Women's Immersion in a Workfare Program: Emerging Challenges for Occupational Therapists

Discover what challenges lie ahead for occupational therapists Single women receiving Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) often find themselves tangled in difficulties because of current changes in welfare reform, including workfare. Women’s Immersion in a Workfare Program: Emerging Challenges for Occupational Therapists describes the journey of six single mothers in workfarea proactive alternative to conventional welfareand their emergence with unique talents and perseverance to balance motherhood and work in the face of adversity. This compassionate and informative text uses the participants’ own authentic voicesin poems, plays, and narrativesto tell their stories of survival and success in this unique governmental program. Women’s Immersion in a Workfare Program: Emerging Challenges for Occupational Therapists first provides a socio-historical overview to place the issues in context, and then comprehensively reviews the interaction between barriers to work and self-sufficiency, including kinship systems, mental health issues, complying with workfare, family role strain, and psychological well-being. The research findings examine how the women receiving TANF experience the mandatory work program as preparation for transition into the workforce, how the women fit the mandatory program into their daily life, and how the women feel about the transition into the workforce. Topics discussed in Women’s Immersion in a Workfare Program: Emerging Challenges for Occupational Therapists include: welfare reform history of single mothers transition to self-sufficiency experience of workfare qualitative research methodology surviving adversity impact of welfare reform on children Women’s Immersion in a Workfare Program: Emerging Challenges for Occupational Therapists is a revealing, at times moving text for occupational therapists, nurses, social workers, welfare reform professionals, researchers, educators, and students.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgments Chapter I. Introduction Chapter II. Single Mother’s Transition to Self-Sufficiency Chapter III. Preparing for the Journey Chapter IV. Entry into the Field: Can You Help Us Get a Job Chapter V. Promises to Keep: Portraits of the Volunteers Chapter VI. Surviving Adversity Chapter VII. Workfare Day to Day Chapter VIII: Issues and Concerns Chapter IX. Impact on the Children: Problems and Solutions Chapter X. Despite False Hopes, Forced Transition Creates Growth Chapter XI. Holding It All Together Chapter XII. What I Have Learned: Conclusions BIOGRAPHY Appendix A. Cover Letter to Participants Appendix B. Participant Consent Form Appendix C. Sample Analytic Memos and Field Log Index Reference Notes Included