New Hope, run in two inner-city areas of Milwaukee from 1994-1998, was designed to improve the lives of low-income people who were willing to work full time, by providing several benefits: an earnings

supplement to raise their income above poverty, subsidized health insurance, and subsidized child care. For people who had difficulty finding full-time work, the program offered help in obtaining a job, including referral to a wage-paying community service job when necessary. The New Hope findings suggest that the goal of helping poor families and their children need not be inconsistent with the goal of moving parents to work. The authors add that New Hope adds to a growing body of evidence that work-based support programs can increase parents’ work, earnings, and income and, in turn, can have beneficial effects on children - effects that translate into better performance in school. The annual cost of such a program - at $5,300 per family (not per child) - is not trivial, write the authors, but neither are its benefits.