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Project Match is a voluntary community-based welfare-to-work program that has served public aid recipients in Chicago since 1984. Recognizing that it can take years for many welfare recipients to become steady workers and that a first job is only the beginning of the process, the program makes a long-term commitment to participants: they have access to a range of services — including job retention, reemployment, and advancement assistance — for as long as they need them. Project Match also collected detailed data each month on the status of participants, to guide staff in planning for individuals and to use as a measure of program accountability and for research. Combine these monthly data for five years or more and it becomes clear that we have a strong longitudinal data set for answering questions related to the time limit.
Monthly data on individuals include: 1) types of activities in which they are involved; 2) specific information about those activities; and 3) status changes. The tracking system is programmed to accept data for several activities each month; this is important when people are working two jobs or combining work and school.
This study draws on Project Match’s longitudinal database to generate information relevant to the reasonableness of a five year time limit on welfare.
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