Giving Compass' Take:

• This paper from Social Programs That Work details The Minnesota Family Investment Program, which gave welfare recipients that found jobs a 20 percent cash supplement to offset work-related expenses.

• The results of the pilot were promising, but it was implemented more than 20 years ago. Would the same results apply in today's political and economic environment?

• Here's why welfare reform is worth the risk.

The Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP) was implemented as a pilot program in seven urban and rural counties from 1994 to 1998 and served as an alternative to the federal welfare program (Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC).

Program: A welfare-to-work program that combines mandatory participation in employment and training services with earnings supplements for participants who do find work.

Evaluation Methods: A well-conducted randomized controlled trial (RCT) with a sample of 11,473 families in seven Minnesota counties whose welfare status ranged from long-term welfare recipients to new welfare applicants.

Key Findings: Sizable increase in employment and earnings, and reduction in poverty, for single-parent, long-term welfare recipients (but not for other welfare recipients or applicants).

Other: A limitation of the evidence is that this study was conducted prior to full implementation of the major 1996 federal welfare reform act, and it is unknown whether the findings would generalize to present-day welfare settings.

Read the full article on the Minnesota Family Investment Program at Social Programs That Work.