Funded Research
Experiences with Work: The Process of Leaving Poverty Behind
Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Active: 09/01/01 - 11/30/06
Investigator(s):
Jill L. Findeis
Leif Jensen
Natalie Ferry
Welfare reform under the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) may have differential impacts on rural as compared to urban welfare recipients, although the specific differences in impacts still remain unclear. This research project is expected to contribute to our understanding of rural/urban differences in (1) the types, number and severity of barriers to employment, and the short and longer-term adjustments that rural versus urban recipients make to overcome the barriers that they face, (2) the types and characteristics of jobs taken by recipients and the potential for upward mobility, (3) workplace problems that employed recipients face, from their own perspectives as well as from the viewpoints of their employers and community mentors, and (4) "what went wrong" when the employed recipient is unable to continue to work. The project is designed to be complementary to the Mellon Community Bridge Project, a new Cooperative Extension training and support pilot program involving recipients, employers and community mentors assigned to help recipients make the welfare-to-work transition.
