Evaluating MFIP's Impact
The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) is the state’s welfare reform program for low-income families with children. Created in 1998, the MFIP resulted from both a partisan state effort to starting in the 1980s to develop a new welfare model and the law the US Congress passed in 1996 that replaced Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC) with Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF).
The goals of MFIP were to decrease welfare use, increase employment and earnings, and reduce poverty. To learn what would happen to families served by this new program, the Minnesota Department of Human Services (DHS) launched the MFIP Longitudinal Study in 1998 and surveyed two thousand participants annually through 2003. The final report presents findings from a sample of participants and recommendations for changes in this important program.
Methods and results of the report will be discussed in the upcoming TCRG Brown Bag Speaker Series on January 14. Both a report summary and the complete report are available from the DHS website.
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p.s.: I found two related audio streams from Minnesota Pubic Radio, which are helpful for getting some historical perspectives:
• Oct 13, 1998: Minnesota Family Investment Program: Doing the Job? (6:38)
• July 1, 2002: MInnesotans reaching five-year welfare deadline (6:49)