A validity assessment of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI)™

Development organisations need easy-to-use and quick-to-implement indicators to quantify poverty when requested to measure program impact. In this paper we assess the validity of the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI)™, a country-specific indicator based on ten closed questions on directly observable household characteristics, by its compliance to the SMART criteria. Each response receives a pre-determined score, such that the sum of these scores can be converted into the likelihood the household is living below the poverty line. We focus on the PPI scorecard for Rwanda, which was validated using two national household surveys conducted in 2005/06 and 2010/11. The PPI is Specific, Measurable, Available cost effectively, and Timely available. Yet, its Relevance depends on the way it is used. Although it accurately distinguishes poor from non-poor households, making it a useful reporting tool, its limited sensitivity to changes in poverty status restricts its usefulness for evaluating the impact of development projects.     

Finding Hope in the Life of Young Part-timers

The objective of this article is to link the structural factor (employment structure) and subjective factor (notion of labor) concerned with the generation process of young part-timers (freeters) by considering their life histories in terms of hope. Based on the ongoing research conducted over a period of 5 years on three male freeters, the following facts have come to light. Freeters are located on the lower strata of full-time and part-time jobs. They cannot envision a future career path in either employment style. Due to current labor ethics, they cannot form a subgroup that acknowledges their employment style and present-time orientation. Under pressure from labor ethics, which insist that they do “decent” work, they cannot help but hope to escape from this double-bind. To put it briefly, present Japanese society needs flexible workers, on the one hand, but cannot permit them to be flexible on the other. This kind of structural tension drives the young workers to hope. But hope does not dissolve the structural tension. On the contrary, it works to prolong this structural tension itself.     

‘I am not poor. Poor children live in Africa’: Social identity and children's perspectives on growing up in contexts of poverty and deprivation in the Netherlands

This study focuses on problems children living in contexts of poverty face in daily life and how they perceive poverty. Findings are based on research with children (8–12 years) from impoverished areas in the Netherlands. Besides the problems as identified by the children, such as the poor quality of playgrounds and the lack of money for activities, we identified a striking paradox, namely the taboo on or denial of poverty versus the pervasiveness of poverty. To understand and handle this contradiction, we reflect on representation of children growing up in contexts of poverty through a social identity framework.     

‘What can I do’? Child welfare workers’ perceptions of what they can do to address poverty

Within the field of child welfare, critical questions have been posed about the intersecting issues of child maltreatment and poverty. The study of the quality and nature of this intersection has continued relevance in light of evidence showing the increased likelihood of maltreatment of children living in poverty. Although child welfare workers interact directly with families involved with the child welfare system, the study of workers’ perceptions of whether or not they address families’ poverty and, if so, how they go about it has not yet been conducted. The study presented begins to address this gap. Analysis from individual interviews with 30 child welfare workers revealed that they differed in their perception of whether or not poverty should be addressed by child welfare and how. Findings suggest workers do what they can despite various barriers, including families’ limitations and the fragile US social welfare safety net. Based on the findings, current practice models and policies that impact poverty and child maltreatment reduction are discussed.     

Longitudinal network models and permutation-uniform Markov chains

Consider longitudinal networks whose edges turn on and off according to a discrete-time Markov chain with exponential-family transition probabilities. We characterize when their joint distributions are also exponential families with the same parameter, improving data reduction. Further we show that the permutation-uniform subclass of these chains permit interpretation as an independent, identically distributed sequence on the same state space. We then apply these ideas to temporal exponential random graph models, for which permutation uniformity is well suited, and discuss mean-parameter convergence, dyadic independence, and exchangeability. Our framework facilitates our introducing a new network model; simplifies analysis of some network and autoregressive models from the literature, including by permitting closed-form expressions for maximum likelihood estimates for some models; and facilitates applying standard tools to longitudinal-network Markov chains from either asymptotics or single-observation exponential random graph models.     

A new reproducing kernel-based nonlinear dimension reduction method for survival data

Based on the theories of sliced inverse regression (SIR) and reproducing kernel Hilbert space (RKHS), a new approach RDSIR (RKHS-based Double SIR) to nonlinear dimension reduction for survival data is proposed. An isometric isomorphism is constructed based on the RKHS property, then the nonlinear function in the RKHS can be represented by the inner product of two elements that reside in the isomorphic feature space. Due to the censorship of survival data, double slicing is used to estimate the weight function to adjust for the censoring bias. The nonlinear sufficient dimension reduction (SDR) subspace is estimated by a generalized eigen-decomposition problem. The asymptotic property of the estimator is established based on the perturbation theory. Finally, the performance of RDSIR is illustrated on simulated and real data. The numerical results show that RDSIR is comparable with the linear SDR method. Most importantly, RDSIR can also effectively extract nonlinearity from survival data.     

Case Management with Families Receiving Public Assistance: Results from an Empirical Evaluation

ABSTRACT

This article describes the results from a family-based case management demonstration program which served families in North Carolina during the period of 1990 to 1993. The model for the program was based on the family investment initiative strategy developed by the George Washington University Center for Policy Studies. Entitled the Family Investment Initiative, the goal of the program was to assist families receiving AFDC to reach economic self-sufficiency. Results indicate that this family-based case management approach has promise for helping AFDC-dependent families achieve economic self-sufficiency. Implications of the results for social work case management practice with families are discussed.     

The Group-Centered BSW Curriculum for Community Practice

ABSTRACT

The “mundane extreme environment” of racism and poverty follows us into the new millennium (McAdoo, 1986). In response, I propose a group-centered curriculum for community practice as the professional foundation for social work education. Shifting the curricular focus from individual development to social development and from a domestic perspective to an international human rights perspective, the group-centered curriculum would teach social group work, inter-group work, and inter-professional practice as methods for promoting social and economic justice.     

Chapter 7. The Hidden Population

SUMMARY

The purposes of this chapter are to discuss the economic status of the rural elderly females in Korea and to examine factors related to poverty. It suggests that Korean rural female elderly, often windows, are faced with serious financial problems. Poverty is associated with age, educational attainment, marital status and living arrangement, and health. When these factors are considered together, it is apparent that rural female elders are facing more severe financial problems than urban female elderly and rural male elderly.     

Getting Beyond the Training vs. Work Experience Debate: The Role of Labor Markets,Social Capital,Cultural Capital,and Community Resources in Long-Term Poverty

SUMMARY

Policy makers and advocates often see either training or work experience as the way out of poverty. Research in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania suggests that family-supporting jobs continue to elude many low-income women for more complicated reasons: (1) a bifurcated labor market where over half of the jobs pay below-poverty wages with limited benefits, (2) a lack of bridging social capital, (3) limited bi-cultural workplace habits, (4) problems juggling kin obligations and work, and (5) inappropriate or limited training. The study suggests that policy makers should take a two-pronged approach to combating poverty. Training, combined with network development and appropriate cultural capital development, will help some women. Given the growing percentage of low-paying jobs, however, policy should also seek to raise wages, supplement wages, and provide universal benefits.