Overview
View the following documentary, Ending Welfare As We Know It (Links to an external site.) (02:11:07), as it will be used to complete this assignment.
This documentary follows individuals in Wisconsin, Florida, and New Jersey as they negotiate the new rules of TANF and adjust to the new program. TANF caseloads dropped dramatically during the 1990s. A drop in the caseload is one sign of success. However, challenges to the success of welfare reform remain.
As you watch this video, focus on the 4 major changes from AFDC to TANF and the illustrations of these changes portrayed in the video. Focus on the goals of TANF—transitioning recipients off of welfare and into self-sufficiency, or moving individuals from welfare to work. As you watch the video, identify 3 individual barriers to moving recipients from welfare to work.
Please watch the video carefully and take notes so that you will be able to complete the assignment.
Note: Since this video will be accessed via the Penn State Library, it may ask you to re-authenticate prior to viewing the video. If you are interested in accessing the transcript, it can also be accessed via the video link.
Instructions
Based on the video, identify 3 of these personal challenges/problems? Write a 2-3 page, double-spaced (2-3 pages excluding a cover page and reference list) paper that focuses on three of the personal challenges encountered as former recipients try to successfully transition from welfare to work.
What we mean by a personal challenge/barrier is a characteristic of the individual that makes the successful transition from welfare to work difficult. For example, one challenge or barrier is low education—identify 3 others and describe how they operate as barriers (low education can not be one of the barriers you select).
Next, use the library, credible websites, or other sources to provide additional information about the challenges you’ve identified. Be sure to provide complete citations and a reference list for the other sources you use in APA format.
The higher quality of your source and the better it is integrated into your discussion, the more credit you will receive for bringing in outside material. Direct quotes should be used sparingly, and only to make a specific point.
The outside information you find on your barriers should be integrated into your discussion on barriers. Credit for outside information will only be given to new information not covered in the video, book chapter, or lesson. (For example, you will not receive any credit for an outside citation indicating that welfare reform was passed in 1996 – this same information was in the video, lesson, and textbook.)
DO NOT describe/retell/summarize what happened in the video. This is a short paper and you need to focus on the barriers and how they operate. The paper needs to be about the barriers. Not the women featured in the video.
Steps to Writing a Good Paper
Watch the video and identify 3 personal challenges that prevent the successful transition from welfare to work;
Find outside sources about each of your barriers and integrate those sources into your discussion on how each barrier prevents the successful transition from welfare to work;
Write an introduction, then discuss each of your three barriers, and write a conclusion;
Be sure to include APA citations and an APA reference list;
Edit and proofread carefully.
