OVERVIEW

The New Hope Project was a welfare demonstration project designed to raise poor families' incomes above the poverty level. Program components included job placement assistance, wage supplements, and subsidies for health insurance and child care. Experimental evaluation indicates that participation in New Hope positively impacted parents' employment, poverty status, and physical and emotional well-being, as well as their children's educational and behavior outcomes. Impacts were more pronounced for boys than for girls.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Low-income adults with young or school-age children

The aim of the New Hope Project was to raise poor families' incomes above the poverty level (Huston et al., 2001). The program was designed to provide wage supplements sufficient to increase families' income to the poverty level, subsidies for childcare and health insurance, help for participants in finding jobs. Participants who were unable to find jobs were given a community service job that paid minimum wage.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM
 

Huston, A. C., Duncan, G. J., Granger, R., Bos, J., McLoyd, V. C., Mistry, R., et al. (2001). Work-based anti-poverty programs for parents can enhance the school performance and social behavior of children. Child Development, 72, 318-336.

Huston, A. C., Miller, C., Richburg-Hayes, L., Duncan, G. J., Eldred, C. A., Weisner, T. S., et al. (2003). New Hope for families and children: Five-year results of a program to reduce poverty and reform welfare. 

Evaluated population: Participating parents were older than 18, had one or more child between ages one and ten, had incomes at or below 150 percent of the poverty level and were willing to work 30 or more hours per week

Approach: Families were randomly assigned to the experimental New Hope Project group (366 families) or the control group (379 families). Child outcomes including school performance and motivation, social behavior, and psychological well-being were investigated. Data were collected two years and five years after the initiation of the project.

Results: Overall, New Hope children had more positive academic/cognitive and prosocial outcomes than children who were not in New Hope. These impacts were generally greater for boys than they were for girls. The authors posit that the differences between boys and girls were due to the fact that girls were already at higher levels than boys on the measures they used; this hypothesis, however, was not experimentally tested.

It is important to point out that New Hope children spent more time than control group children in preschool programs and after-school child care, which may have contributed to program impacts as well.

New Hope also impacted parent and family outcomes. New Home parents experienced higher levels of employment, and more positive physical and emotional health. New Hope Families were less likely to live in poverty.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION
 

References:

Huston, A. C., Duncan, G. J., Granger, R., Bos, J., McLoyd, V. C., Mistry, R., et al. (2001). Work-based anti-poverty programs for parents can enhance the school performance and social behavior of children. Child Development, 72, 318-336.

Huston, A. C., Miller, C., Richburg-Hayes, L., Duncan, G. J., Eldred, C. A., Weisner, T. S., et al. (2003). New Hope for families and children: Five-year results of a program to reduce poverty and reform welfare.

Website: http://www.mdrc.org/project_16_30.html

Website: http://www.newhopeproject.org/index.html 

Program also discussed in the following Child Trends publication(s):

Child Trends. (2001). School readiness: Helping communities get children ready for school and schools ready for children (Research brief). Washington, DC: Child Trends.

Halle, T., Zaff, J., Calkins, J., & Margie, N. G. (2000). Background for community-level work on school readiness: A review of definitions, assessments, and investment strategies. Part II: Reviewing the literature on contributing factors to school readiness. Washington, DC: Child Trends, Inc.

Zaslow, M.J., Brooks, J. L., Moore, K. A., Morris, P., Tout, K., & Redd, Z. (2001). Impacts on children in experimental studies of welfare-to-work programs. Washington, DC: Child Trends.

SUMMARY & CATEGORIZATION

Program categorized in this guide according to the following:

Evaluated participant ages: 1-10 / Program age ranges in the Guide: 0-5, 6-11

Program components: clinic/provider-based

Measured outcomes: education/cognitive, social/emotional

Program information last updated 3/15/07

© Child Trends 2003