WFNJ Clients and Welfare Reform: A Final Look at an Early Group

This report was prepared for the New Jersey Department of Human Services, under Contract No. A87041. Any opinions expressed in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of the New Jersey Department of Human Services. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Many people have contributed in significant ways to this report. First and foremost, we are grateful to staff at the Division of Family Development (DFD) of the New Jersey Department of Human Services (NJDHS) for providing us with the data to draw our sample for the evaluation and to track the sample members' welfare receipt over time. In particular, we would like to thank Rudy Myers and Beth Connolly for making available the data from the Family Assistance Management Information System, for their generosity with their time, and for patiently answering the many questions we have had since beginning this evaluation. We also would like to thank NJDHS staff for their input on this report. At the Office of Planning and Evaluation, Gayle Riesser, who is the project officer for this study, and Suzanne Borys provided many useful comments. In addition, Rudy Myers of DFD carefully reviewed a previous draft of this report and provided many helpful comments on its content. We also want to thank others at DFD, including Jeanette Page-Hawkins and Beth Connolly, for their comments on the report, as well as Alisha Griffin, who provided information on the state's child support enforcement efforts. Others at NJDHS who provided useful feedback and guidance include John Hart, Deputy Chief of Staff, and Andy Williams of the Office of Public Affairs. Others provided important guidance early in the process, when the focus of the study was being determined. These include David Heins, former Deputy Commissioner of NJDHS; Leonard Feldman, former Director of Research and Evaluation at NJDHS; and Rachel Hickson, the study's former project officer. In addition, throughout the project, an external advisory group met regularly and provided important guidance on the scope and focus of the study. the former project director of the WFNJ evaluation, carefully reviewed a previous draft of the report and provided very helpful comments. Todd Ensor, survey director for the WFNJ evaluation, expertly directed the survey that forms the basis of our findings. He was assisted by Barbara Benedict, who supervised the telephone interviewing effort; Cindy Steenstra, who supervised the searching operations; and Betsy Santos and Margo Salem, who jointly managed …