FACES OF CHANGE PHASE II:

WELFARE REFORM AND FAMILY SELF-SUFFICIENCY

Methodology

Purpose:  The impact of dramatic changes in the national system of welfare spreads beyond the economic conditions of individuals and families to encompass their overall adaptations to community living and the strategies they pursue in trying to create quality of life.  The human and personal face of these changes is best expressed in the stories people have to tell about their circumstances.  Their unvarnished stories also serve to give voice to parts of our national community who seldom speak directly to us.  Their narratives are the best means of discovering the unanticipated consequences of government policy, and thereby provide a potent springboard for policy advocacy for the poor.

Method

Please read these instructions completely before initiating any action on the project.

Step 1: Building A List Of Potential Authors

Rationale:  In order to achieve broad representation of the range of people affected by welfare reform, it is critical to include in the list of potential participants all qualifying consumers or participants in your agency’s programs or activities.  The list should not be restricted to particular programs or program areas.  This strategy avoids biasing the selection of authors, a crucial element in the weight which policy makers and the public will accord to the narratives once they are published.  Very large agencies for whom this is burdensome should call the Research Department.  A member of the research team will help work out a viable sampling strategy.

Method:  Build a list of all individuals or household heads who your staff  know have received welfare or been affected by changes in welfare, in the period since 1996.  Include in your list people for whom both of the following conditions are met:

(a) Active:  those who are currently or actively involved with your agency; and

(b) Affected by welfare reform:  those people for whom you have positive knowledge of welfare reform impact.

Who is excluded?  Answer:  Those who are not actively involved with your services or professional activities (e.g., closed cases), those with whom contact is fleeting or superficial (e.g., use of a food pantry), and those about whom you lack substantial knowledge of their household circumstances (e.g, participants in a one-session education or awareness program).

The staff does not need to conduct any additional research, or reach out to them and ask about their involvement with welfare assistance.  If you are uncertain of their status with the welfare system, you may exclude them from further consideration (i.e., don’t list them).

One rather direct means of collecting these names is to circulate a Memo to all direct services staff asking each of them to report back the names of household heads they serve or interact with professionally who have been affected by welfare reform.  They may compose their list from memory and need not consult files.  Assemble these individual lists into a single master list.

Who counts as “affected by welfare reform”?  Include household heads and parents whose lives have been affected, in any way, by welfare reform since 1996.  “Welfare reform” covers not only cash public assistance (TANF), but also other welfare-related services that low income families might access.  Among these are Food Stamps, Medicaid or children’s health insurance, government subsidized childcare and job training programs.

Directly or indirectly affected:  To be included in this study the individual need not necessarily be receiving one of these programs, but may have attempted to enroll, been denied or sanctioned, or provided care for a family member who had experience with one of these benefits.  Individuals served by surplus TANF monies in related programs should be included.

We are primarily interested in people’s experiences that occurred after August 1996, when the major welfare reform legislation was enacted.  Because several states (e.g., Michigan, Wisconsin) had welfare reform efforts underway even before 1996, you may include these experiences as well.  This last decision is yours to make.

The list need only contain the first and last name of each individual, sufficient so that you know who they are.  You will need the ability to contact them at a later point.

You are the keeper of the list.  Consumer confidentiality is preserved because the list never leaves your agency.  However, retain the list until the publication of the report in case we have questions about one of the narratives you have submitted, and wish you to recontact an author.

Step 2:  Sorting Your List

Rationale:  The purpose of the following procedure is to create a list of individuals ordered by an arbitrary characteristic unrelated to welfare reform.  Random selection from this list serves to minimize bias in the selection of authors.

§         List each person on a separate card, or row of your spreadsheet.  (Creating the list on a spreadsheet will make this and subsequent tasks particularly easy.)

§         Next, sort the list alphabetically by last name, then by first name.

§         Number each individual on your list sequentially from top to bottom.  This number will be used later to identify their narratives (e.g., Author 15, Author 93, etc.).

§         Once you have numbered your list, make no changes.  Adding or deleting names will change the association of a number with a person, and may cause considerable confusion later.

The result of your effort is a list of individuals served by your agency who have been impacted by welfare reform, ordered alphabetically.

Step 3:  Selecting Authors

Report back to the Research Department the total number of individuals on your list.  The list remains in your hands.

The Research Department will contact you to tell you how to select people from the list in order to ask for their stories.  Generally, we will instruct you to start at a particular number and select every Nth name from your list from that point, where N is a number we have picked for you, based on sampling considerations.  The people so selected are your prospective authors.

Step 4:  Asking For Stories

Once names have been selected, approach individuals and ask them if they are willing to contribute their story.  If you cannot locate a selected individual or they decline, pick the immediately following name on the list (Alternative Author #1).  If this fails, use the name immediately preceding the original selection (Alternative Author #2).  If this fails, call us for assistance.

Once you have located a selected author, review the content of the Consent Form with them.  Ensure that they understand the confidentiality protections.  Inform them of the honorarium ($25.00) for their participation, that the stories will be published, and that they will receive a copy of the published final report.  If they consent to participate, jointly decide on when to collect the story.  They will sign the Consent Form when the story is collected.

When you are ready to collect a story, follow the Instructions for Story Collection.

Step 5:  Filing Stories

Send the diskette(s) bearing the word-processed versions of all stories to the Research Department.  Alternatively, you may send the stories as e-mail attachments.  Please do not send us your tape or any hand-written copy.  The file name of each story must carry the individual’s identifying number from your list (e.g., Author #27).

A word processed story will follow the same format as presented on the paper version of the Story Collection Form, using the Word or WordPerfect formats provided on the diskette.  Begin with the Author’s ID number from your list.  Don’t forget this.

Send an invoice to the Research Department for the amount owed to authors and staff.  Authors are entitled to $25 and staff are eligible for $25 per completed, word processed story.  The amount of your invoice should equal Number of Stories X $50.00.

We will issue you a check, payable to your agency, in this amount, with the exception noted immediately below.  Your agency is responsible for issuing payments to authors and staff.  You may elect to pass through all $50.00 directly to the authors.  You may elect to provide a voucher of equal value in place of a cash payment.  Inform your authors in advance of this decision.

The Research Department reserves the right to refuse payment for stories that, in our judgement, are unintelligible, uninformative, too brief to be useful, or not authentic.  We will discuss such questions directly with you.

Step 6:  Follow-up

All authors will have their stories published on the Alliance web site.  The analysis of the content of the stories will be published in July,2002.  All authors are entitled to a free copy of the report  We will send these copies to you for distribution to the authors.  Therefore, it is important for you to keep your list of authors and their contact information.

Your agency is entitled to two free copies of the story analysis.