States of Change documents efforts by state policymakers and local practitioners to devise useful approaches to helping low-income job seekers stay employed and begin advancing. It draws, in part, from our experiences working on these issues since 1997 with five states -- Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Oklahoma and Florida -- as well as on examples and lessons in several other states. In general, states are trying a number of retention strategies, but few have been tested. Therefore, we expect that many strategies discussed will soon be modified or replaced with new approaches. We hope that States of Change encourages this process of testing and innovation by providing a sense of what is being tried and learned around the country, and what challenges remain
