Thesis (Ph. D.)--University OF MICHIGAN.

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In recent decades civilized society in the general line of welfare included low rent housing. Public housing is one of the social actions necessary for the attainment of material requisites of well-being because individual actions in the ordinary business of life will not satisfy the needs of men in this direction. Although some strides have been made along these lines, our nation-wide housing predicament is still among the domestic problems most in need of our immediate attention. We must face the fact that our metropolitan areas, in which more than 90 percent of our population will soon be living, are today in an acutely dangerous financial position. The exodus from our urban centers of the upper middle-income class and professional groups has resulted in a loss, for the cities, of taxable income. The urban movement of great numbers of large-sized, low-income families has, at the same time, resulted in the social as well as the economic cost of overcrowding, undermaintenance and inadequate city services. These long-term population trends pose financial problems to city and suburban areas. We have made only minor efforts to solve them. The solution of our difficulties seems more remote when one considers that the annual subsidy to potato growers alone is larger than all federal contributions to urban renewal. It may cost the federal government five billion dollars a year for the next ten years to support a nation-wide program for developing and renewing our cities, towns and suburbs. If so, this will amount to less than 7 percent of the total budget. It will be no more than the cost of current aids and subsidies to agriculture which benefit directly one-tenth of our population. Today, four-fifths of all American families live in cities or in the suburbs which surround them. By 1975, our growing population will sweep approximately fifty-five million additional people into metropolitan areas. Fifty million of these people will be compelled by economic circumstances to accept the then existing and decaying areas, vacated by those of more adequate means, thus perpetuating the dilemma of the slums of tomorrow.1 1The Advisory Council of the Democratic National Committee, The State of Our Cities and Suburbs in a Changing America (Washington, D.C., 1960), p. 3.

This study examines the extent to which the educational component of the 1996 Welfare Reform Act impacted African-American TANF recipients' access to postsecondary education in Jackson, Mississippi in 2011. This study was based on the premise that policies within the legislation restrict opportunities for welfare recipients to pursue postsecondary education as a pathway to self-sufficiency. For welfare recipients who often believe that college is inaccessible due to financial means, access is especially important for them. Participants in this study were thirty-two African-American women receiving TANF benefits from the State of Mississippi who were either enrolled in a college program or participated in the job readiness training supported by the Mississippi Department of Human Services. A qualitative research methodology was used to analyze the data. The data revealed that there is total consensus among the participants on the importance of postsecondaryeducation as a measure of future economic well-being for themselves and their families. Findings specifically revealed that many of the participants strongly believe that policies associated with welfare reform have prevented or denied them full access to education and that some of the policies should be changed. The conclusions drawn from the findings suggest that the 1996 Welfare Act impacted access to postsecondary education for TANF recipients in Jackson, Mississippi to some degree; and that after 15 years of stagnated welfare reform policies, specifically policies associated with work requirements, TANF recipients in Mississippi are longing for better educational opportunities that will allow them to enjoy a self-sustaining lifestyle.

<p>The study will begin by identifying various types of maltreatment that are committed against some of our Nation's youth while simultaneously assessing the physical, psychosocial and emotional symptoms associated with exposure to these horrible acts. Despite the incremental increase in government funding for the creation of various social service programs and services, this problem has stretched over time and its negative impact continues to drastically change the fragile lives of these at-risk youth. The bulk of this study is dedicated to analyzing what our government is currently doing to help prevent the occurrence and recurrence of abuse and neglect among these very valuable but inherently vulnerable young members of our society. </p><p> In order to gain a better understanding of how effective current practices, programs, and services are in addressing this issue, it is necessary to evaluate what the state and federal government is doing to prevent and hopefully eradicate these crimes perpetrated against children. Although this problem(s) had already been identified for decades, it wasn't until 2004 that a comprehensive evaluation of these social service agencies tasked to perform these preventive measures and restoration services was conducted. This evaluation known as the Child and Family Services Reviews and the instrument used to drive this process are scrutinized for their usefulness, practicality, validity, and reliability while focusing on ways to improve current practices. In the end, this study should serve as a recipe for implementing changes that will help to improve current evaluation practices, not only in states like New Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia that were included in this study, but every county in all fifty states as well as Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C. </p>

<p> Low birth weight is a global health problem, especially in developing countries. Approximately 16% of all new-borns in developing countries were born with low birth weight. Motivated by this troublesome fact, this research evaluates policies that target maternal and children's health in low-resource settings. The following three essays analyze community-based and household-based health interventions. Program evaluation is important to inform future policy, and more importantly, to compare policies in order to determine the most effective strategies to improve birth outcomes in developing countries. Indonesia has implemented both community-based and household-based interventions. The three essays in this research evaluate the following three programs. The first two essays evaluate two recent programs: a household-based program, <i>Program Keluarga Harapan</i> (PKH), and a community-based program, <i>PNPM Generasi Sehat dan Cerdas</i> (<i>Generasi </i>). The third essay evaluates the 'Midwife in the Village' (<i> Bidan di Desa</i>) program. The 'Midwife in the Village' program is a community-based program that was implemented in the 1980s to provide each village with a trained midwife to provide prenatal care and delivery assistance. The other two programs, PKH and <i>Generasi</i>, were piloted in 2007. PKH is a household Conditional Cash-Transfer (CCT) program, while<i> Generasi</i>, functions a community CCT program; the community CCT program provides villages with block grants to fund activities that promote health and education. </p><p> The first essay analyzes the effects of Indonesia's household CCT program on the price and quality of health care services, and how these changes affect poor households. In this paper, I focus on price changes in the health care market because it is directly affected by the program and health care providers may increase prices in response to increased demand. The program is associated with higher utilization of health care, driven by increased utilization among the poor, who also experience higher quality of care. The quality improvement in the target population is driven by increased utilization, and not an improvement in quality at the local health care market. In response to the demand shock from the CCT program, I find a price increase in sub-districts that are randomized into treatment, which suggests the importance of supply response in demand-side interventions. </p><p> The second essay compares the relative effectiveness of household CCT and community CCT programs in improving birth outcomes in similar communities. Both programs have been shown to improve health-seeking behavior, but it has not been established whether these indicators translate into improved birth outcomes. To select comparable communities, the sample is restricted to areas with similar characteristics using propensity score matching. Under matching, both programs increase health seeking behavior, but there is no significant change in low birth weight. However, the household CCT program reduces preterm birth. The matching estimates suggest that the targeted household CCT program is more effective in improving birth outcomes than the broad community-based program, even though both programs improve health-seeking behavior. </p><p> The third essay analyzes the impact of the 'Midwife in the Village' program in rural Indonesia. In this essay, I extend earlier research by Frankenberg and Thomas (FT, 2001) on the effect of gaining a midwife in the village. FT find improvements in women's health status and birth weight. Using additional data, this essay estimates the longer term effect of midwife presence and the effect of losing the village midwife after the 1998 financial crisis. The effects of gaining a midwife are qualitatively similar to FT's estimates, but they are not statistically significant, which suggests that the program effects diminish over time. I find that losing a midwife has no statistically significant effect on women's health status or low birth weight. These results suggest that the program was effective in maintaining the health status of rural communities.</p>

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