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San Mateo County's Welfare to Work Program Evaluation

General Information

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Evaluator(s) SPHERE Institute
Investigator(s) Thomas MaCurdy (SPHERE Institute)
 
Domain Income Security/TANF
Child/Family
Status Completed (final report released)
Duration Sep 1996 - Oct 2001
Type Research and/or Program Evaluation
Program/Policy Description In 1996, San Mateo County implemented the Shared Undertaking to Change the Community and to Enable Self-Sufficiency (SUCCESS) model, a welfare to work program which was originally operated under a waiver with sanction and work-program policies that were more stringent than allowed under CalWORKs rules.

The key features of the SUCCESS model were:

  1. A single point of entry for all programs and early assessment of client needs;
  2. Integrated and comprehensive case management and supportive services;
  3. Emphasis on immediate employment for the job-ready, coupled with higher participation requirements;
  4. More rigorous sanctions for non-cooperation, including the potential for a full grant sanction.
In late 1999, following a lawsuit challenging the waiver, SUCCESS work-program and sanction policies were redesigned to conform to CalWORKs regulations, thereby eliminating the full-grant sanction and higher participation requirements. However, the other key elements of the SUCCESS program have continued under the county’s CalWORKs Program.

The SUCCESS evaluation consists of three components:

  1. An impact analysis that documents the employment, earnings, and welfare outcomes of clients under SUCCESS;
  2. A cost-benefit analysis that examines the cost-effectiveness of SUCCESS in achieving the outcomes measured in the impact analysis. Specifically, the process analysis has four main purposes:
    1. To document and assess the actual operations of the program, including the experiences of SUCCESS clients.
    2. To provide feedback to HSA management and staff that can be used to refine and improve the SUCCESS model.
    3. To provide vital contextual information that will improve the interpretation and understanding of the findings from the impact and cost-effectiveness analyses.
    4. To provide useful information for other agencies implementing changes in their welfare delivery systems.
  3. A child well-being analysis that assesses the extent to which SUCCESS affects the educational outcomes and well-being of children whose parents receive and leave cash aid in San Mateo County. The three main objectives of the child well-being analysis are:
    1. To determine whether SUCCESS policies, including increased work participation requirements for parents and more stringent sanction policies adversely affected families and children who participated in the program;
    2. To examine the extent to which child and family well-being differs for SUCCESS and other low-income families and children; and,
    3. To explore the factors associated with negative outcomes for children.

There are three distinct time periods across which to compare outcomes in San Mateo County: the pre-SUCCESS (AFDC/GAIN) period, the SUCCESS period in which the program operated under the CDSS waiver, and the CalWORKs period following the changes to the SUCCESS program to conform to CalWORKs rules.

 
Last Updated 08/09/04
Type of Summary Unreviewed
Contact(s) Thomas MaCurdy
SPHERE Institute
1415 Rollins Rd
Submitter(s) Research Forum Staff (info@researchforum.org)
National Center for Children In Poverty
215 West 125th St, 3rd Fl
(T) (646)284-9600
(F) not reported

Populations Studied

Target Population Recipients/participants/clients
Children
Low-income households
Subgroups Analyzed Single parent families
Two-parent families
Child-only cases
Sample Size and Unit Population of AFDC/SUCCESS recipients between 1995 and 2000.

For the child well-being analysis:
173 adult SUCCESS recipients, 83 adult Medi- Cal recipients and 49 and 22 of their respective adolescent children.

Execution No notes reported.

Sites Studied

San Mateo County, CA

Program Components, Policies, and Activities Evaluated

Employment activities

Financial disincentives/Sanctions

Program requirements

Time limits

Social/Support services

Administration/Implementation

Variation in program components across sites? Yes

Outcomes Assessed

Service utilization

Income security

Employment

Education

Caseload Dynamics

Child Outcomes

Types of Studies

Type Cost-Benefit Study
 
Type Implementation/Process Study
 
Type Impact Study (Quasi-experiment with pre-post time periods)
 

Data Sources

Source Interview
 
Source Administrative data
 
Source Survey
 

Findings Available

Interim Implementation Findings
Final Implementation Findings
Interim Impact Findings
Final Impact Findings
Interim Cost-benefit Findings
Final Cost-benefit Findings

Recommendations

Existing Publications

10/01/01 Evaluation of San Mateo County's Welfare to Work Program: The SUCCESS Evaluation: Final Impact and Cost Benefit Report SPHERE
04/01/99 Evaluation of San Mateo County's Welfare to Work Program: The First Year of SUCCESS SPHERE
05/12/00 Evaluation of San Mateo County's Welfare to Work Program: The Second Year of SUCCESS SPHERE
06/01/00 Evaluation of San Mateo County's Welfare to Work Program: Child and Well Being Component of the SUCCESS Evaluation SPHERE

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