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Impacts of Welfare Reforms on Community Social Services in Indiana

The FASR Institute received funding for a study of the impacts of welfare reforms on community social services, including the township trustees, in Indiana. Funding for this two-year study is being provided by the Joyce Foundation, the Indiana Family Social Services Administration, and the Indiana Township Association.

This welfare reform impact study collected data using three primary strategies. The client survey assessed the frequency of requests for assistance, whether or not assistance was received, the nature of the assistance, and clients’ satisfaction with non-welfare social supports. Additionally, this survey assessed clients’ perceptions of their most significant barriers to employment and their experiences with agencies providing employment and training services, highlighting those experiences that most facilitated their transition to work and any perceived gaps in the service system.

The second strategy was a survey of non-profit community service providers in six selected counties. Intra-organizational variables examined included changing demands or services, changing service composition, changes in caseloads of current and former welfare clients, and needs meeting capacities. The survey elicited agency administrator perceptions of significant barriers to helping clients transition to work, persistent problems in service delivery to this population, and effective practices in helping clients obtain and maintain employment. Inter-organizational changes  examined include shifts in funding and new collaborative local efforts to develop a social safety net, particularly the work of new intermediary agencies.

The third strategy examined changing demands for services from the township trustees and response patterns including referrals to other community agencies. The trustee study included a mail survey to all trustees to collect additional information to supplement administrative and financial data already collected at the state level. In addition, trustees in the six counties selected for the non-profit component above were interviewed in-depth to understand more completely the changes experienced under welfare reforms in the state. In this way, case studies were developed for each county for a more thorough understanding of how each county has responded as a whole to the challenges and changes posed by welfare reforms.

The Positive Sexual Development Project

The FASR Institute developed a curriculum for incarcerated youths for the prevention of HIV/STDs. The Positive Sexual Development project, funded by the U.S. Center for Disease Control, provided a curriculum for one-to-one counseling with incarcerated youths and short-term small interactive group sessions to provide knowledge, skills and new behavioral options related to sexual and personal decisions.

The project was extended by the Indiana State Department of Health to persons who have experienced homelessness with self-identified substance abuse thereby allowing for comprehensive HIV/AIDS preventative case management services.  This population was addressed by Shelter Inc. and its trained staff. 

The Indiana University Institute for Family and Social Responsibility (FASR) in collaboration with the National Child Support Enforcement Association  developed and maintains the NCSEA Research Clearinghouse web site. The web site includes citations, abstracts, and full documents of child support related journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, and reports to federal, state, and local governments. The database is updated continuously and is searchable by use of any keyword or phrases including the names of authors, journals, or topical subjects. Advanced users should read the "Tips for Searching" to use Boolean and fuzzy logic to create narrower, more specific requests from the database. This site also provides links with professional organizations, federal and state agencies, and university research organizations that share a mutual interest in improving child support enforcement programs and practices. This project builds and strengthens ties between the research and child support practitioner communities. The mutual sharing of information on a wide array of child support issues should serve to improve the quality of research and child support enforcement practices.

The Institute for Family and Social Responsibility partnered with the Indiana Association of United Ways, the Indiana Coalition for Human Services, the Indiana Economic Development Council, the Indiana Human Resources Investment Council and the United Way/Community Service Council of Central Indiana to disseminate information on the impacts of welfare reforms and economic development initiatives throughout Indiana. Funded by the Joyce Foundation, this project  hosted a series of forums throughout the State. The forums addressed the following questions: How are welfare reforms affecting Hoosier families and neighborhoods? Is there a "job gap" in Indiana? Are Hoosiers making "livable wages"? What services are available to help welfare clients and the working poor up the ladder of success? What "promising practices" can be found in Indiana hometowns and across America?

Performance Contracting for Child Welfare Services

The FASR Institute conducted a focus group sessions on performance contracting among private sector providers of child welfare services for the Marion County Superior Courts, Juvenile Division.  The project was intended to elucidate the types of measures that can be used by the courts to evaluate private contractors providing intensive family preservation services to Hoosier families.

 The Role of Nonprofit Social Service Providers in Public Assistance Recipients’ Paths to Self-Sufficiency in Indiana University

Recent welfare reform efforts, culminating in the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunities Reconciliation Act (PRWORA) of 1996, have led to significant new challenges and opportunities for non-profits in the area of social service delivery. This research project  convened focus groups of current and former public assistance recipients in seven Indiana counties to investigate the impact of nonprofit social services in promoting self-sufficiency. Consistent with the IU Center on Philanthropy’s interest in ‘the role of philanthropic and nonprofit organizations in shaping communities and civil society’ and ‘the sources, motivations, and practices involved in generating, allocating and managing philanthropic resources of time and money’, this study had four research questions. First, was to investigate clients’ impressions of the most successful and least successful services offered by nonprofit social service providers in the community. These findings allowed nonprofits to better tailor their services to the needs of their communities. Second, the study examined whether nonprofit staff and the general public had a view of service recipients consistent with their actual circumstances. These findings offered a better understanding of the motivations of nonprofit organizations. Third, the study tested whether client attributes vary across counties, indicating a need for diverse and targeted services. Finally, it  examined the qualities and characteristics of successful and less successful clients to assist nonprofits in targeting their services. The selected counties were part of the Institute for Family and Social Responsibility’s study of ‘The Impacts of Welfare Reform on Community Social Services in Indiana." 

The Neighborhood Alliance for Child Safety (NACS)

A two-year evaluation of the Neighborhood Alliance for Child Safety (NACS) program conducted for the Marion County Division of Children and Families.   Both process and impact studies were conducted as part of this contract.    The general premise was there are typically several reports of abuse and/or neglect on a household that are screened out or unsubstantiated prior to substantiation of maltreatment.  Hence, the children in the households where reports of maltreatment have been screened out or unsubstantiated are considered at high-risk for subsequent substantiated maltreatment. The NACS program targeted these families and children.  NACS is a community-based program that attempts to reduce the incidence of abuse and neglect, raise awareness of the problem within the community, and raise community involvement in the reporting, monitoring and prevention of child abuse and neglect.

Indiana Restoring Fatherhood Grant Program

FASR, in cooperation with Dr. Glen Stone at Miami University in Ohio, developed a summary report of the Indiana Restoring Fatherhood Grant Program and an effective statewide evaluation tool to collect data from the program on a quarterly basis.  This evaluation helped determine if this program was indeed making a difference in the lives of Indiana's children.  This study was sponsored by the Indiana Family Social Services Administration.

HIV/AIDS Prevention with Individuals Experiencing Homelessness and Substance Abuse

This project was funded by the Indiana State Department of Health.  The project was designed to provide individuals experiencing homelessness and substance abuse with comprehensive HIV preventive case management (PCM) services.  Funds were  used to train Shelter, Inc. staff on issues related to HIV/AIDS to enable staff to incorporate HIV/AIDS prevention into already existing case management services at Shelter, Inc.  The project provided at least 100 Shelter, Inc. residents, identified as having a substance abuse problem, with one HIV/AIDS PCM session and, out of those 100, at least 50 residents were provided with three PCM sessions.  Additionally, the project also provided four group level outreach HIV/AIDS interventions throughout the funding year to all the residents staying at Shelter, Inc.  The project  distributed 2,000 condoms to all Shelter, Inc. residents throughout the funding year and 100 risk reduction packets that included literature, resources, and condoms to the 100 individuals identified at risk. 

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