| Vermonts Welfare Restructuring Project (WRP)
was one of the earliest statewide welfare reforms initiated under waivers
of federal welfare rules granted before the passage of the 1996 federal
welfare law. WRP, which was implemented statewide in 1994 and ended mid-2001,
required single-parent welfare recipients to work in a wage-paying job
after 30 months of cash assistance receipt. (The work requirement took
effect after 15 months for two-parent families with an able-bodied primary
wage-earner.) Parents who could not find an unsubsidized job were given
a subsidized, minimum-wage community service employment (CSE) position
in order to satisfy the work requirement. This report was prepared as
part of a comprehensive evaluation of WRP conducted by the Manpower Demonstration
Research Corporation (MDRC) under contract with the Vermont Department
of Prevention, Assistance, Transition, and Health Access (PATH). The report
focuses on the CSE component, drawing on data from administrative records
and from surveys of CSE participants and their supervisors that were conducted
in 2000.
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