Making the Transition from Welfare to Work: Employment Experiences of CalWORKs Participants in the San Francisco Bay Area

ABSTRACT

This study describes welfare-to-work participants in the San Francisco Bay Area, support services, experiences with the CalWORKs program, and predictors of employment status in the wake of welfare reform. Findings indicate that many are working and more Stayers and Recidivists than Leavers are using food stamps and Medi-Cal. Multivariate analysis reveals that race and financial supports were the significant factors contributing to employability, defined as the ability to secure employment despite the need to supplement earned income with welfare payments. To help people stay off of welfare, case management services are needed to help participants maintain employment and increase job skills. In addition to expanding our understanding of human behavior within the social environment of poverty, implications for practice and policy are identified.

KEYWORDS:

• CalWORKs
• welfare
• welfare reform
• employment

Notes

This project was undertaken while Dr. De Marco was a doctoral student and research assistant at the School of Social Welfare, University of California, Berkeley.

The authors acknowledge the considerable support and involvement of the following graduate students in the data collection phase of this study: Anne Abramson, Sarah Taylor, Virginia Ketch, Jill Nielsen, Sunshine Wu, and Turaya Bryant.

^a Chi square and ANOVA analyses were performed to compare the three groups with significant differences.

∗ p < .05.

^aChi square analyses were performed to compare the three groups with significant differences.

^bChi square analyses were not conducted because 50% of the cells had less than five cases.

∗ p < 0.05.

^aChi square analyses were performed to compare the three groups with no significant differences found.

^aChi square and ANOVA analyses were performed to compare the three groups; no significant differences were found.

^aQuestion: How helpful was CalWORKs when you were trying to get a job? Choices: not at all helpful, somewhat helpful, very helpful.

^bQuestion: How much say did you have in the development of your welfare-to-work plan? Choices: no say at all, some say, a lot of say.

^cQuestion: How much did you trust your CalWORKs worker? Choices: didn't trust him/her at all, trusted him/her somewhat, trusted him/her a lot.

^dQuestion: How much did your worker listen to you? Choices: didn't listen to me at all, listened to me sometimes, listened to me a lot.

∗Statistically significant at p < .05.