Self-sufficiency (multiple definitions)

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Self-sufficiency (multiple definitions) AleWorkforceDevelopment

[The following is pasted, verbatim, from MassCAP's pdf document A RESOURCE GUIDE for Community Action Agencies and Other Community-Based Organizations in Massachusetts: Establishing Effective Workforce Development Programs]

Approaches to Assessing Self-Sufficiency

To determine how much income is actually necessary for families to meet their basic needs, several alternative measures of income adequacy have been developed.

Variations of the Federal Poverty Measure. In the research community, for instance, labor economists and researchers of welfare programs have used a measure of lowincome status defined as 200 percent of the federal poverty level. Many federal and state work-support programs (e.g., Food Stamps, Medicaid, and child care assistance) use a multiple of the federal poverty level to determine program eligibility. For example, the federal government provides Food Stamps to families at or below 130 percent of the federal poverty level.

Lower Living Standard Income Level. In the workforce development community, the responsibility of defining self-sufficiency under the Workforce Investment Act is assigned to states and local Workforce Investment Boards, but the Department of Labor uses a minimum standard called the Lower Living Standard Income Level (LLSIL), which is a poverty measure created by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Updated annually using the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the LLSIL uses a basic family budget approach to produce an LLSIL for major geographic and metropolitan areas. While higher than the federal poverty threshold, it does not include all basic expenses such as child care.

The Self-Sufficiency Standard. In 1995, Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW) and Dr. Diana Pearce established the Self-Sufficiency Standard, which measures how much income working families need to meet their basic costs without public or private assistance. The Standard is a “bare-bones” budget that includes all of the costs faced by working families: housing, child care, food, health care, transportation, and taxes. It is calculated on a countyby- county basis for 70 different family types in each county. Through WOW’s national Family Economic Self-Sufficiency (FESS) Project, 35 states and the District of Columbia have developed and implemented the Self-Sufficiency Standard to improve programs and policies for lowincome working families. (See below for details on implementation of the Self-Sufficiency Standard in Massachusetts.)

Basic Family Budgets. Others also have developed new measures or indices of income adequacy that take into account different costs associated with raising a family—besides food expenditures—and address regional variation in the cost of living. One such effort was led by the Economic Policy Institute In Washington, D.C., and involved the creation of a series of basic family budgets. Housing, child care, health care, food, and transportation expenses are Resource Guide on Workforce Development November 12, 2004 11 included along with taxes when developing budgets. In addition, family composition and family residence are taken into account.

ROMA Self-Sufficiency Standard. The national Results-Oriented Management and Accountability (ROMA) guidelines were established in 1994 for grantees of the Community Services Block Grant. These guidelines required measurement of specific goals and outcomes among Community Action Agencies. The ROMA goals, as established in October 1999 are listed below. (For a complete listing of the goals with accompanying measures, see http://www.roma1.org/files/Outcomes_MATF_99.pdf.)

GOAL 1: (SELF-SUFFICIENCY) LOW INCOME PEOPLE BECOME MORE SELF-SUFFICIENT

GOAL 2: (COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION) THE CONDITIONS IN WHICH LOW INCOME PEOPLE LIVE ARE IMPROVED

GOAL 3: (COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION) LOW INCOME PEOPLE OWN A STAKE IN THEIR COMMUNITY

GOAL 4: PARTNERSHIPS AMONG SUPPORTERS AND PROVIDERS OF SERVICES TO LOW INCOME PEOPLE ARE ACHIEVED

GOAL 5: AGENCIES INCREASE THEIR CAPACITY TO ACHIEVE RESULTS

GOAL 6: (FAMILY STABILITY) LOW INCOME PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY VULNERABLE POPULATIONS, ACHIEVE THEIR POTENTIAL BY STRENGHENING FAMILY AND OTHER SUPPORTIVE SYSTEMS

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) is currently expanding ROMA’s national goals and outcomes measures for release by the end of FY2005. For updates regarding the new ROMA, see http://www.roma1.org/files/Guide_to_Reporting_National_ Indicators_b.doc. In 2000 and 2001, eleven Community Action Agencies in Massachusetts piloted the Massachusetts Self-Sufficiency Scales and Ladders Assessment Matrix with support from the Massachusetts Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD). This tool—which satisfies ROMA requirements—can be found at: http://www.roma1.org/files/rtr/MA_Scale.doc. (A version is also provided in this Resource Guide, at the end of Chapter 3.) Other ROMA tools and resources can be found at http://www.roma1.org/room4a.asp.

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