Toward Reduced Poverty Across Generations: Early Findings from New York City's Conditional Cash...

In 2007, New York City’s Center for Economic Opportunity launched Opportunity NYC–Family Rewards, an experimental, privately funded, conditional cash transfer (CCT) program to help families break the cycle of poverty.This report contains early-stage findings from this program and includes an overview of characteristics of participating families, a description of the operational structure of the Family Rewards Program, and initial impacts on income, education, health care, and work-related rewards on participants. (p. iii). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

Full Publication Title: Toward Reduced Poverty Across Generations: Early Findings from New York City's Conditional Cash Transfer Program

Despite initial challenges in understanding the program’s large number of incentives and related payment requirements, findings for the study also indicated that nearly all families eventually earned rewards — more than $6,000, on average, over the first two years. In addition, effects from Family Rewards varied across a wide range of outcome measures. Noted participant findings: - Reduced current poverty and hardship, including hunger and some housing and health care hardships; - Increased savings and the likelihood that parents would have bank accounts, and reduced the use of alternative banking institutions (such as check cashers); - Did not improve school outcomes overall for elementary or middle school students, but did increase school attendance, course credits, grade advancement, and standardized test results among better-prepared high school students; - Somewhat increased families’ continuous use of health insurance coverage, reduced their reliance on hospital emergency rooms for routine care, and increased their receipt of medical care; - Substantially increased families’ receipt of preventive dental care and; - Increased employment in jobs that are not covered by the Unemployment Insurance (UI) system but reduced employment in UI-covered jobs. (p. iii). (Abstractor: Author and Website Staff)

• Last Updated:
• Created:
• Resource Publication Date: 2010
• Author(s): Riccio, James; Dechausay, Nadine; Greenberg, David; Miller, Cynthia; Rucks, Zawadi et al.
• Organizational Author(s): MDRC
• Funding Source: Bloomberg Philanthropies, Annie E. Casey Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Starr Foundation, New York Community Trust, John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, American International Group
• Resource Availability: Publicly available
• Posted by: Melissa Mack
• Posted in: Workforce System Strategies