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Working families across the country must balance the financial burdens of housing, food, child care, health care, transportation and utilities year-round. However, crisis or even seasonal demands can push family finances over the edge. Winter months bring increased costs for heating, warm clothes, holiday expenses and other unforeseen expenditures. Years of declining wages and public financial support have left families with fewer resources to handle these demands.
With winter approaching, workforce development organizations may be looking for ideas about how to help families manage these challenges. WorkforceUSA has compiled news, resources and funding around Work Supports—tools that can make the difference, for many families, between financial crisis and economic stability. We hope that you find these resources useful.
WorkforceUSA Staff |
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To Fight Poverty, Bloomberg Plans Tax Credits and Rewards
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New York City’s Mayor Bloomberg announced plans to offer a tax incentive to aid poverty-stricken New Yorkers, as reported in the New York Times. Recommended by New York City's Commission on Economic Opportunity, the plan will include a $1,000 per child credit to impoverished families. The commission, operating under the principle that working to eliminate poverty requires a workforce development strategy, recommended the expansion of several programs including those that provide adult work experience and job training. |
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'Safety Net' Agencies Expect Busy Winter
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Service agencies in Massachusetts often see families struggle to stay financially afloat during winter months, according to a Town Online article. These struggles echo a larger national crisis to aid families unable to deal with unexpected costs. Several agencies within the region highlight this problem and list contact information for finding help. |
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Car Loans Help the Poor Get to Work
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| Providing cars to those who need transportation to work blends human services and provides economic self-sufficiency, according to an Associated Press article. One nonprofit agency, Ways to Work, offers individuals and families car grants and low-interest auto loans. Studies show 85 percent of loan recipients see a salary increase and 70 percent see an improved credit rating. |
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Singing for Change Foundation
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| The Singing for Change Foundation aims to improve the quality of life and enable individuals to make positive change in their communities. The Foundation offers competitive grants to progressive, community-based, nonprofit organizations that address the root causes of social and environmental problems. |
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Managing My Money
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| The Managing my Money Web site was created through a collaboration of the Washington, DC-based Community Action Partnership and the National Endowment for Financial Education (NEFE). This site provides housing residents enrolled in center programs with quick access to financial information including personal financial planning tips and concrete advice on how to manage money responsibly. It can also used by housing and workforce development staff to assist low-income individuals. |
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Unrealized Gains: How Workforce Organizations Can Put Money in the Pockets of Low-Wage Workers
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| Social policy continues to emphasize the importance of work, but many working families struggle to make ends meet. Work supports can be a critical factor in enabling people to make a successful transition to employment. Packed with tools and resources, Unrealized Gains will help practitioners make use of work supports: laying the groundwork with a financial literacy curriculum, creating income packages, promoting access to work supports through advocacy, and keeping graduates on track with a variety of retention strategies. Readers will come away with a concrete plan for addressing their participants' economic security. |
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Family Economic Success (FES) Local Action Handbook
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| This policy handbook from AECF focuses on improving results for families by strengthening the structures that lead to family economic success. It features ideas and examples of policy and regulatory actions that can be promoted by residents, and implemented at the local level. The handbook opens with a section on the qualities and characteristics that can make local policy advocacy most effective, then follows with a series of questions that help to identify the systems that must be influenced. Information and resources are organized into three areas: workforce development, family economic supports and community investment. |
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Child Care Assistance Helps Families Work: A Review of the Effects of Subsidy Receipt on Employment
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Reliable and stable child care helps parents retain steady employment and reduces workplace absenteeism, but the high costs of care challenge many families, particularly low-income working parents. Child care assistance can help. In this policy brief, Hannah Matthews, CLASP Child Care Policy Analyst, reviews relevant research and finds that low-income mothers who receive child care subsidies are more likely to be employed, to stay off welfare, and to have higher earnings. |
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Heat and Eat: Using Federal Nutrition Programs to Cushion the Shock of Skyrocketing Heating Bills
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The depths of the heating cost crisis and its impact on low-income families is addressed in a report by the Food Research and Action Center. With thousands of people going without heat, it becomes truly a life-or-death matter. Large jumps in heating bills affect low-income households with stunning force, because low-income families have no room in their budget to absorb the extra cost. The report describes five strategies for using the nutrition programs, including how public officials, advocates and others can reach more people. |
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Location |
Date |
State Director
Arbor E & T |
Austin, AZ |
October 23, 2006 |
Workforce Development Director
The SKILL Center |
Bronx, NY |
November 7, 2006 |
Development Officer
Children's Advocacy Center Of Manhattan |
New York, NY |
November 8, 2006 |
Program Officer, Workforce Development
The Ford Foundation |
New York, NY |
November 10, 2006 |
Job Developer
AZ Women's Education & Employment, Inc. |
Phoenix, AZ |
November 14, 2006 |
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