Recent Research Reports and News: April
2003
Fathers—Research | Children
& Families | Fatbers/Mothers
in Prison | Census Data
| Systemic Barriers
| Welfare Reform
| NCOFF Abstracts
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Let's Invest in Families Today (LIFT) Project, National Center
on Children in Poverty, March 2003.
On March 26, 2003, NCCP officially will introduce the Let's Invest
in Families Today (LIFT) project and the new LIFT Web site, www.lift.nccp.org.
This web-based research tool promises to become an important resource
for everyone working on behalf of low-income children and families.
The Washington D.C. launch will include a quick tour of the LIFT
web site for representatives of national advocacy, policy research,
and communications research organizations, followed by discussion.
LIFT is a collaborative project with a network of state and regional
advocacy organizations that endeavors to protect and increase public
investments for low-income children and their families. For more information,
please e-mail us at lift@nccp.org.
About LIFT (web site excerpt):
LIFT (Letís Invest in Families Today), a collaborative project between
the National Center for Children in Poverty (NCCP), and a network of
state and regional advocacy organizations, endeavors to protect and
increase public investments for low-income families and children. LIFT
is designed to identify the best approaches from scientific, program,
and policy research for program and policy change; and provide these
solutions, as well as communications expertise, to state-based advocates.
LIFT is based on a belief that when presented with well-researched policy
alternatives, decision makers will make better policy and budget choices,
even in these difficult financial times.
A central feature of LIFT is a Web site,
www.lift.nccp.org, designed to serve as a resource for our partners
or anyone working to address the problems facing low-income families.
The site provides advocates with the latest research to guide program
strategies. Additionally, it offers communications expertise because
media coverage with the right messages is critical to advocacy efforts.
Interactive features allow users to research and compare policies across
and within states.
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Families Coping without Earnings or Government Cash Assistance,
Sheila R. Zedlewski, Sandi Nelson, Kathryn Edin, Heather L. Koball,
Kate Pomper, and Tracy Roberts, Urban Institute, February 01, 2003.
Executive summary excerpt:
This study is based on qualitative interviews with 95 extremely poor
families (cash income below 50 percent of the federal poverty level)
living without employment income or government cash assistance. The
interview sample was drawn from a set of 275 families identified during
the 2002 National Survey of America's Families. The study was designed
to understand why some families live outside the government cash income
support system despite extreme poverty.
Among respondents, 64 percent were single parents living alone, and
94 percent were mothers living with their children. The racial and ethnic
composition of the sample was fairly balanced across whites, blacks,
and Hispanics, with just 5 percent of the sample falling outside these
categories. Respondents lived in 26 different states, but more than
half lived in the South. Barriers to employment—such as poor health,
limited work experience, and low education levels—were common among
respondents. Respondents reported substantial economic hardship; for
example, 68 percent worried about or experienced difficulty in affording
food for their families.
During the interviews, participants discussed why they were not working
or receiving welfare and how they managed without these sources of income.
They also described recent experiences with in-kind government assistance
programs (food stamps, housing assistance, and Medicaid), the well-being
of their children, and how government policies could improve their lives.
To obtain a complete report in PDF format, visit the Urban
Institute web site.
New Citations from
NCOFF's FatherLit Database
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