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Transitioning recipients of TANF cash assistance from welfare-to-work has become the focus of state welfare programs. Successful transitional assistance programs incorporate pre-employment and post-employment services to increase job retention and advancement to avoid welfare returns. In the late fall of 2008, The Social Research Institute (SRI) was contracted by Utah’s Department of Workforce Services (DWS) to complete an evaluation of the Transitional Cash Assistance Program (TCA).

In the summer of 2005, the Office of Recovery Services received funding for an 1115 demonstration grant with the stated purpose: “to facilitate an effective paternity establishment program in collaboration between the Office of Recovery Services, Child Support Services (ORS/CRS) and the Office of Vital Records and Statistics (OVR), Department of Health.

In Spring 2005, the Mountainland region of the Department of Workforce Services (DWS) piloted a project with the purpose of increasing participation by improving Mountainland region service delivery and focusing on outcomes. The overriding concepts of the Participation Pilot are “to improve the helping relationship and negotiate participation.”

Since the passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) and the creation of the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) program, many states have struggled to determine the type of skills and training necessary for front-line workers. While many clients were still clearly in need of social work services, funding and the shift in focus of the TANF program challenged welfare agencies to determine what was both necessary and feasible. While the long-term goal of PRWORA may have been to reduce dependency on government benefits, the short term mandate was to move people into employment.

The vision of reformed welfare policy was always that of a one-way street. Participants were to move from welfare dependency to a level of self-sufficiency, thus making receipt of welfare benefits no longer necessary. Passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996 (PRWORA) addressed the fear that AFDC promoted long-term dependency by reducing the recipient’s ability to view themselves as self-sufficient.