Leveraging Social Capital Among Organizations to Secure Employment for Welfare Clients

ABSTRACT

This article presents the use of social capital to find solutions to multiple barriers of vulnerable populations seeking employment. A description of the Working to Unite Families Project (WtUF) illustrates how an infrastructure committee (IC) leveraged social capital to increase employability of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) participants. The authors analyze qualitative data from 25 respondents to study the use of social capital and employment of TANF participants and the resulting policy recommendations. The findings suggest that social service executives leveraged social capital through partnerships that fostered trust, reciprocity and collaboration within the project and optimized the opportunities for the “hard to employ.” Policy recommendations emerged for the institutionalization of a coordinated networking system to navigate and access resources for future projects.

KEYWORDS:

• Social capital
• welfare reform
• organizations
• employment policy
• TANF

The authors express their appreciation to Alison Rinehart and Laura Hoffman for their research assistance.