Elena had two small children and a husband in prison. Lakeisha had three kids and was struggling to keep her family together. And Michael shared custody of his three young kids with his ex-wife and was living with his parents.

Ultimately, all three were lifted out of poverty, not by a government welfare program but by an anti-poverty experiment started by a group of local community activists and business leaders in Milwaukee, Wis. Called New Hope, the program had the goal of boosting employment among the working poor and improving poor children's lives. And, as a new book co-authored by UCLA anthropology professor Thomas Weisner argues, it worked. Indeed, the book suggests the program can be a model for national anti-poverty policies.

"Higher Ground: New Hope for the Working Poor and Their Children" (2007) provides an in-depth analysis of the program, using personal stories from the families who were helped, assessments of the children's development, evidence from surveys and employment records of individual participants.

The book argues that an implicit social contract in America is that "if you work, you should not be poor." That was one of the tenets of the New Hope program, said Weisner, who holds appointments in the department of psychiatry at the Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior at UCLA and the department of anthropology.

"New Hope was not a welfare program but rather a social contract between working poor adults and their community," he said

"My co-authors and I wrote the book for a broad audience, to reach the public and policy-makers who might consider policies modeled on the New Hope program," said Weisner. "We hope it will inspire others to replicate the program."

Weisner's co-authors are Greg Duncan, professor of education and social policy at Northwestern University, and Aletha Huston, professor of child development at the University of Texas, Austin.
Roughly 700 working poor adults participated in the New Hope program, which was voluntary. All participants had access to career counseling and temporary community service jobs. When participants worked a minimum of 30 hours per week, they became eligible for earnings supplements, health and child care subsidies.

The program participants and their children were compared with another 700 people who were randomly placed in a control group. The rigorous random-assignment experiment provided some of the strongest evidence to date that children, as well as adults, can benefit from family supports tied to work. The costs of the three-year program were carefully tracked and balanced against the benefits of reduced welfare costs and increased family and child well-being.

New Hope not only increased work and reduced poverty, Weisner said, but also improved school achievement and reduced behavior problems for the children of participating adults. The program supported parents with vouchers they could use for child care centers; parents also were more likely to use after-school programs and other structured activities for kids. New Hope set some parents on a path to increased earnings and job stability.

"We are especially excited by the findings that children benefited from the supports provided to their parents and that these supports were meaningful in their own lives," Weisner said. "Most significant to public policy is the long-term positive effect of the New Hope program on these children and their families. The children weren't part of the program's intervention - parents were - but children clearly benefited from reduced poverty and access to health insurance and child care."

"Higher Ground" illuminates how policy-makers can make work pay for families struggling to escape poverty. See http://newhopebook.com for more information. The book is available at http://www.russellsage.org/publications/070104.061100.

The Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior is an interdisciplinary research and education institute devoted to the understanding of complex human behavior, including the genetic, biological, behavioral and sociocultural underpinnings of normal behavior, and the causes and consequences of neuropsychiatric disorders. In addition to conducting fundamental research, the institute faculty seeks to develop effective treatments for neurological and psychiatric disorders, improve access to mental health services, and shape national health policy regarding neuropsychiatric disorders.

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