Study Praises County’s Welfare-to-Work Tactic

Los Angeles County’s ability to quickly transform a poorly performing welfare-to-work program into a dynamic effort to push people into jobs could serve as a model for the nation as large urban areas grapple with the demands of welfare reform, an independent study found Tuesday.

Over a two-year period, the county shifted the program known as GAIN (Greater Avenues for Independence) from one that focused on basic education to one that put jobs first. This demonstrated that mammoth bureaucracies can retool and refocus as states go about the business of redesigning a 60-year-old welfare system, the study concluded.

“If a large urban governmental entity can make these substantial changes . . . it’s a very important message to other cities,” said John Wallace, regional manager of the Manpower Demonstration Research Corp. (MDRC), which conducted the study.

Wallace said MDRC, a New York-based research group that has studied California GAIN programs for nearly a decade, had not at first planned to issue a report, but changed its mind when it became clear that Los Angeles County’s accomplishments would provide other urban areas with evidence that rapid, wholesale changes in the welfare system were possible.

The county has seen a 160% increase in job placements in the two years since the changeover, according to preliminary results from the California Department of Social Services. The number of people placed in jobs through the GAIN program increased from 10,609 in the 1993-94 fiscal year to 27,364 two years later.

As recipients reported more earnings, the county was able to reduce their welfare benefits. In the same two-year period, the number of benefit reductions grew 565%, from 2,786 to 18,535.

GAIN serves less than a third of the county recipients who are eligible for it. And one of the challenges of the welfare reforms will be to expand the program to help bring thousands of additional recipients into the work force.

MRDC officials cautioned that their findings are “promising” but not conclusive. They said it would take several more years of examination before they know how many people are actually moved into jobs through the program, how long they stay employed, how much they earn and whether they are successful in getting off welfare.

County Supervisor Gloria Molina, who was instrumental in establishing the county GAIN programs as a state lawmaker in 1986, said the report’s findings validate the county’s decision to adopt a more pragmatic approach to job placement.

“Los Angeles County is the biggest player in the country in terms of welfare reform, because of our size and the number of welfare recipients we have,” she said. “This report gives us the kind of credibility before the governor, the Legislature, the Congress, and others that we need to show how our system is working, and to show others how our system is working.”

State officials immediately embraced the MDRC findings, saying it gave them hope that local governments that will shoulder the brunt of the responsibility for complying with a mammoth new federal welfare law and can adjust to a complete revision of the system.

“What welfare reform means is that a group that has been doing business one way for 60 years will have to adopt a whole new mind set,” said Assembly Human Services Committee Chairwoman Dion Aroner (D-Berkeley), who has a leading role in shaping the state’s welfare reforms. “What I think the MDRC study shows is that, yes, you can change the way you do business and you can change your focus. That to me is a very positive statement.”

For Los Angeles County officials, the report “confirms what we have been saying all along, that we have successfully re-engineered our GAIN program, and that it works,” said Lynn Bayer, director of the county Department of Public Social Services.

The findings follow a Jan. 9 speech in which Gov. Pete Wilson angered some Los Angeles officials by pointing to the county’s GAIN program as one in which “they thought no one should be moved to work until they spent at least two years in the classroom.” Wilson spokesman Sean Walsh said the governor was referring to the county’s old program. “We’re very impressed that their philosophy and goals seem to be moving toward the governor’s and they’re seeing positive results,” he said.

Eloise Anderson, Wilson’s director of social services, also took heart from the preliminary findings. “I would suggest that Los Angeles has done what no other place has done,” she said. “They really turned it around.”

Critics say the GAIN program is thrusting welfare recipients into low-paying dead-end jobs and does not help them or their employers in the long run.

“In order for them to succeed, they need some basic skills training,” said Vivian Seigel, executive director of the Jewish Vocational Service, a nonprofit, nonsectarian agency that provides job-training services to welfare recipients and to the GAIN program.

“If they are illiterate or don’t have good math skills . . . then they can’t move anyplace. And employers want a work force that is able to adapt to the needs of a changing marketplace.”

Los Angeles officials made the decision to transform their GAIN program after an earlier MDRC study showed their program had very limited success at moving recipients from the welfare rolls into jobs. By contrast, the same report showed neighboring Riverside County, which employed a work-first philosophy, was highly successful at putting large numbers of recipients into jobs very quickly.

The new approach, the study said, is based on the view “that even a low-wage job is a positive first step and that job advancement will come from the experience of working.” While it still provides some education and training, the first emphasis, even for those with limited English proficiency, is to find jobs.

It was of national importance that a program the size of the one in Los Angeles County has attempted to reinvent itself within a few short years, said Evan Weissman, author of the new MDRC study. The county, the most populous in the nation, has more welfare cases than any state except New York and California. And its GAIN program primarily serves a large number of long-term welfare recipients, who are considered the most difficult to place in employment.

“These challenges were compounded by the fact,” the report said, “that this shift required not only bureaucratic change but also an ideological shift by many people inside and outside the welfare department.”

Weissman said ultimately the success of the transformation can be attributed to the strong belief both at the highest and lowest levels of the department that the new approach was the best one.

Weissman, who spent months observing and interviewing GAIN workers, said he was particularly impressed with the “upbeat, highly motivational nature of the interaction between staff and clients.”

The findings coincide with a report by the county grand jury made public this week that concluded the GAIN program was effective and should be expanded.

The grand jury urged the county to aggressively lobby for funding for expansion of GAIN.

Since Los Angeles changed its approach to GAIN, nearly all counties in the state have begun moving in a similar direction under a 1995 state law that requires emphasis on a work-first approach.

Ventura County welfare officials said their GAIN program has also proven successful. “We have seen an increase in job placements every year for the last three years,” said Helen Reburn, deputy director of the Public Social Services Agency.

From July 1996 through January of this year, the program served 6,392 participants, Reburn said. Of those, 2,031, or 31.7%, were placed in jobs.

Unlike Los Angeles and Ventura counties, Orange County has decided not to restructure its GAIN program.

Ellis reported from Sacramento, Meyer from Los Angeles. Carlos Lozano contributed to this article from Ventura County.

* WELFARE RULES: Implementation of law on teen welfare mothers is delayed. A3

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Welfare Success

Los Angeles County changed its welfare-to-work program to encourage quick job entry, even if the job is low paying and even for those who do not speak English. From fiscal 1993-94 to 1995-96, the operation say:

* A 160% increase in job placements: 10,609 to 27,364

* A 565% increase in payment reductions: 2,786 to 18,535

* A 99% increase in case terminations: 1,895 to 3,768

Source: State Department of Social Services