For this project, NCCP is learning from parents and staff involved in an intervention in a Nashville, Tennessee, community organization that is offering high-intensity coaching and limited financial support to low-income parents who face benefit cliffs. Coaches have been trained to explain the consequences of losing benefits to adults considering employment decisions alongside their families’ material needs and long-term economic security and mobility. By surveying and interviewing about implementation features and parents’ responses, we will gather information to inform future initiatives designed to help low-income families overcome barriers posed by benefit cliffs. Best practices and lessons learned, including low-cost “tweaks” to existing programming, can support scalable expansion of such an intervention throughout communities and states by identifying needed changes to better support parents in their decision-making.
For more information, please contact:
Karen Chatfield, PhD
kchatfield@bankstreet.edu