Project Description
Seven Years of Welfare Reform—Weighing the Results: A Summary of Research Findings on the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP)
Authors: Lynda McDonnell
Date Published: December 2004
In the seven years since Minnesota’s version of federal welfare reform took effect statewide, more than 50 research studies have looked at one central question from many different angles:
How well has Minnesota’s welfare-to-work system succeeded?
In 2003, more than a dozen researchers began meeting informally as the Welfare Reform Research and Evaluation Roundtable to share research findings and ideas for future projects related to Minnesota’s welfare-to-work efforts. A main priority of the group was to review the existing studies and summarize the key findings so that policymakers, business leaders and the public can better understand the successes and challenges experienced in helping welfare parents support their families through work.
This paper provides a brief overview of the changes in the federal welfare program as well as Minnesota’s efforts at welfare reform, presents ways that state policymakers measure “success” under MFIP, and discusses the research findings that stand out most strongly from a review of the studies.
