http://www.researchforum.org/project_general_372.html

Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation

General Information

View a brief abstract of this project.

View a complete, printer-friendly profile of this project.
Evaluator(s) MDRC
Investigator(s) Stephen Freedman (MDRC)
Sponsor(s) Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services
Funder(s) Ford Foundation
US Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families
Los Angeles County Department of Public Social Services
 
Domain Income Security/TANF
Status Completed (final report released)
Duration Jan 1995 - Jun 2000
Type Research and/or Program Evaluation
Policy Analysis
Goal To evaluate the Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN program.
Program/Policy Description Jobs-First GAIN was Los Angeles County's mandatory welfare-to-work program, operated from January 1995 through March 1998 by the County Department of Public Social Services (DPSS) in cooperation with the County Office of Education. Jobs-First GAIN was an innovative, strongly employment-focused program that offered job search assistance as its primary service and encouraged welfare recipients to start working as soon as possible. The program combined services and mandates that had worked in other settings (notably, in neighboring Riverside County) and some that were relatively new. CalWORKs, California's TANF program, replaced Jobs-First GAIN in April 1998, but continues most of Jobs-First GAIN's services, mandates, and messages. Key features include:
1. an unusually intensive program orientation aimed at motivating new enrollees to find work quickly;
2. high-quality job clubs, whose leaders taught job-finding skills and engaged participants in activities aimed at boosting their self-esteem and motivation to work;
3. job development activities to increase job opportunities and match people with prospective employers;
4. a strong Work First message communicated through written handouts and group presentations, and in individual meetings with program staff;
5. a warning, repeated orally and in writing, that California would impose time limits on welfare eligibility for those who did not work;
6. a concerted effort to teach people that California's relatively generous rules for calculating welfare grants would help them increase their income in the short term by combining work and welfare;
and
7. a relatively tough, enforcement-oriented approach to encourage people to complete the activities and find work quickly.
Notes MDRC is conducting several other studies of welfare recipients and other low-income populations in Los Angeles, including: The Project on Devolution and Urban Change; the Jobs-Plus Initiative; Opening Doors to Earning Credentials; and the Employment Retention and Advancement Project. See www.mdrc.org for project descriptions and publications.
 
Last Updated 03/07/03
Type of Summary Reviewed
External Reviewer(s) Stephen Freedman (MDRC)
Contact(s) Stephen Freedman (stephen.freedman@mdrc.org)
MDRC
16 East 34th Street
19th Floor
(T) (212)-532-3200
(F) (212)-684-0832

Populations Studied

Target Population Recipients/participants/clients
Single parent families
Two-parent families
Subgroups Analyzed Other
Immigrants
Minority populations
Sample Size and Unit Based on random assignment of 21,000 single parents and members of two-parent households. It contains nearly every adult who showed up to enroll in the program from April 1 through September 11, 1996.

Sites Studied

Los Angeles, CA

Program Components, Policies, and Activities Evaluated

Employment activities

  • Job skills training
  • Job search
  • Job placement
  • Job development
  • Employment Activities - misc.

Financial incentives

  • Earnings disregards
  • Financial Incentives - misc.

Financial disincentives/Sanctions

  • Reduced benefits for non-compliance
  • Financial Disincentives/Sanctions - misc.

Program requirements

  • Work requirement
  • Program Requirements - misc.

Social/Support services

  • Transitional child care
  • Transitional health benefits
  • Transportation
  • Case management
  • Social/Support Services - misc.

Administration/Implementation

  • Changes in welfare office environment/culture
  • Development of partnerships with private organizations
  • Program enforcement of sanctions
  • Development of new welfare policies
  • Administration/Implementation - misc.

Time limits

  • Time Limits - misc.

Food stamps

  • Food Stamps - misc.
Variation in program components across sites? No
Notes on program components Administration/Implementation: To assess how LA transformed their strong education based GAIN program to the more work focused Jobs-First program. Strong focus on job requirements and warnings given concerning sanctions for non-compliance. Employment Activities: Job clubs focused on teaching job skills and building self-esteem. Job development activities focused on finding jobs for individuals. Financial Disincentives: Reduction in welfare benefits if work requirement is not met. Program Requirements: Work requirement Time Limits: Strong warnings that time limits will be imposed on those who do not work.

Outcomes Assessed

Benefit termination

  • Due to employment
  • Benefit Termination-misc.

Education

  • High school graduation/GED receipt
  • Education - misc.

Employment

  • Job attainment
  • Job retention
  • Number of hours worked for wages
  • Employment - misc.

Family and relationship outcomes

  • Births/pregnancies
  • Family formation and stability/Living arrangements
  • Family and relationship outcomes - misc.

Income security

  • Child support payments
  • Earnings
  • Food stamps receipt
  • Medicaid receipt
  • Welfare receipt
  • Income security - misc.
  • Overall income

Adult outcomes

  • Health/ physical well-being (including prenatal health)
  • Adult outcomes - misc.

Housing

  • Homelessness
  • Housing - misc.
  • Home ownership

Attitudes towards work, welfare, and program

  • Attitudes towards work, welfare, and program - misc.

Standard of living

  • Standard of living - misc.

Service utilization

  • Service utilization - misc.

Sanctions

  • Sanctions - misc.

Program implementation

  • Program Implementation - misc.
  • Capacity of management systems to meet priorities

Financial costs and benefits/cost-effectiveness

  • Financial costs and benefits/cost-effectiveness - misc.

Policy changes

  • Policy changes-misc.

Caseload Dynamics

  • Exit effects
  • Caseload dynamics - misc.
  • Recidivism

Child Outcomes

  • Child social/emotional/behavioral outcomes
  • Child academic outcomes
  • Child overall development
  • Child mental/physical health outcomes
  • Child outcomes - misc.

Types of Studies

Type Impact Study (Controlled Experiment)
Aim To assess the impacts of Jobs-First GAIN program on participants’ earnings, welfare benefits, employment, and adult and child outcomes.
 
Type Implementation/Process Study
Aim To demonstrate how welfare administrators transformed the program from provision of high-cost education services, shown to have helped relatively few recipients reach self-sufficiency, to adoption of a Work First strategy.
 
Type Cost-Benefit Study
Aim To assess the cost effectiveness of Jobs-First GAIN.
 

Data Sources

Source Administrative data
Title GEARS automated Appraisal and Program Tracking Records
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N=21,000 (15,683 single parents (AFDC-FGS) & 5,048 two-parent family members (AFDC_Us))
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes n/a
Additional Execution Notes Data measured over two-year follow-up after random assignment
 
Source Administrative data
Title GEARS Supportive service records
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N=21,000 (15,683 single parents (AFDC-FGS) & 5,048 two-parent family members (AFDC_Us))
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes n/a
Additional Execution Notes Two years of data supplied.
 
Source Administrative data
Title Statewide UI Earnings Records
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N=21,000 (15,683 single parents (AFDC-FGS) & 5,048 two-parent family members (AFDC_Us))
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes n/a
Additional Execution Notes Two years of data supplied
 
Source Administrative data
Title Automated AFDC/TANF and Food Stamp Payment Records
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N=21,000 (15,683 single parents (AFDC-FGS) & 5,048 two-parent family members (AFDC_Us))
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes n/a
Additional Execution Notes Two years of data supplied
 
Source Administrative data
Title Automated Medi-Cal Eligibility records
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N=21,000 (15,683 single parents (AFDC-FGS) & 5,048 two-parent family members (AFDC_Us))
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes n/a
Additional Execution Notes Two years of data supplied
 
Source Administrative data
Title Two year client survey
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection N= 746 single parent (AFDC-FGS) sub-sample of larger group
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes 74%
Additional Execution Notes Conducted two years after random assignment
 
Source Field Research
Title Fieldwork and Interviews with adminstrators and staff
Sample Characteristics/Data Collection not reported
Sites Los Angeles, CA
Response Rate/Attrition Notes not reported
Additional Execution Notes not reported
 

Findings Available

Interim Implementation Findings
Final Implementation Findings
Interim Impact Findings
Final Impact Findings
Final Cost-benefit Findings
Interim Descriptive/Analytical Findings
Final Descriptive/Analytical Findings

Findings

06/01/00: Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: Final Report on a Work First Program in a Major Urban Center
Final Impact Findings
  • Jobs-First GAIN led to substantial two-year increases in employment (that is, in the proportion of people ever employed in the two years of follow-up and in earnings)
  • The program produced modest reductions in welfare and Food Stamp receipt (that is, the proportion of people receiving each of these benefits) and large reductions in welfare and Food Stamp payments (that is, actually expenditures for each type of assistance).
  • Jobs-First GAIN produced a small net increase in total income in year 2; the results appear more positive for the last month of the year.
  • The program did not affect whether people had medical coverage, but did produce a shift from public to private insurers.
  • There were few statistically significant impacts on indicators of health and well-being.
  • Jobs-First GAIN increased the use of child care and the incidence of child care problems that affected employment.
  • For reasons that are unclear, experimental group members reported a higher incidence of food insecurity than control group members.
  • Jobs-First GAIN had no effect on marriage, family composition, or amount of recreational time spent on children.
  • The program had no systematic effects on the child outcomes examined· Jobs-First GAIN achieved larger employment and earnings gains that the county's previous basic education focused program.
  • Many different types of welfare recipients benefited from Jobs-First GAIN. Such consistency in findings is unusual and impressive.
  • The program's two year impacts on earnings and welfare expenditures were somewhat larger for members of two parent families than for single parents.
  • The program positively affected many subgroups of two parent families but not as consistently as it did single parent subgroups.
Final Implementation Findings
  • Los Angeles County successfully transformed its previous, basic-education-focused welfare-to-work program into a Work First program. This change was accomplished without a major reorganization of the county's welfare agency and before passage of federal welfare legislation.
  • About 42 percent of single parents and 34 percent of members of two-parent families participated in a Jobs-First GAIN activity. Most of these people participated in job club.
Final Cost Benefit Findings
  • Jobs-First GAIN's costs were more than offset by savings in welfare payments and other types of assistance.
 
07/01/99: Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: First-Year Findings on Participation and Impacts
Interim Impact Findings
  • As expected for a Work First program, Jobs-First GAIN produced a substantial initial boost in employment and earnings.
  • Jobs-First GAIN produced small reductions in welfare and Food Stamp receipt but larger decreases in expenditures for public assistance.
  • Jobs-First GAIN helped welfare recipients replace welfare dollars with earnings, but their overall income remained about the same.
  • Jobs-First GAIN achieved larger employment and earnings gains than the county's previous, basic education focused program.
  • Jobs-First GAIN achieved positive effects for many different types of welfare recipients. The degree of consistency achieved by the program is unusual and impressive.
  • Jobs-First GAIN also achieved positive results for welfare recipients who volunteered to enter the program early.
 
08/01/98: Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: Preliminary Findings on Participation Patterns and First-Year Impacts
Interim Implementation Findings
  • During the first year of follow-up, relatively few experimental group members participated in an employment-related activity: 38 percent of AFDC-FGs and 30 percent of AFDC-Us. The vast majority of those who participated in an activity, as well as of those who did not, left the program during year 1.
  • Nearly all participants in program activities attended job club, demonstrating the Work First character of the program.
  • A relatively large proportion of experimental group members (34 percent of AFDC-FGs and 29 percent of AFDC-Us) received a grant reduction for non-compliance (a sanction) at some point during year 1. This finding indicates that Job-First GAIN strongly enforces its participation mandates.
Interim Impact Findings
  • Jobs-First GAIN produced large employment and earnings gains in the first half-year of follow-up. Employment and earnings increases were larger for single-parent early enrollees than for single-parent regular enrollees.
Interim Cost/Benefit Findings
  • In year 1, Jobs-First GAIN reduced AFDC/TANF expenditures and receipt by moderate to large amounts. Welfare impacts for an early cohort continued through the first half of year 2, suggesting that the program will generate savings during the rest of year 2 and possibly beyond.
  • Jobs-First GAIN also produced unusually large first-year reductions in Food Stamp receipt and expenditures for both assistance groups. Savings will likely continue in year 2.
 

Recommendations

Existing Publications

06/01/00 Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: Final Report on a Work First Program in a Major Urban Center MDRC
07/01/99 Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: First-Year Findings on Participation and Impacts MDRC
08/01/98 Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: Preliminary Findings on Participation Patterns and First-Year Impacts MDRC
01/01/97 Los Angeles Jobs-First GAIN Evaluation: Changing to a Work First Strategy: Lessons from Los Angeles County’s GAIN Program for Welfare Recipients MDRC

215 W. 125th Street, 3rd Floor New York, NY 10027 646.284.9600     info@nccp.org
This Page Copyright © 2002 The Trustees of Columbia University in the City of New York, for its National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP). All Rights Reserved.