Research Paper on:
Welfare and Making it Work

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
be legacy that is passed from one generation to the next (Anonymous, 2002). The 1996 video "Making Welfare Work" examines the current wave of welfare reform in the US and  examines the personal lives that exist behind the complex and often controversial welfare reform debate. This compelling documentary searches for initiatives that have been proven effective, as it evaluates the  relative merit of supportive versus punitive measures, the effects of time limits, as well as the role of child support enforcement (Anonymous, 2002). As this documentary points out,  supportive, rather than punitive measures have proven to be the most effective in aiding individuals in making the transition from welfare dependency to employment. Since 1996, however, research  has revealed data that sheds a great deal of light on this issue, as a long-term study shows specifically what will work and what wont . The results are somewhat  surprising. Over the past 3 decades, federal and state policymakers have been legislating various types of programs designed to increase the employment of welfare recipients. However, precisely what constitutes  the best program for moving people from welfare to working status has been the topic of ongoing debate. The Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation (MDRC) conducted a national evaluation of welfare-to-work  strategies as a under the auspices of the US Department of Health and Human Services. The report on this evaluation summarizes the long-term effects of eleven mandatory welfare to work  programs, their effects on welfare recipients and their children and provides much needed data to help resolve this issue (Hamilton, et al, 2002). According to Hamilton, et al (2002)  all of these programs can be grouped into two main alternative pre-employment strategies for various groups of welfare recipients. These are programs that stress short-term job search assistance where