New Hope Project

New Hope Project

OVERVIEW

The New Hope Project was a welfare reform demonstration project in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, that was designed to raise the incomes of poor families above the poverty level. Program components included job placement assistance, wage supplements, and subsidies for health insurance and child care. Impacts for adults, families, and children were examined. The evaluation indicates that participation in New Hope positively impacted parental 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. A study of never-married mothers indicated that mothers in the New Hope program were more likely to be married at year five.

DESCRIPTION OF PROGRAM

Target population: Low-income adults (at least 18 years old) willing and able to work 30 hours a week and living in one of two targeted neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin volunteered. These adults also had young or school-aged children.

Those assigned to New Hope received certain supplements and subsidies to meet certain prerequisites low-income individuals tend to expect before being willing to marry. These participants received a wage supplement to increase income to the poverty level, affordable health insurance, child-care subsidies, and community service jobs paying minimum wage for those who are unable to find employment. The idea is that women who have resources are more likely to marry and when given these resources, those in the experimental group will be more likely to marry.

EVALUATION(S) OF PROGRAM

Huston, A. C., Miller, C., Richburg-Hayes, L., Duncan, G. J., Eldred, C. A., Weisner, T. S., Lowe, E., Mcloyd, V. C., Crosby, D. A., Ripke, M. N., & Redcross, C. (2003). New hope for families and children: Five-year results of a program to reduce poverty and reform welfare (Report No. UD035854). New York, NY: Urban Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED480671)

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

Evaluated population: Participating parents were older than 18, had one or more children between the ages of 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: Three-hundred and seventy-nine families were randomly assigned to the New Hope treatment group (366 families) or to 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:

Adult Outcomes

During years one and two, the program increased the percentage of parents who had ever been employed and how often parents were employed. Employment impacts, however, declined or became insignificant in subsequent years. Over the first three years of the five-year follow-up, participants had higher earnings and earnings related income (e.g., the financial supplement, EITC) and had higher total incomes than non-participants. New Hope parents also experienced higher levels of employment and had more positive physical and emotional health.

Child Outcomes

At a five-year follow-up, children of program participants scored higher than children of non-participants on a parental rating of reading achievement. Boys in the treatment group also scored higher on teacher ratings of academic achievement, classroom behavior, and social skills. The authors posit that the differences between boys and girls were found because girls were at higher pretest levels than boys on the measures they used. This hypothesis, however, was not experimentally tested. The program also had modest, positive impacts on adolescents' school progress reports and increased the amount of time adolescents spent in structured, out-of-school activities (e.g., team sports, youth groups, and clubs). There were no impacts on child health outcomes.

The authors note that children in the New Hope treatment group spent more time than control group children in preschool programs and after-school child care, which may have contributed to program impacts.

Evaluated Population: The sample population consisted of 243 families with 390 focal children between the ages of 6 and 10. The average age of parents was 29 years old and the sample was 55 percent African-American and 30 percent Hispanic.

Approach: Children in this study were ages 6-10 at the time of their family's random assignment to either the New Hope Project or a control group. This study reports on data collected 5 years after the start of the experimental program including information on school achievement, school engagement and expectations for the future, attitudes, beliefs, social behavior, peer relationships, family well-being, parenting, child care, and child activities.

Results: Children whose parents were in the treatment group had better reading competency, school performance, and positive social behavior when compared with children whose parents were in the control group, but not higher achievement test scores. The treatment group was less likely to experience school failure and was also less likely to be retained or placed in special education when compared with the control group. Parent ratings of social skills, compliance, and autonomy were higher in the treatment group than in the control group. Male children in the program group self-reported lower levels of aggressive behaviors as well as better peer relationships and greater hope/efficacy. Parents reported more positive behaviors among girls.

Gassman-Pines, A., & Yoshikawa, H. (2006). Five-Year Effects of an Anti-Poverty Program on Marriage Among Never-Married Mothers. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 25, 1, 11-30.

Evaluated Population: Low-income residents of two poor neighborhoods in Milwaukee, Wisconsin who reported at baseline (in the New Hope study) that they had never been married (N=406). The sample had a high proportion of African Americans and Latinos. Most of the sample was receiving government assistance, and about two-thirds of the sample had a high school diploma or GED. The sample for this study is limited to women who responded to the five-year New Hope survey (N=337; 83% of those randomly assigned).

Approach: The authors used measures of marital status at year five, employment and income during years one and two, average job length in months, wage growth, annual total income, earnings, welfare, food stamps, earnings supplements, well-being at year two, goal efficacy, depressive symptoms, parenting stress, and material hardship.

The data were self-report, mostly one or two direct questions requesting the information. Annual total income is comprised of income from earnings, welfare, food stamps, and earnings supplements.

Results: The odds of New Hope never-married mothers being married at year five are two times that of the never-married mothers in the control group. For never-married women, New Hope had a significant effect on average earnings supplements in years one through two and on average quarterly employment from years one to two. There were no impacts for never-married women on the following from years one to two: wage growth, average job length in months, average total income, average earnings, average welfare, and average food stamps. There were also no impacts for never-married women on the following at year two: depressive symptoms, goal efficacy, parenting stress.

SOURCES FOR MORE INFORMATION

References:

Gassman-Pines, A., & Yoshikawa, H. (2006). Five-Year Effects of an Anti-Poverty Program on Marriage Among Never-Married Mothers. Journal of Policy Analysis and Management 25, 1, 11-30.

Huston, A. C., Epps, S. R., Shim, M. S., Duncan, G. J., Crosby, D. A., & Ripke, M. N. (2006). Effects of a family poverty intervention program last from middle childhood to adolescence. In A. C. Huston & M. N. Ripke (Eds.), Developmental contexts in middle childhood (pp. 385 - 408). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press.

Huston, A. C., Miller, C., Richburg-Hayes, L., Duncan, G. J., Eldred, C. A., Weisner, T. S., Lowe, E., Mcloyd, V. C., Crosby, D. A., Ripke, M. N., & Redcross, C. (2003). New hope for families and children: Five-year results of a program to reduce poverty and reform welfare (Report No. UD035854). New York, NY: Urban Education. (ERIC Document Reproduction Service No. ED480671)

Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation's New Hope 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.

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: community campaign, parent component

Measured outcomes: education and cognitive development, social and emotional health and development, behavioral problems

KEYWORDS: Co-ed; Welfare/Public Assistance; Behavioral Problems; Aggression/Violence/Bullying; Mental Health; Depression; Social/Emotional Health; Life Skills; Social Skills; Parent/Family Component; Reading Mathematics; Academic Motivation/Self-Concept/Expectations; School Engagement; Academic Achievement; Community-based; Toddlers (12-36 months); Children (3-11); Co-ed.

Program information last updated 11/10/09.