families from 59 Michigan counties responded to family survey; 3) 500 (self-selected) community-based institutions with family service sites in 56 counties responded to institutional survey. Data collected in winter/spring 1998.
Execution Not applicable.

Sites Studied

Michigan: Detroit-Wayne County, Flint-Genesse County, Gladwin County, Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo, Lansing, Macomb County, Marquette-Upper Peninsula, Saginaw-Bay Counties, South Oakland County, and Traverse County