Income Supports and Social Policy

Heldrich Center researchers have vast expertise in researching issues related to income supports, such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as social policy, including education, healthcare, and housing.

Center researchers are leading a five-year study funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families to examine the challenges low-income mothers face in achieving financial and family stability and the ways the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program addresses or fails to address those challenges. The project will also examine how the TANF program is designed to accommodate the needs of survivors of intimate partner violence.

The Heldrich Center is working with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development’s Unemployment Insurance Equity Grant program to develop metrics and conduct quantitative analyses to better assess the equitability of Unemployment Insurance compensation. The Center is also supporting the development of new standardized metrics related to benefit duration and reemployment. Additionally, Center researchers will use an intersectional and trauma-based approach to explore crucial contextual data gathered from focus groups, identify themes and categories through detailed analysis, and assist community partners in constructing formal feedback loops with the New Jersey Department of Labor and Workforce Development. The study will incorporate an equity lens through an intersectional approach — a methodology that acknowledges and attempts to understand how individuals’ multiple identities may intersect and both affect and be affected by the social world around them.

Center researchers conducted a study of WorkFirst New Jersey, the state’s TANF welfare-to-work program. The study provided recommendations and a plan of action to strengthen the employment and training components of WorkFirst New Jersey. Researchers conducted focus groups with welfare recipients; phone interviews with employers providing on-the-job training from different industries and regions; external stakeholder advisory group meetings with employers, county and municipal welfare directors, workforce development board directors, One-Stop Career Center operators and managers, nonprofit leaders, and others; and an online survey of local and county service providers. The study resulted in several products and a policy forum.

Are you looking to examine income supports and social policy?

Contact us at hcwd@ejb.rutgers.edu to explore how the Heldrich Center can help.