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Chapter V: Lessons On Implementing Rural Welfare-To-Work Programs
Successful implementation of rural welfare-to-work programs requires that program designers and staff take into account conditions specific to rural places: the smaller number of good jobs and social service providers than in urban areas, a geographically dispersed client population, and tight-knit local communities. The experiences of the three Rural Welfare-to-Work demonstration programs offer several lessons on how to promote effective implementation in this context.
- Welfare-to-work programs may be most valuable for rural clients when they both focus on improving employment prospects and provide assistance on a range of other issues.
By design, the three programs aim to enhance, directly or indirectly, clients’ ability to secure and maintain employment. Future Steps helped clients identify and pursue available employment opportunities; BNF extends basic life skills education to clients with multiple personal and family barriers so they can begin to look for work; and First Wheels provides access to affordable, personal transportation, enabling clients to travel to work and manage family responsibilities, often over long distances.
The programs’ potential value to rural clients surfaces not only through these basic design elements but also in how services are delivered. Although each program has an area of specialization, staff members often address a wide variety of issues—personal and logistical—as they help clients. Future Steps career specialists provided clients with job leads, but they also offered advice on such issues as family relationships and housing. First Wheels helps clients acquire cars and, through its application process, gives them experience creating a household budget.
In addition, relatively small caseloads help staff members respond to the diverse needs of individual clients. This wide-ranging, individualized service delivery may be especially important in rural places where fewer service providers exist. Without other sources of assistance, clients appear more likely turn to staff of the demonstration programs for many kinds of help.
- Program staff can address rural challenges related to clients’ poor personal reputations by vouching for them with potential employers and other service providers.
As staff of the demonstration programs help clients identify, and take advantage of, available job opportunities and services, they also serve as a personal reference. This backing has special value in tight-knit rural communities, where a poor personal or family reputation can negatively affect a person’s economic prospects. Such support may make employers more comfortable offering program clients a job. It can also facilitate clients’ interaction with welfare agencies and other social service providers. In addition, the encouragement of program staff can give clients the confidence they need to continue pursuing employment and other goals.
- Partner organizations in the demonstration programs offer advantages—location and reputation—that have particular significance in rural areas.
In general, welfare-to-work programs benefit from partnerships between welfare agencies and outside organizations, which can offer resources and expertise that enhance the services normally available to low-income families. In the case of the demonstration programs, institutional partners offer capabilities related to workforce and career services, educational outreach, and rural community development. As program staff members work with clients, they can use such institutional resources as career development tools or specialized curricula.
Institutional partners in the demonstration programs bring two advantages particularly important in rural places—an established presence and positive reputation in their communities. For example, UNCE has decades of experience delivering education to families living in sparsely populated rural areas. The partners’ physical presence and history of working in rural communities enhance efforts to conduct outreach and provide welfare-to-work services to low-income families in these areas. As locally recognized institutions, their involvement may also help generate local support for a program from employers, service providers, and others. Moreover, the organizations’ high standing lessens the strong stigma often attached to welfare programs in rural areas. This is especially true for partners that are educational institutions.
- Outreach must be aggressive to reach potential clients in rural places. Clear incentives and strong coordination between a welfare agency and its partner organization promote successful recruitment.
Rural welfare-to-work programs face a significant challenge in recruiting clients from a dispersed population of potentially eligible people. Without active, coordinated efforts to identify eligible clients, inform them about the program, and encourage them to participate, programs may experience lower than expected rates of enrollment.
Incentives for both the welfare agency and its institutional partner strengthen outreach efforts. For welfare agency caseworkers, a clear understanding that the welfare-to-work program will help clients accomplish key goals is an important factor in deciding to make a referral. In Illinois, for example, Future Steps services, which focused on job search and placement, were plainly linked to the welfare agency’s work-centered TANF program. The referral process must also be simple enough, or organized well enough, that it does not seem burdensome. Linking compensation for services to enrollment levels appears to be an effective incentive for partner organizations to actively pursue referrals. Such incentives appear to encourage BNF staff members to devote special attention to communicating with administrators and caseworkers at the welfare agency and ensuring that eligible clients know about the program.
Outreach to rural clients seems most successful when both the welfare agency and its partner organization participate, but expectations for how each entity will participate in this process should be clearly defined. If roles and responsibilities are ambiguous, or if there is insufficient communication between agency and partner staff, important outreach tasks may be deferred or left undone.
- Operating programs in large, sparsely populated service areas requires independent staff members familiar with their communities. Program leaders must be prepared to actively support staff members and monitor their work from a distance.
The context of rural welfare-to-work programs influences the skills and qualifications necessary for program staff. Staff members of these programs must be able to independently manage their day-to-day activities and tap into local resources. Some degree of autonomy may be desirable for program staff in any location. However, rural welfare-to-work staff members are more likely to be posted far from their supervisors and have large service areas to cover, so self-motivation is essential for them. Familiarity with local communities enables staff to find outside resources that may benefit clients and to interact easily with employers or other agencies on clients’ behalf.
With staff posted far from their supervisors, program managers must find ways to support staff and monitor their activities from a distance. Active managerial support is critical for improving staff skills, building morale, and creating a sense of professional community among staff members who work far from each other. Frequent communication between program managers and staff is a central element of this support. In all three demonstration programs, managers regularly respond by email or telephone to questions on program policy from field staff or suggest how to address a specific client’s needs or circumstances. Managers also promote interaction among staff members, through group meetings and ongoing communication, so they will share advice and encourage each other.
Formal monitoring tools facilitate the management of rural welfare-to-work programs and ensure that the programs are implemented consistently across large service areas. These tools may include information systems that track key program indicators, such as the management information systems used by all three demonstration programs. Reviews of case notes give program leaders detailed information on the services that line staff in distant locations are delivering to specific clients. Performance measurement instruments, like BNF’s success markers, also can give program leaders some insight on client experiences and outcomes. These strategies and tools provide leaders of rural welfare-to-work programs the information they need to manage program implementation across large, diverse areas.
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