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Chapter 7

Guiding Principles for Service Delivery

The exploratory work for this report uncovered a common set of principles and service delivery approaches that states, localities, agencies, and employers are adopting as they address barriers to program access and low participation rates among low-wage workers. These principles can be considered “preconditions” for organizations to better assist low-income families achieve their long-term goals of economic well-being and stability. This concluding chapter discusses these principles and provides an overview of potential partner organizations to join with in serving low-income working families.

The guiding principles in formulating policy and operating decisions include:

• Make an explicit commitment to serve low-income working families by making them part of the organization’s core mission.
  
• Adopt the goal of helping families raise their household income in order to achieve long-term well-being and economic stability.
  
• Create service delivery structures that are readily accessible to working families and that provide services in a nonstigmatizing, user-friendly fashion.
  
• Develop collaborative relationships with other organizations, and identify ways to coordinate services and share information across multiple public and private partners.

Guiding Principles for Partners

Many organizations in this study were interested in exploring how they could better serve low-income working families and were initiating innovative strategies. From this examination of promising practices — and based on discussions with a wide range of agency staff and policymakers — a set of principles has emerged for institutions to use in seeking to identify, reach, and serve low-wage workers. The principles address both how individual organizations might change their own missions and activities and how they might improve their collaboration with partners.

Make an explicit commitment to serve low-income working families by making them part of the organization’s core mission

Partner organizations understand that the needs of low-wage workers and their families differ from those of the unemployed or of higher-income earners, and they tailor services accordingly. For example, low-wage workers have fewer resources to meet work-related needs than higher-income earners do, and they are less likely to have flexible work schedules and such benefits as sick leave or vacation time.

In order to realize this commitment to serving low-income working families, staff and administrators can:

• Assess the extent to which the organization’s mission, services, and delivery structure are responsive to the unique needs of low-wage workers and their families.
  
• Evaluate the organization’s internal and external constraints (such as funding or statutory restrictions), and identify available resources to enhance services.
  
• Define the outcomes that the organization hopes to achieve for low-wage workers and their families.
  
• If low-income working families are not currently a primary customer of the organization, identify how to target and market services to them.

Adopt the goal of helping families raise their household income in order to achieve long-term well-being and economic stability

Low-wage workers may face many personal barriers to retaining employment, and low-wage work alone is not enough to provide long-term financial security. The organizations will have to address workers’ current needs as well as their future advancement goals. Building on their own strengths, organizations can provide one or more of the following services, and they can link with partner organizations in the community for other needed services:

• Help low-wage workers meet short-term needs through access to or the provision of work supports and job retention services.
  
• Facilitate wage progression and career advancement through services to promote placement in higher-wage jobs that have benefits. Such services should be responsive to employers’ needs and local labor market demands so that workers are prepared for local or regional job opportunities that have wage-growth potential.
  
• Promote access to appropriate additional services that address both short-term crises and long-term career plans, such as financial literacy education and asset accumulation (for example, opening savings, checking, or retirement accounts).

Create service delivery structures that are readily accessible to working families and that provide services in a nonstigmatizing, user-friendly fashion

When organizations minimize the burden in accessing services, low-wage working families are better able to receive the work supports and services that will help them advance. Organizations can improve the accessibility of services and can decrease the stigma associated with seeking assistance in the following ways:

• Provide customized services that respond to the particular needs of each client and family served.
  
• Use computers and telephone technology to provide services remotely, in lieu of face-to-face interviews and appointments.
  
• Operate at locations and during hours that are convenient for working families.

Develop collaborative relationships with other organizations, and identify ways to coordinate services and share information across multiple public and private partners

Since few organizations can address all the needs of low-income working families, potential partners need to work with each other to identify ways to coordinate services and make efficient use of available resources. Organizations can do this by building partnerships that capitalize on each partner’s strengths. For example:

• Map out the range of services provided by each potential partner, and develop an efficient process for referrals, follow-through, and support across partners.
  
• Leverage or merge resources to fill service gaps, and jointly fund initiatives that target this population.
  
• Encourage communication and information-sharing across all levels of the organizations’ administrators and staff, and engage partners in common planning processes.

Key Partners in Service Delivery

The road to creating comprehensive services for low-wage workers and their families is certainly not an easy one. Because it is typically beyond the scope and capacity of any one agency or system to address the multiple and complex needs of this population, enhancing local service delivery will necessarily involve partnerships among and linkages across multiple organizations, building on the strengths of each partner. This study’s site visits identified public and private organizations that have made significant strides in realizing the foregoing principles by offering a range of work supports, employment retention and career advancement services, and reemployment opportunities. The organizations — Action for Boston Community Development (ABCD); Montgomery County Jobs Center, in Dayton, Ohio; and Fremont Family Resource Center (FRC), in Freemont, California — have all collaborated with community partners to make a broad spectrum of supports and services possible. These three organizations also serve as examples of how other agencies can work toward offering services to low-income working families. (See Appendix A for details of the organizations’ services, strengths, and challenges.)

As reflected in the examples throughout this report, key partners include the following types of organizations:

• Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) agencies
  
• One-Stop Career Centers created by the Workforce Investment Act
  
• Community-based organizations (including community action agencies, family resource centers, faith-based organizations, and other employment and social service agencies)
  
• Community colleges and other adult education and postsecondary institutions
  
• Workforce intermediaries
  
• Private employers1

Table 7.1 summarizes the viewpoints of policymakers, program administrators, and staff across states and localities as they identified their organizations’ unique challenges and opportunities in reaching and serving the low-wage working population.

Table 7.1
Challenges and Opportunities for Organizations That Serve Low-Wage Workers

Organization	Welfare (or Larger Social Service) Agency	One-Stop/Workforce Development Agency
Opportunities	Flexible funding (TANF) for serving low-income families Wide range of work supports Emphasis on family as unit of service Growing experience, interest in providing retention and advancement services	Wide array of public and private partners and often colocated with other agencies (for example, with welfare agency or CBOs) Focus on involving employers in administration and operations Less stigma associated with One-Stops than welfare offices Commitment to universal access
Challenges	Services/supports usually limited to current or former welfare recipients, given resource limitations Current state budget crises mean less surplus available to serve broader low-income population Stigma often associated with receiving cash assistance, services	Focus on the individual, not the family Performance measures act as incentive for serving the unemployed rather than workers Some reluctance to provide social services and work supports
Organization	Community College or Other Education and Training Institution	Community-Based Organization (CBO)
Opportunities	Many career advancement programs/services in one place Lacks stigma often associated with public agencies Already serves many low-income workers Alternative credentialing options (for example, certificates) provide flexibility in program development	Flexible private and public funding streams with a wide array of programs and services May already have a related mission (such as poverty reduction or family support) Less stigma, more likely than public agencies to offer worker-friendly hours, services May already have relationships with low-wage workers in the community
Challenges	Programs and services often geared toward traditional ages, nonworking students (for example, operating hours, entry-exit policies) Limited availability of financial aid for working parents Limited on-site social services and access to work supports	Cannot provide direct access to some work supports due to federal statutory limitations May lack stable funding base; strength of relationships with local public agencies or other key partners may vary widely May not have operational or administrative capacity for large scale
Organization	Employer	Intermediary Organization
Opportunities	Vested interest in improving employee retention rates May offer nonstigmatizing alternatives to public agencies in crisis situation (for example, Employee Assistance Program) Can directly tie retention or advancement milestones that benefit the company (for example, skill upgrading) to promotion or wage increases Many recognize benefits of partnering with public agencies through welfare-to-work experiences	Usually neutral observer, unaffiliated with actual service providers Often brings management or program expertise to partnerships May be better able to leverage flexible resources to address service gaps Can take the lead in creating the local system, freeing up other partners’ time and resources
Challenges	Limited resources or expertise in addressing social service needs Risk of negative public attention to low wages offered if participating in service delivery system Limited experience with public or CBO service providers	Difficult to institutionalize new programs or improvements in partner organizations May be viewed as competition for public systems, especially workforce development system

Conclusion

Adopting the principles set forth in this chapter and creating new partnerships will be a challenge for any organization. Given the current state budget crisis and limited resources, improving service delivery to low-wage workers and their families may seem even more difficult. However, given the scarcity of resources, it is imperative for public systems and their partners to work together to enhance local service delivery for low-income families. By improving existing services, leveraging additional funds across agencies, and streamlining work supports, agencies may realize administrative efficiencies and even cost savings. Equally important, the product of these efforts — comprehensive services to support employment retention and career advancement — can help to promote economic stability for low-income working families.

The hope is that future research will build on the joint work undertaken here, to identify the impact of the approaches described in this report and of other innovative approaches not yet uncovered. Knowing which approaches are the most effective will help policymakers and agency officials make important decisions about how best to serve low-income working families and help them achieve their economic and career goals.

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1 Private employers differ from the other partners in that they are not direct work support or employment service providers, nor are they public or philanthropic organizations. To be profitable and successful, employers do depend on the low-wage labor force, and they are directly affected by high turnover rates or skills shortages that other public or private partners hope to address through work supports and employment retention and career advancement services. As a result, employers provide a natural access point to low-wage workers and are potential partners in service delivery. (back)

 

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