Hundreds of thousands of Midwest welfare recipients have gone to work since 1996, but most have taken jobs that pay low wages, are part-time, or don't last, according to a major report released today by the Joyce Foundation. As a result, most of those who have made the transition from welfare to work remain poor. As Congress reconsiders the 1996 welfare reform law this summer, proposals that improve access to job training and other supports will be critical to helping low-income working families move out of poverty and into stable employment.

These findings and recommendations were released today in Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned? The report presents leading research on welfare-to-work initiatives in the Midwest, including Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, and Wisconsin. Midwest states have been innovators on welfare policy both before and since the 1996 national welfare reform.

This research makes clear that Midwest welfare recipients have done what the country asked them to do - go to work," said Ellen Alberding, president of the Joyce Foundation. "Yet many thousands of these families remain poor. We hope policymakers will use this information to build on the gains of the last five years, stabilize working families, help them weather economic downturns, and provide the supports they need to climb out of poverty. Meanwhile, we need strategies to reach out to the poorest families still untouched by policy reforms or national prosperity.

Welfare to Work: What Have We Learned? offers a comprehensive look at results of state efforts to move welfare recipients into the workforce during the first five years of reform.