“They Never Did Me Any Good”: Welfare-to-Work Programs from the Vantage Point of Poor Women

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 336-360 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rebecca Joyce Kissane

Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with poor women living in Philadelphia, I explore welfare recipients' experiences with and assessments of welfare-to-work programs provided by labor market intermediaries. Overall, the women argued that the programs often failed to offer meaningful skills that could result in good paying jobs, complicated their already difficult lives, and forced them to interact with sometimes disrespectful, hypocritical, and indifferent staff. The women also felt they were under-compensated for the work that they did in transitional jobs programs. While the women had problems with many of the programs they entered, they especially disliked those that focused on soft skills training. These findings suggest that such programs act as mechanisms of social reproduction, as from the vantage point of poor women, they typically fail to enhance and may actually restrict their labor market opportunities.

2018 ◽  
pp. 443-460
Author(s):  
Renate Ortlieb ◽  
Silvana Weiss

This chapter examines the entry routes of young migrants from Eastern Europe into the Austrian labor market, focusing on the role of labor market intermediaries (LMIs) such as public employment services, online job portals, and temporary work agencies. It takes account of the perspectives of both employers and young migrants. The findings suggest that online job portals are the most prevalent type of LMI. Relatedly, informational services are more relevant than matchmaking and administrative services. The relevance of LMI types and services varies across sectors, indicating that LMIs to varying degrees fulfill specific functions in these sectors, such as reduction of transaction costs, risk management, and network building. The more nuanced understanding of entry routes provided by this chapter will help in the development of theoretical models explaining youth migration and design policy measures aimed at improving the labor market opportunities of young migrants from Eastern Europe.


2020 ◽  
Vol 0 (0) ◽  
Author(s):  
Magda Tsaneva ◽  
Uttara Balakrishnan

Abstract This paper uses data from rural India to study the relationship between local labor market opportunities and child education outcomes. We construct a Bartik index as a measure of exogenous changes in district-level labor demand and find that an increase in predicted overall employment growth is associated with higher years of education and better test scores for both boys and girls of primary school age. The effects on test scores of older boys are smaller and less statistically significant. Older girls, however, do benefit from better labor market opportunities. We do not find evidence for changes in school quality or district-level investment. Instead, we find support for increases in household education spending, possibly because of overall higher wages, or re-allocation of resources.


2021 ◽  
pp. 003804072098289
Author(s):  
Corey Moss-Pech ◽  
Steven H. Lopez ◽  
Laurie Michaels

Scholarship on adult education throughout the life course focuses on the relationship between education and upward mobility. Scholars rarely examine how adults’ educational aspirations or trajectories are affected by downward mobility or an increasingly precarious labor market. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with 21 job seekers in the post–Great Recession labor market in the United States, this article advances the concept of educational downgrading: returning to school in pursuit of a credential lower than the highest level of education one previously sought or attained. We explore three pathways to downgrading connected to downward mobility: occupational dead ends, career reversals, and educational inflation. In the process, we highlight how individuals adjust their practical educational aspirations as they navigate a contemporary economy in which careers are unstable and credentials are needed for many kinds of jobs across the occupational hierarchy.


Affilia ◽  
1999 ◽  
Vol 14 (2) ◽  
pp. 199-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marjorie R. Sable ◽  
M. Kay Libbus ◽  
Diane Huneke ◽  
Kathleen Anger

Society ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 13-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen V. Monsma

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily B. H. Treichler ◽  
Borsika A. Rabin ◽  
William D. Spaulding ◽  
Michael L. Thomas ◽  
Michelle P. Salyers ◽  
...  

Abstract Background Collaborative decision-making is an innovative decision-making approach that assigns equal power and responsibility to patients and providers. Most veterans with serious mental illnesses like schizophrenia want a greater role in treatment decisions, but there are no interventions targeted for this population. A skills-based intervention is promising because it is well-aligned with the recovery model, uses similar mechanisms as other evidence-based interventions in this population, and generalizes across decisional contexts while empowering veterans to decide when to initiate collaborative decision-making. Collaborative Decision Skills Training (CDST) was developed in a civilian serious mental illness sample and may fill this gap but needs to undergo a systematic adaptation process to ensure fit for veterans. Methods In aim 1, the IM Adapt systematic process will be used to adapt CDST for veterans with serious mental illness. Veterans and Veteran’s Affairs (VA) staff will join an Adaptation Resource Team and complete qualitative interviews to identify how elements of CDST or service delivery may need to be adapted to optimize its effectiveness or viability for veterans and the VA context. During aim 2, an open trial will be conducted with veterans in a VA Psychosocial Rehabilitation and Recovery Center (PRRC) to assess additional adaptations, feasibility, and initial evidence of effectiveness. Discussion This study will be the first to evaluate a collaborative decision-making intervention among veterans with serious mental illness. It will also contribute to the field’s understanding of perceptions of collaborative decision-making among veterans with serious mental illness and VA clinicians, and result in a service delivery manual that may be used to understand adaptation needs generally in VA PRRCs. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04324944


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