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• The Next Frontier in Adult Education: Adult Education to College Transition Programs | Policy Points Volume 25, December 2005
  An emerging area of practice within the national adult education field is adult education to college transition programs. This brief discusses various kinds of transition programs, presents statistics on their success, and makes policy recommendations that Arkansas can adopt to promote them. Read more…

• 2005 Legislative Session Highlights: New Laws Affecting Low-Income Families in Arkansas | Policy Points Volume 24, August 2005
  This issue highlights new laws that will have particular impact on low-income families and other laws that while noteworthy will need to be strengthened in the future.
  Read more…

• Arkansas Assets and Opportunity Scorecard 2005 | Policy Report
  As one of the nation’s poorest states, Arkansas receives considerable attention for the need to improve incomes, but the need to improve assets gets much less, despite the fact that assets are as critical to prosperity as incomes. This report measures how well Arkansans are building assets and examines state policy from the perspective of providing asset-building opportunities, especially for low-income families. Read more…
  
  Review the associated data sources: Business Development Outcomes; Education Outcomes; Homeownership Outcomes; Financial Security Outcomes; 2005 Scorecard Data.

• Continuing the Investment in a Competitive Workforce and a Brighter Economic Future for Arkansas: A Policy Agenda for Investing in Arkansas’ Working Families | Working Families Project Report, August 2003
  Arkansas has an ambitious investment plan to develop the state’s economy and increase the living standard of all Arkansans. Still needed is an investment in Arkansas’ working families, particularly those who are struggling to meet their basic needs and achieve economic self-sufficiency, which is vital for a competitive workforce—increasingly the most critical resource for economic success.
  Read more…

• Boom, Bust, and Beyond: The State of Working Arkansas | Working Families Project Report, November 2002
  The economic boom of the 1990s has ended, the events of Sept. 11, 2001, have created uncertainty about the country’s security, the stock market has seen significant declines, corporate accounting scandals have rocked the economy, and investor confidence has tumbled. In Arkansas, unemployment rose during 2001, layoffs of Arkansas workers were commonplace, and wage growth flattened out.
  Read more…

• Assets in Arkansas: Building Wealth for Economic Security | Arkansas Assets Coalition Report, October 2002
  Arkansas fares well on some measures of asset outcomes (financial assets, homeownership capital, human capital, business capital, and asset protection) but there is room for improvement. Read more…

• The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) in Arkansas: An Assessment of Performance and a Vision for the Future | Working Families Project Report, August 2002
  In the wake of the Arkansas Supreme Court decision on the Lake View school funding case, state policymakers have engaged in a vigorous debate on public education reform. What is missing in this debate is that part of the state’s education system that provides educational opportunities for adults who are or want to be in the workforce. This part is often called workforce development. Read more…

• Welfare Reform in Arkansas: Making It Possible for More Parents to Work and Support Their Families | Working Families Project Report, May 2002
  Although low unemployment and increasing household income are cited as evidence of a healthy economy, these figures mask economic distress that thousands of Arkansas families continue to experience. Read more…

• Public Opinion & Legislative Response: Working Families in Arkansas | Working Families Project Report, June 2001
  A recent poll of Arkansas voters sheds new light on issues facing the state’s working families. A major finding: programs funded by the state could be doing more to help children and working families. Read more…

• Working Families in the New Economy Executive Summary: How are Arkansans Faring in Today's Job Market? | Working Families Project Report, October 2000
  Although low unemployment and increasing household income are cited as evidence of a healthy economy, these figures mask economic distress that thousands of Arkansas families continue to experience. The report How Families Are Faring in the Booming Economy: The State of Working Arkansas, issued earlier this year by the Arkansas Working Families Project, showed that many families are not doing well despite the good economy. That report, while illustrating many of the problems facing working families, only scratched the surface. Read more…
  
  Part 1: Do Working Arkansans Have Adequate Incomes?
  Part 2: Is Arkansas' Economy Creating Enough Jobs?
  Part 3: What is the Gap Between Jobs and Arkansans Seeking Work?

• Self-sufficiency: Assets as Critical as Income | Working Families Project Report, July 2000
  Income inequality receives a great deal of attention by researchers, advocates, and the press. But financial well-being is about much more than income. Families also need wealth; assets such as homes, savings accounts, and retirement accounts. It is these assets that help families move ahead to and stay in the middle class.
  Read more…

• The Struggles of Getting By and Getting Ahead | Working Families Project Report, June 2000
  Arkansas Advocates for Children & Families and Southern Good Faith Fund conduct a series of focus groups in Helena-West Helena, Little Rock, and Springdale to explain low-income working families’ struggle to meet their basic needs. Read more…

• The State of Working Arkansas: How Families are Faring In The Booming Economy
  | Working Families Project Report, April 2000
  The 1990s have been prosperous economic times for many Arkansans. Historically-low unemployment, a skyrocketing stock market, record corporate profits, and dramatic innovations in technology and communications have made Arkansans and businesses wealthier than many could have predicted at the start of the decade. Not all Arkansans, however, are sharing in the state’s booming economy.
  Read more…

• Breaking the Cycle | Policy Report, June 1999
  In August 1996, Congress passed legislation that eliminated the
  old Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) program and replaced
  it with the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) block
  grant program. Read more...
  
  

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