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About the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project

Overview
The Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project, an innovative effort initiated in 1996, links WOW with three national partner organizations—the Corporation for Enterprise Development, the Ms. Foundation for Women, and the National Economic Development and Law Center—to provide resources and technical assistance to community-based advocates and states on human resource investment policies. The project connects the four national organizations with state and local partners to build and strengthen the capacity of coalitions in the states to gain support for six proven strategies that can improve the chances for self-sufficiency for low-income families. These strategies can be adopted in state block grants or other state-level decision-making. The six strategies include:

Current Projects
To date, the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project has established state-level projects in the following states:

In addition, the project has supported work in Iowa, New Jersey, New York State and Maine.

Funding for the national project was provided by The Ford Foundation, the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Annie E. Casey Foundation, and the Norman Foundation, with support for the state work contributed by more than 15 state and regional funders.

In these states, WOW and its national partners are working with effective lead organizations that have established credibility as policy leaders in the states. These organizations have built the project to meet the demands of the policy environments, gaining both visibility and clout in the process. The state-level partner groups are:

Accomplishments
The achievements of the project have included:
  • The first Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project National Conference: Paths Out of Poverty, Strategies for Families, Programs, Communities and States. Through funding from The Ford Foundation and others, WOW and the national and state partners with the sponsorship of over fifty organizations are hosted the first national conference of this effort on October 9-12, 1999. The conference addressed low-income families' persistent barriers to economic self-sufficiency. With the help of policy experts, experienced advocates and the stories of real people, discussed programs that invest in human potential, brainstorm cutting-edge strategies for communities, and developed a unified message for a progressive welfare and work policy agenda. The conference brought together many impacted groups to discuss proactive approaches to ongoing welfare and work policies in the context of the 2000 elections and the 2002 welfare reform reauthorization.

  • dissemination of a resource book, Six Strategies for Self-Sufficiency, which explains how and why the strategies have worked in the past, and policy provisions necessary for their implementation;

  • development and implementation of the Self-Sufficiency Standard in the following states:

    AL   AZ   CA   CO   CT   DC   DE   FL   GA   HI   IA   IL   IN   KY   LA   MA   MD   MO   MS   MT   NC   NE   NJ   NV   NY   OK   PA   SD   TN   TX   UT   VA   WA   WI   WV   WY  

  • development of the Self-Sufficiency Standard Budget Worksheet in Pennsylvania;

  • introduction of legislation in the first state legislative session dealing with the new welfare law—literacy and self-sufficiency bills in Texas, microenterprise and individual development account bills in California, a six strategies bill in Connecticut and an individual development account bill in North Carolina;

  • piloting of demonstration projects and initiatives in various communities to introduce welfare recipients to nontraditional employment for women, higher education and individual development accounts;

  • refinement and use of the sectoral employment intervention model—a tool to identify well-paying jobs in occupations that are experiencing growth and have an insufficient number of trained workers available—to improve both policy and program work at the county and community college level in five localities; and

  • delivery of public education messages on the Six Strategies for Self-Sufficiency to key state and national audiences, reaching more than 5,000 business representatives, public officials, community program leaders and others through public hearings, technical assistance and trainings, press coverage and mailings.
FESS National Partners

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