Making Ends Meet: Private Food Assistance and the Working Poor

Concern is growing that large segments of low-income Americans are slipping through, or are not adequately served by, the public food assistance safety net. Many of these individuals are turning to the private network of food pantries and soup kitchens for their nourishment. In particular, a significant percentage of individuals seeking private food assistance are the working poor. In this paper, we look at the characteristics of a sample of employed Virginia households who depend on soup kitchens or food pantries to help them make ends meet. Our data indicate that these individuals have demographic characteristics that do not bode well for their being able to earn high enough wages to all allow them to meet basic family needs without some type of additional supports.

Social work research development in the United States

This article summarizes and analyzes the outcomes of the recommendations extracted from the Plan for Research Development, produced in 1991 by a Task Force on Social Work Research created by the National Institute of Mental Health. The Plan responded to the claim of the profession identifying a crisis in social work research, due to the fact that very little time was spent on research to improve social work services and that less than ½ of 1% of members of the National Association of Social Workers – the largest professional social work organization - identified themselves as researchers. Almost 20 years later, it is today considered that the crisis has abated, but has not been eliminated. There is a continuing need for capacity building as well as dissemination research activities.Este artigo sumariza e analisa os resultados das recomendações emanadas pelo Plan for Research Development, realizado em 1991 por uma Task Force para a Investigação em Serviço Social criada pelo Instituto Nacional de Saúde Mental. O Plano veio responder à reivindicação do corpo profissional de que existia uma crise na investigação em Serviço Social, consubstanciada na constatação de que muito pouco tempo dos profissionais era utilizado na realização de pesquisa para melhorar os serviços e de que menos de metade de 1% dos membros da Associação Nacional de Assistentes Sociais – a maior organização profissional do Serviço Social – se via como investigador. Quase 20 anos depois, considera-se hoje que a crise cedeu, mas que não foi eliminada. Continua a existir uma necessidade de actividades de investigação ligadas ao reforço de capacidades e à disseminação de resultados

Child Support Enforcement Reform: Can It Reduce the Welfare Dependency of Families of Never-Married Mothers?

Among all groups of single-parent families, those created by a birth to an unmarried woman have the least likelihood of receiving child support and the greatest risk of becoming dependent on welfare. Wisconsin data indicate that child support reform-specifically the immediate income assignment-is improving child support payment performance. But the modest increases in payments to nonmarital children will have little effect on their welfare recipiency. The fathers of these children lack the economic resources to aid their families much in the short term. However, cost effectiveness should not be the only criterion used in enforcing child support. It is important to send the message to all parent that they are expected to assume responsibility for the children they bear