The programs under study operated in seven sites around the country. People entered the study in 1991 in the first site and in 1994 in the last site, and they were followed over a five-year period.
Analyses covering the first two years are currently available.
They also varied with respect to how broadly the program participation mandate was applied and how strictly it was enforced, the amount of child care support provided for program participation or employment, and methods of case management. Finally, the programs served different welfare populations and operated in a variety of labor markets. Although they all predated TANF and thus did not include time limits on welfare eligibility, all 11 programs shared TANF s primary goal of moving welfare recipients into paid work and off assistance. The research was designed to assess the effectiveness of the 11 programs relative to what would have happened in their absence and, in four sites, the relative effectiveness of different types of programs. In all seven sites, the design also allows for comparison of each program group with a control group that did not have access to the program services.